Lathan Crump, 19, rode his horse Hollywood into the fast-Mexican restaurant in Commerce, 67 miles northeast of Dallas, on Saturday night while friends recorded the escapade on video. (“And yes,” the Dallas Morning News reported helpfully, “he was wearing a cowboy hat.”)
Crump posted the video to Instagram, saying: “Well ole Hollywood was a lil hungry after the rodeo so I road him in to grab a bite.”
Since then, the video has spread to YouTube, where it’s been viewed more than 6,600 times.
And it’s not the only video of its kind. There are four more on YouTube showing people riding horses to or through Taco Bell drive-thrus: here and here and here and here.
KFC: An employee at a Missouri KFC has been canned after reportedly threatening to spit in a Franklin County sheriff’s deputy’s order. The unidentified officer said he was in the drive-thru of the restaurant in Sullivan, 68 miles southwest of St. Louis, when he overhead an employee in the kitchen tell a co-worker: “Oh, it’s a cop. Someone let me know which order is his so I can spit in all of his food.”
The deputy detailed what happened next in a Facebook post. He said he spoke to the manager at the counter inside. She went to the kitchen, spoke to the employee, then returned and told the officer another employee would prepare his meal. But she didn’t offer an apology, according to KMOV-TV, which reported the news. The station said KFC provided a statement saying “KFC’s policy is to treat everyone fairly, equally and with respect, and we do not tolerate discrimination of any kind. Upon learning of this incident, the franchisee who owns the restaurant conducted an immediate and thorough investigation, and the employee was terminated” (KMOV).
The incident follows two others involving Taco Bell employees mistreating law enforcement officers over the past month. In Bakersfield, Calif., several employees lost their jobs late last month after reports they’d taunted a local police officer by making “oink oink” sounds and laughing while the officer was ordering. And in Phenix City, Ala., a cashier was fired after refusing to serve two sheriff’s deputies in mid-July.
A two-piece meal of the new dish is $5.49.
Elsewhere in KFC, the chainis testing a new menu item, Georgia Gold fried chicken, in Pittsburgh and Mobile, Ala. The regionally inspired dish draws from Georgia and South Carolina, and has a honey-mustard barbecue flavor. The Yum unit picked Pittsburgh because it was “looking for a region that has different demographics that would replicate nationwide, and would give us a better read on how the product would perform across the country,” said chief marketing officer Kevin Hochman. Mobile was chosen because it’s “more familiar with this flavor profile,” he said.
Georgia Gold is available through Sept. 4 for $5.49 for two pieces of chicken with coleslaw and a biscuit (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette).
PAPA JOHN’S has the best pizza in a city famous for pies: Chicago, according to a Gawker writer whose on-the-fly review has already drawn protests. “Deep dish pizza makers are cowards who hide their ingredients under tomato sauce — a pizza paywall,” says the Gawker contributor, Curry Shoff. “The brave and noble Papa John does not hide his toppings from you, the consumer. He leaves them out in the open for only God to judge.”
Not so fast, Gawker readers were quick to reply saying the very idea Chicago is a better pizza town than, say, New York is nuts. “Chicago pizza is demonstrably inferior to New York pizza,” writes reader Johnny Dangerously. “There is no discussion, it’s like Peyton Manning vs. Ryan Leaf. That said, this Papa John’s bullshit is . . . bullshit!”
Except, maybe the Windy City is better. “Chicago pizza is every bit as good as New York pizza,” says 20% Nicer Gadzooks. “But Chicago style pizza is a different animal altogether. Most Chicagoans don’t really eat that stuff more than once a year or so (Gawker).
That’s Taco Bell CEO Brian Niccol speaking to NPR’s Marketplace; listen to the just-broadcast interview. The Yum fast-Mexican division is among employers holding job fairs around the nation with the goal of getting 100,000 more young people on the payroll by the year after next. Taco Bell accounts for 6,500 of Yum’s 43,000 restaurants worldwide with a combined 505,000 employees.
Niccol, 42, has been CEO since January 2015. He learned some of his earliest lessons as a teenager running a lawn-mowing service with friends, according to the Los Angeles Times. Pricing varied by location, and to get a contract, marketing was a must — an idea he took to future jobs. “At the time you do it, you don’t realize how it’s influencing you going forward,” he said. “I think it carries on with you in the subconscious.”
The latest crime news across the world of 48,000 restaurants*.
In Eugene, Ore., a man and woman punched and kicked a 39-year-old Pizza Hut employee who booted them out of the restaurant Thursday night, and were later taken into custody at a Taco Bell.
Travis Krauziewicz, 24, punched the unidentified employee after the worker told Krauziewicz and Maria Samantha Rivera, 26, to to leave, according to KVAL. Rivera then allegedly kicked the worker while he was on the ground and pulled a knife, police said. A bystander stepped in and took the knife from Rivera, according to police.
Krauziewicz and Rivera.
Medics treated the worker for his injuries, the station said.
Police arrested the two on charges of disorderly conduct and criminal trespass. Rivera was also booked on a charge of attempted assault and unlawful use of a weapon. Krauziewicz is also facing an additional charge of fourth-degree assault.
Mucho Taco Bell lechuga
In Pennsylvania’s East Lampeter Township, police have cited a 30-year-old woman after she became angry over receiving “too much lettuce” in her order at a Taco Bell, according to Penn Live.
Officers were called to the restaurant just before 7 p.m. on July 29, after receiving a complaint about a customer flipping a tray of food onto an employee, police said. Summer Rose Graynill was cited for disorderly conduct, police said.
