DETROIT (Reuters) – When Slows Bar-B-Q opened in Detroit’s Corktown district seven years ago, the neighbourhood was so neglected that the street lamps no longer worked.

The restaurant sits in the shadow of Detroit’s abandoned central train station, a few blocks from the vacant lot where Tiger Stadium once stood. “People said we were nuts,” recalled co-owner Phillip Cooley. Today, Slows has two Detroit locations that pull in a healthy $6 million in sales annually.

DETROIT, April 4 (Reuters) – When Slows Bar-B-Q opened in
Detroit’s Corktown district seven years ago, the neighborhood
was so neglected that the street lamps no longer worked.

The restaurant sits in the shadow of Detroit’s abandoned
central train station, a few blocks from the vacant lot where
Tiger Stadium once stood. “People said we were nuts,” recalled
co-owner Phillip Cooley.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Google Offers and Banana Republic are the first businesses to join Starbucks Corp (SBUX.O: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) in raising money for a U.S. job creation fund started by the world’s biggest coffee chain late last year.

Starbucks and the Opportunity Finance Network (OFN), a group of private financial institutions that make affordable loans to individuals and communities, introduced the “Create Jobs for USA” fund in October amid what Starbucks Chief Executive Howard Schultz said was a lack of national political leadership on unemployment.

LOS ANGELES/NEW YORK (Reuters) – Wendy’s Co says it never has used so-called “pink slime” in its hamburgers and ran ads in eight major daily newspapers around the United States on Friday to let diners know that.

The nation’s second-largest hamburger chain is the latest company to join the public relations war over so-called “pink slime” — an ammonia-treated beef filler product that the meat industry calls “finely textured beef” — that is at the center of one of the biggest U.S. food fights in recent history.

SEATTLE, March 27 (Reuters) – Starbucks Corp hopes
to brew up a European business renaissance after reviving its
operations at home.

The world’s biggest coffee shop chain dominates in the
United States but has been just another player in Europe’s famed
cafe culture. It wants to change that.

By Lisa Baertlein

(Reuters) – Don Thompson’s journey to the top spot at McDonald’s Corp (MCD.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) started in front of a computer, not a deep fryer.

For many executives at McDonald’s, including retiring CEO Jim Skinner, the first rung on the corporate ladder began in a restaurant — logging long hours flipping burgers, bagging fries and manning busy drive-thru windows.

March 22 (Reuters) – Don Thompson’s journey to the top
spot at McDonald’s Corp started in front of a computer,
not a deep fryer.

For many executives at McDonald’s, including retiring CEO
Jim Skinner, the first rung on the corporate ladder began in a
restaurant — logging long hours flipping burgers, bagging fries
and manning busy drive-thru windows.

By Lisa Baertlein

(Reuters) – McDonald’s Corp (MCD.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) Chief Executive Jim Skinner, who took the helm of the world’s biggest hamburger chain after the abrupt departures of two CEOs, said on Wednesday he would retire after more than seven years in the top post.

In what analysts expected to be a smooth transition, Chief Operating Officer Don Thompson, 48, will succeed Skinner, effective July 1, becoming one of the most prominent African-American CEOs in the United States.

SEATTLE (Reuters) – Starbucks Corp said on Wednesday it would spend $180 million on U.S. factories, creating 150 manufacturing jobs, and that it would get into the $8 billion U.S. energy drink market with a new product.

The company also said that this summer it would begin selling coffee mugs made at a once-dormant factory in Ohio.

SEATTLE, March 21 (Reuters) – Starbucks Corp is
expanding into the fast-growing energy drink category and plans
to add manufacturing jobs in the United States, the world’s
biggest coffee chain said at its annual shareholder meeting in
Seattle on Wednesday.

Starbucks returned to profit growth in 2010 after a two-year
restructuring that involved slashing costs and closing nearly
1,000 cafes around the world.