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In this Q&A, Cousins Subs' President and CEO Christine Specht discussing remodeling stores, strategic closing of stores and the future of the Wisconsin-based chain.

Stoner's Pizza Joint, a Millennial-focused, quick-service pizza franchise, opened its new flagship and prototype location in Columbia, S.C. in January. The new restaurant marks the brand’s fourth location in the state.

Bar Louie opened its first airport location at Terminal D at Dallas-Ft. Worth International Airport. This location operates in partnership with Paradies Lagardère.

Burger Village, the New York City-based organic burger chain with full-service restaurants in Long Island and Brooklyn (and plans for quick-serve locations in the same boroughs) signed a multi-unit franchise agreement to expand to California.

Diversity Food Brands (DFB), a foodservice provider specializing in captured audience spaces, plans to expand its Sandella’s Flatbread Café brand by adding at least 12 locations in 2019.

The better-burger chain BurgerFi plans to expand in Florida and Georgia with nine new locations.

Reach in to a grab bag of casual-dining brands these days and what you pull out might just surprise you. Yes, many in the segment continue to struggle and suffer consequences of over-supply, under-differentiation and chronic inertia. And all share the pain of higher costs — labor, real estate and food — compared to their fast-casual and QSR competitors. But the odds of pulling a shiny apple out from among the lumps of coal are beginning to improve.

Trident Holdings LLC, the largest franchisee of fast-casual seafood chain Captain D’s, acquired 8 corporate-owned stores in Mississippi and will develop 10 new units throughout the state as well as in key Southeast target markets, including Louisiana and Georgia, over the next several years.