A fake $100 at KFC
About 175 miles east of there, in Altoona, a man has been charged with theft by deception for using a bogus $100 bill to buy a drink at a KFC, the Altoona Mirror reported this morning.
The man, Jason E. Almeida, found the bill in his brother’s bedroom in May and used it even though it had the words “For Motion Picture Use Only” clearly printed on the front and back, according to police. Almeida’s brother had bought the bill online for use in making homemade rap videos, the newspaper said.
Almeida was arraigned Wednesday by Magisterial District Judge Todd Kelly and released on an unsecured $10,000 bond.
* Yum has 43,000 KFCs, Pizza Huts and Taco Bells in nearly 140 countries; Papa John’s has 4,900 outlets in 37 countries, and Texas Roadhouse has 485 restaurants across the U.S. and in five other nations. With that many locations, crimes inevitably occur — with potentially serious legal consequences for the companies.
TACO PAC, the political action committee of the fast-Mexican chain’s franchisees, is one of only five PACs to max out their contributions to GOP White House nominee Donald Trump, with $5,000 — the most allowed under Federal Election Commission regulations.
Despite its bipartisan-looking logo, the Yum unit franchisees’ PAC has been leaning very right for the past eight years, according to Food & Wine magazine.
“In 2008,” it says, “TACO PAC donated a total of $24,500 to political candidates — $20,000 to Republicans, $4,500 to Democrats. In 2010, in an off-year election no less, it donated a total of $299,250 to candidates — $293,250 to Republicans, $6,000 to Democrats.”
So far this year, TACO PAC has donated $53,625 to Republicans and $3,500 to Democrats, according to the magazine.
Foodie site Grub Street notes the irony in the Pac’s $5,000 donation to the New York billionaire, “because Taco Bell’s mantra involves making a run for a border that Trump would at least attempt to wall off.”
PAPA JOHN’S: A federal judge sided with restaurant chain Panera Bread and issued a temporary restraining order barring a former IT executive from working at Papa John’s. U.S. District Judge John A. Ross said Panera would likely win its lawsuit, filed last month, accusing former vice president Michael Nettles of violating his noncompete agreement and misappropriating trade secrets by taking a job as the chief information officer at the Louisville pizza chain (Law 360).
Also today, Papa John’s shares closed at $77.38, up 4.6%, or $3.37, after the chain reported second-quarter results beating Wall Street forecasts after markets closed yesterday afternoon. Earlier today, the stock hit a new record intraday high of $78.09 before easing back. The company has also filed its quarterly 10-Q report with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
HUMANA: Racing to save its $37 billion merger with Humana, Hartford-based Aetna has urged a judge to hear its case in the fall — and before considering a second merger of two other insurance companies that Justice Department antitrust enforcers are trying to stop (Reuters).
Earlier today, Humana reported second-quarter results that beat forecasts on both the top and bottom lines. Revenue was $14 billion vs. $13.7 billion a year ago, and adjusted earnings per share were $2.30 vs. $1.77. Analysts were expecting $13.6 billion in revenue and $2.21 EPS. The Louisville-based health insurer also reaffirmed its full-year 2016 financial guidance increase on July 21 to earn $9.25 a share vs. the previous $8.85 EPS. Humana’s stock closed at $173.48, up $3.91, or 2.3%.
Broussard
“Our second quarter and year-to-date results show the improvement in the effectiveness of our clinical programs and increasing clinical engagement by our members,” CEO Bruce Broussard said in the earnings release. “The improved health outcomes from these programs is not only lowering healthcare costs, but allowing more affordable options for our Medicare members.”
The insurer said it wouldn’t hold a customary conference call with analysts to discuss the report because of the pending merger with Aetna, and doesn’t expect to hold any in the quarters ahead, either (press release and MarketWatch).
Finally today, Humana filed its second-quarter report with the Securities and Exchange Commission — the full 10-Q (SEC document). Humana has 12,500 employees in Louisville and about 50,000 nationwide; more about the company.
TACO BELL follows a three-step process to decide whether to enter a foreign market for the first time, according to Pizza Marketplace:
Move a team to the city under consideration to learn what everyday life is like in the target city, including how people get to work and what they do for fun.
Get to know the locals through focus groups to see how outsiders can become part of the community.
Cook and prepare food to understand what flavors work — and don’t work. In Tokyo, for example, prospective customers wouldn’t order nachos and cheese because they didn’t they want to get messy. Solution? Nachos became seasoned chips with dipping sauces.
In other news, franchiser Wag n’ Wash of Denver expects its first Kentucky pet food and grooming store to open soon in Louisville with an in-house bakery menu that includes pumpkin ravioli, sushi, pies and cakes using human-grade ingredients (Courier-Journal). This will be Wag n’ Wash’s 15th store since opening in 1999.
The former publisher of The Voice-Tribune — Tracy Beale, formerly Tracy Blue — is launching online magazine TAB’s View next month with a staff of six, including herself. She left the Voice-Tribune last winter amid her high-profile divorce from the weekly’s then-owner, Blue Equity CEO Jonathan Blue. Blue Equity recently sold the Voice-Tribune and other publications to the owner of LEO (Insider Louisville).
News about business and culture in Louisville, Ky.
Niccol, 42, has been CEO since January 2015. He learned some of his earliest lessons as a teenager running a lawn-mowing service with friends, 
In Eugene, Ore., a man and woman punched and kicked a 39-year-old Pizza Hut employee who booted them out of the restaurant Thursday night, and were later taken into custody at a Taco Bell.
Despite its bipartisan-looking logo, the Yum unit franchisees’ PAC has been leaning very right for the past eight years, 
In other news, franchiser 
Boulevard 