Wholesale egg prices are up 40 percent because of the current recall. Pork bellies—that’s where bacon comes from—just hit an all-time high of $1.42 a pound. The price of raw coffee beans now sits at a 13-year peak. Breakfast, the fastest-growing part of the foodservice business, once provided full-service operators with their best margins. Now what?

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Thanks to the enduring popularity of TV sitcom M*A*S*H, Toledo, OH, restaurant Tony Packo's has worldwide name recognition to go along with a 73-year track record of solid operations. It's a level of stability that any operator would envy, but it's not quite enough for lender Fifth Third Bank, which is foreclosing on the place. If you think a bottomless well of free publicity means smooth sailing for a restaurant, think again.

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The aging of America isn’t simply straining the Social Security system. It’s also likely to curtail restaurant visits, according to market research firm The NPD Group. A recent NPD report, “A Look into the Future of Foodservice,” projects that, while the U.S. population should grow 1.1 percent a year over the next decade, annual visits to restaurants will grow by only 8 percent total during that period.

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