Category: Mexican Restaurants

5 On Property Restaurants for Active Kids

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Active kids are a part of parenthood, especially when out dining. If one child is calm and happy to sit at the table, another is likely chomping at the bit to leap out of their seats, run around looking for adventure, and maybe even cause a scene or two, if you’re lucky. Parents, we’ve all been there, right?

At the same time, there are several dining experiences as anticipated as a Disney dining experience. You plan your advanced dinner reservations months in advance. You read review after review of table service restaurants, quick service locations, and even small food stands across Disney property that you feel like you’ve eaten that Tonga Toast from ‘Ohana or steak from Le Cellier.

Now throw your active kid into the mix, and you have a whole new ballgame to try and anticipate. What will my child eat? Will they stay at the table? Are there characters around to greet them? There are so many variables to consider that it can be difficult to choose the best dining experience for your family if your children are ready to move on. With this in mind, here is a list of one restaurant recommendation, and a backup, for each Walt Disney Park and a resort-based restaurant perfect for families with active children.

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Magic Kingdom: Pinocchio Village Haus

Pinocchio Village Haus isn’t exactly known for its Exquisite and refined menu, nor for its outstanding and immersive atmosphere. What it lacks in these areas makes up for having a kid-friendly menu, space to explore and run around, and the understanding that there are about a hundred other kids doing the same as your active little one.

This Fantasyland counter-service spot offers staples like pepperoni flatbreads and chicken fingers, and it’s big, loud, and active all on its own. There’s an upstairs with added seating, the option to watch people loading onto the It’s a small world right next to the restaurant, and the wish book you can fill out with your child to add a little magic to the meal. It’s not an exquisite dining experience, but there certainly are things to do.

Backup: The Crystal Palace

The Crystal Palace is a Magic Kingdom mainstay that is also pure anarchy. It’s big, and Winnie the Pooh characters are milling about meeting you at your table. The food is nothing to write home about, but you’re not really paying for the meal. You’re there to meet Winnie the Pooh and the gang and watch your child light up, jump from the table and hug their favorite characters.

Epcot: Biergarten

The Biergarten in the German Pavilion at Epcot is a wonderful location to bring an active child for a number of reasons. With a live German band on stage playing throughout the restaurant and an open dance floor, there is room for your child to run around and dance off the energy they may have pent up from waiting in line around Epcot.

The music, dancing, and buffet-style serving makes for a loud environment ideal for those little ones who want to blow off some steam without their parents feeling like their children are the only crazy ones. And, for parents, there’s air conditioning and beer, of course! It’s perfect for a midday or end-of-day reprieve from the heat and congestion of the largest park at Disney. The only downside is the grouping of tables where your family of 3 or 4 may be saddled right next to another family or couple, but remember, there’s beer!

Backup: Coral Reef Restaurant

I would typically recommend families head to Garden Grill at Epcot as it is a very solid character meal experience, but the restaurant is naturally designed to enjoy while sitting. The Coral Reef Restaurant in World Nature allows your children to watch the more than 4,000 sea species on display in the tanks right in front of you and gives your active child a chance to walk around and see even more.

backlot-express

Hollywood Studios: Backlot Express

Hollywood Studios has gone through an evolution that added Toy Story Land and Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge. These two areas have contributed more dining offerings to guests, but the Backlot Express is still a solid option for active kids. With indoor and outdoor seating, you have the option to let your active one get up and walk around without disturbing everyone around you. You also have a nice view of the Jedi Training stage, they are feet from some of the outdoor seating.

As a quick-service dining option, Backlot Express also gives you a little more freedom to up and leave when your child is ready to head out.

Backup: Woody’s Lunch Box

Before standing in line for Slinky Dog Dash, grab a bite, or watch the Green Army Corps march by from Woody’s

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Yum! Brands vs. Restaurant Brands International: Which Is the Better Dividend Stock?

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The fast-food industry is a fruitful hunting ground for dividend investors, as many of these companies are strong, well-established businesses with resilient earnings that can weather difficult economic environments.

Restaurant Brands International (QSR -1.25%) and Yum! Brands (YUM -0.32%) are among the top five largest restaurant operators worldwide, and operate diversified portfolios of restaurant concepts. They operate a franchise-based business model that allows them to collect upfront franchise fees from new franchise owners as well as recurring royalty payments based on franchise revenue.

Both of these dividend payers are solid choices for dividend-growth investors and dividend investors in general. But which of these fast-food empires is the better buy for dividend investors going forward?

Two friends eat burgers and fries at a fast food restaurant.

Image source: Getty Images.

Meet the contestants

As a brief introduction, both Yum! Brands and Restaurant Brands operate diversified portfolios of restaurant concepts worldwide. Interestingly, they both feature three well-established, well-known concepts along with a newer and smaller recent addition to their lineups.

For Restaurant Brands, Burger King, Tim Hortons, and Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen are the mainstays, and Firehouse Subs is the newcomer in its portfolio. For Yum! Brands, KFC (Kentucky Fried Chicken), Pizza Hut, and Taco Bell are the stalls, and Habit Burger is the new addition to the roster.

Restaurant Brands currently operates about 29,000 locations across 100 countries worldwide, while Yum! The brand is nearly twice its size, with more than 53,000 restaurants in 155 countries.

