---
title: "Nation's Restaurant News: Mooyah names Tony Darden president, operations chief"
url: https://burnaze.com/article/a7c001c1-f6ef-4db5-9e35-157c5d7f2309
source: "1851 Franchise"
original_url: https://1851franchise.com/nations-restaurant-news-mooyah-names-tony-darden-president-operations-chief-2709864
category: "Burger"
industry: "Restaurants"
segment: "Burger"
topics: ["People","Operations"]
published: 2019-05-03T20:15:01.000Z
modified: 2026-11-01T02:35:18.892Z
image: https://newimage.1851franchise.com/cdn-cgi/image/quality=85,format=webp,width=1280,height=720/story/featureImage/9ff0bd7d041e404eaefb7a0f9a31f7a59384.jpg
---

# Nation's Restaurant News: Mooyah names Tony Darden president, operations chief

**TL;DR:** Mooyah names Tony Darden as president and operations chief, focusing on creating a consistent experience across the system. Darden previously worked with Taco Bueno, Panera Bread, and Bennigan's.

*originally published in 1851 Franchise on 2019-05-03. [Read the original](https://1851franchise.com/nations-restaurant-news-mooyah-names-tony-darden-president-operations-chief-2709864).*

## Story

Darden was most recently the chief operating officer for Taco Bueno Restaurants and its Dallas-based parent, Sun Holdings Inc. He also worked more than 10 years with Panera Bread Co. and the casual-dining Bennigan’s. Now, he joins MOOYAH Fries, Burgers & Shakes as President and COO.

“The biggest challenge for us, being a smaller and predominantly franchised brand, is going to be to create a consistently great experience across the system,” Darden told Nation's Restaurant News. “We need to be consistently great at the customer experience we provide but at the same time we’ve got to provide a great franchise experience and a great team member experience.”

## Entities

- 1851 Franchise (publication)
- Restaurants (sector)
- executive appointment (topic)
- MOOYAH (company)
- customer experience (topic)
- Panera Bread (company)
- Sun Holdings (company)
- Bennigan's (company)
- franchise experience (topic)
- Taco Bueno (company)

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Originally reported by 1851 Franchise (https://1851franchise.com/nations-restaurant-news-mooyah-names-tony-darden-president-operations-chief-2709864). Summarized by Burnaze (https://burnaze.com/article/a7c001c1-f6ef-4db5-9e35-157c5d7f2309).