How much would it cost to order the entire menu at The Masters? What are the astronauts eating? Can a restaurant’s design turn into a competitive advantage? Answers to these questions and more, This Week in Foodservice.

Food prices are rising at restaurants and foodservice operations across the country. One place where low prices remain par for the course, though, is at the Masters Tournament.

The host Augusta National Golf Club only raised prices on three menu items this year, per a NBC New York story. The blueberry muffin and southern cheese straws are up to $2.50 after costing $2 last year. And cookies will cost $2 this year, up from $1.75 last year.

Augusta National’s infamous pimento cheese sandwiches still cost only $1.50. Not surprisingly, beer costs $6, but that’s still significantly less than what one might play at any other major sporting event.

If you want to order one of everything on the menu it would cost $72.75.

Foodservice News

• International brands continue to disrupt the U.S. restaurant industry. They are doing this through a combination of digital first and experiential dining experiences, as this Restaurant Dive story Some chains, like Luckin Coffee, have built efficient franchise models that pair well with their digital first operations. Regardless of the path the chains are taking, they continue to place additional pressure on more established operators to step up their games.
• Can technology be a catalyst for a restaurant chain’s growth? Shake Shack CEO Rob Lynch believes that to be the case. The chain will require a comprehensive tech upgrade to reach its goal of having more than 1,500 units systemwide, per a Restaurant Business story. Shake Shack’s Project Catalyst will include new point-of-sale and KDS systems. It will also leverage data and AI to improve operations.
• Can an immersive restaurant design turn into an advantage for a restaurant? That’s the case with TIMBR, a restaurant in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla. In addition to an immersive design, the TIMBR features flattering lighting and thousands of micro decisions. The net result is more than 32,000 Instagram followers and 30,000 unique reservations per year, according to a FSR magazine story. The restaurant averages more than 7,000 reservations per month and is known as one of the highest price-per-head check averages in the city.
• McDonald’s latest value menu play will go live on April 21, 2026, per a company release. Its Under $3 Menu will have at least 10 items available throughout the day, allowing guests to mix and match to suit their preferences. And throughout the year, McDonald’s plans to spotlight select items by offering them for less than $3. First up will be the chain’s Sausage McMuffin ($1.50) and the McDouble ($2.50). Value meals often help drive traffic to restaurants, which is a key objective for just about all operators today.
• Starbucks will award baristas and shift supervisors quarterly bonuses if their stores hit certain performance metrics, per multiple published reports including this one from CNBC. This initiative is part of the company’s turnaround plan and will begin in July. Baristas at locations represented by Starbucks Workers United likely will not see the quarterly bonuses until the coffee chain and the union reach a collective bargaining agreement, the story adds.
• Just what will the Artemis II astronauts eat while in space? It is a steady diet of shelf-stable meals and snacks, which includes tortillas, breakfast sausage, vegetable quiche and barbecued beef brisket, as this story from The Food Institute notes. Menu planning can be complicated for a variety of factors, including a lack of refrigeration and the fact that crumbs, while harmless here on earth, can cause a variety of problems in space.
• What does the Cheesecake Factory do with extra food it has? The chain works with a program called Nourish, which directs unused food from restaurants to local nonprofit organizations, per this Tasting Table article. In fact, since 2007, Cheesecake Factory has donated more than 9.7 million pounds of food to nonprofit organizations, per a company spokesperson.
• Members of the foodservice industry are mourning the loss of George “Dick” Vaiea. Vaiea passed way in February, per an obituary. He was the owner of DVA, a Columbia, S.C.-based restaurant supply company, which Vaiea ran with his brother Mike.

Economic News

• U.S. employers added 178,000 jobs in March, per data from the U.S Bureau of Labor Statistics. This was significantly greater than the 59,000 jobs Dow Jones economists had projected for the month, per a CNBC story. Healthcare added 76,000 positions, driving much of the growth. Wages rose less than expected, with average hourly earnings up just 0.2% for the month and 3.5% from a year ago. The annual increase was the lowest since May 2021. “The March data will keep the Federal Reserve on hold, but no one is declaring victory yet. It’s likely to be a tough spring for job seekers,” Heather Long, chief economist at Navy Federal Credit Union told CNBC.
• Private employers added 62,000 jobs in March, per the ADP National Employment Report. The growth was fueled by small businesses, those with one to 49 employees, who added a net 85,000 positions for the month. This offset losses of 20,000 jobs for medium sized companies (50 to 499 employees) and the 4,000 jobs lost by large employers (more than 500 employees). The leisure and hospitality sector added 7,000 positions.
• New orders for manufactured durable goods declined 1.4% in February compared to the previous month, per data from the U.S. Census Bureau. This was substantially greater than the 0.2% decrease economists had projected, per multiple published reports including this one from Seeking Alpha. February’s decline followed a 0.5% January decrease. Excluding transportation, new orders increased 0.8% in February. Excluding defense, new orders decreased 1.2%. Transportation equipment, down four of the last five months, drove the decrease by declining 5.4%.
• Will the U.S. experience a recession in the next 12 months? The answer is yes according to 61% of Americans participating in an Ipsos Consumer Tracker survey. This is due, at least in part, to the fact that only 22% of consumers feel the tone of economic news they read is positive. This dour outlook could also be due to what customers are experiencing in their lives. Along those lines, 43% of consumers say the items they often shop for are often out of stock.
• Could the war in Iran reignite inflationary pressures on the U.S. economy? JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon believes that’s a distinct possibility. In a letter to shareholders, Dimon cautioned that turmoil in oil and commodity markets could ripple through a U.S. economy he describes as “resilient,” per an Associated Press story. “Given our complex global supply chains, countries are experiencing disruptions in shipbuilding, food and farming, among others,” Dimon wrote. “The outcome of current geopolitical events may very well be the defining factor in how the future global economic order unfolds — then again, it may not.”