Back to the business
Japan opened its Strategic Rice Reserves to combat the highest ever prices and scarcity. Japan's CPI showed rice prices up 70% from a year ago. The move was criticized because the reserves were supposed to be for dire emergencies and acts of God, not inflation. Japan’s rice crop was below average because of bad weather and looks to be recovering in the near future. A weak yen compared to the U.S. dollar is driving food inflation as Japan imports more food than other Asian countries. (NHK-Tokyo)
Chili's continues to outperform all their immediate rivals in the otherwise troubled "full service casual" genre. Since 2024 began, Chili's sales are up 30% while other fast casual chains are down 3.6%. Brinker International, the company behind Chili’s, is revamping the chain’s menu and remodeling its restaurants in a bid to keep guests’ interest, part of which was sparked by Chili's success making their food photogenic on social media. Chili's mozzarella sticks are one of the most posted foods on Tik Tok and Instagram. Chili's has been around half a century but traffic had dipped considerably between 2000 and 2024. The turnaround is credited to downsizing a "bloated" menu. Chili's was afraid to cut an underperforming item because they thought every dish had fans who would quit coming. The company now is slashing low-selling menu items and reducing the number of offerings by around 25% over the past two years. (WSJ)
Monday deals
• Eastside Eddie’s (3517 E. 26th St., Des Moines) Monday special is a burger with domestic beer, soft drink or well drink for $10. Those are good, generously sized burgers, too.
• Centro (1003 Locust St., Des Moines) offers half-price pizza and Peronis on Monday.
• Who's on First (810 E. First St., Ankeny) has steak night on Monday, and it's an 8-ounce filet with salad, mashed potatoes and beans for $22.95
• Pelican Post (265 50th St., West Des Moines) has a special today on hot beef sandwiches, $10.95 until 4 p.m.
• Tito’s Lounge (3916 Urbandale Drive, Urbandale) offers all-you-can-eat wings Mondays.
• Monday brings prime rib specials to both Chicago Speakeasy (1520 Euclid Ave., Des Moines) and Christopher's (2816 Beaver Ave., Des Moines).
• Johnny's Hall of Fame (302 Court Ave., Des Moines) has $12 burger baskets on Mondays and Fridays.
• Urban Cellars (640 S. 50th St., West Des Moines) offers $60 wine dinners for two on Mondays including two entrees with soup or salad, a dessert and a bottle on wine.
• Club 2000 (422 Indianola Road, Des Moines) has a burger basket with fries deal Mondays for $9.
• Red Lobster's Monday special is lobster and shrimp scampi with a side for $20.
• Paula's (524 Elm St., Valley Junction) has a Monday special of homemade tomato soup with grilled cheese sandwich for $12.50.
• Price Chopper delis offer two piece, bone-in fried chicken dinners, with two sides and a roll, for $6 on Mondays.
• Fareway has deals this week on blueberries at $1.99/pint, bananas for 48 cents/pound, and large chicken legs at 97 cents/pound.
— Jim Duncan, jd91446@aol.com | 