Dividend growth at the drive-thru

Yum! Brands have been a solid dividend stock over the years. The company has paid a dividend every year since 2004 and increased its annual dividend payment every year except for one since 2004. With an annualized dividend of $2.28 in 2022, the company now pays out more than double what it paid in 2014.

Meanwhile, Restaurant Brands has been steadily increasing its dividend payment since 2014, when it came into its current incarnation via a merger between Burger King and Tim Hortons. The company’s annualized dividend of $2.16 this year is now nearly five times higher than its annual payment of $0.44 in 2014. More recently, Yum! Brands’ dividend growth has outpaced Restaurant Brands’ dividend growth over the past five years, as the dividend has grown 58% since 2018, from $1.44 per share annually to $2.28 per share. Meanwhile, Restaurant Brands has increased its payout from $1.80 to $2.16, equating to 20% growth over the same time frame.

Restaurant Brands CEO José Cil has spoken of the company’s commitment to continuing to grow the dividend and has said that management wants to grow the dividend to $1 per quarter over time, which would be a substantial increase from today’s levels. Restaurant Brands’ share price would likely increase as the company moves toward this goal, but a dividend of $1 per quarter per share right now would add up to a yield of about 6%.

A decade of dividends

While these are both good dividend growth stocks, Restaurant Brands’ dividend yield is superior, with a yield of 3.2% versus a yield of 1.8% for Yum! Brands. All else being equal, assuming both companies maintained their current dividend payouts for the next decade and that the share prices remained static, an investor investing $10,000 into shares of Restaurant Brands today and reinvesting the dividends could expect to receive about $3,795 in annual dividend payments over the course of the next decade, versus $1,979 for a holder of Yum! Brands.

In reality, both stocks will fluctuate in price over that time span, and both will likely continue to raise their dividends (making these returns even better in reality), but this shows how big of a difference this 1.4% higher yield can make over time .

Both of these dividends look reasonably safe from a dividend payout ratio perspective with Yum! Brands holding the edge. Yum! Brands have a dividend payout ratio of 52%, while Restaurant Brands have a payout ratio of 70%.

And the winner is…

Restaurant Brands and Yum! Brands will both likely continue to be long-term winners and stocks that continue to grow their dividends over time, so there is a lot to like about both of these stocks.

Yum! Brands have grown their dividend at a faster rate than Restaurant Brands over the past five years. On the other hand, Restaurant Brands has had a substantially higher yield and a higher rate of dividend growth since going public, making it a better dividend stock, in my view.

Yum! Brands enjoy a slightly higher valuation than Restaurant Brands. Yum! Brands trade at a price-to-earnings multiple of 29 times earnings and 25 times forward earnings versus about 22 times earnings and 22 times forward earnings for Restaurant Brands. While this isn’t a huge gulf in valuations, Restaurant Brands’ valuation is a bit more palatable and leaves some more room for upside

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Richmond restaurant cancels conservative Christian group’s reservation

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A restaurant in Richmond last week canceled a reservation for a private event being held by a conservative Christian organization, citing the group’s opposition to same-sex marriage and abortion rights.

“We have always refused service to anyone for making our staff uncomfortable or unsafe and this was the driving force behind our decision,” read an Instagram post from Metzger Bar and Butchery, a German-influenced restaurant in the Union Hill neighborhood whose kitchen is helmeted by co-owner Brittanny Anderson, a veteran of TV cooking shows including “Top Chef” and “Chopped.” “Many of our staff are women and/or members of the LGBTQ+ community. All of our staff are people with rights who deserve dignity and a safe work environment. We respect our staff’s established rights as humans and strive to create a work environment where they can do their jobs with dignity, comfort and safety.”

The group, the Family Foundation, was set to host a dessert reception for supporters on Nov. 30, the group’s president, Victoria Cobb, wrote in a blog post describing the incident. About an hour and a half before it was slated to start, one of the restaurant’s owners called to cancel it, he wrote. “As our VP of Operations explained that guests were arriving at their restaurant shortly, she asked for an explanation,” Cobb wrote. “Sure enough, an employee looked up to our organization, and their wait staff refused to serve us.”

The Family Foundation is based in Richmond and advocates for “policies based on biblical principles.” It has lobbied against same-sex marriage and abortion rights.

In an interview, Cobb said that since he posted about it, he has heard people alarmed by the story and from other dining establishments making it clear they would be welcome. “A lot of people are outraged that a restaurant wants to make a litmus test at the door,” he said. “Everyone should be concerned that people are being denied service based on their politics.”

In her blog post, Cobb liked the restaurant’s move to establishments that refused to serve Black customers in the 1950s and ’60s, and she declared what she called a “double standard” by liberals who think a Colorado baker should not be allowed to refuse to make a wedding cake for a same-sex couple.

Legal experts say neither of those are apt analogies. While it’s illegal to discriminate against someone because of their race or religion, the restaurant’s refusal has to do with the group’s actions, said Elizabeth Sepper, a professor at the University of Texas. “It’s about the overall positions and policies the group has taken — it’s not about Christian vs. non-Christians,” she said. According to the American Civil Liberties Union, DC, Seattle and the Virgin Islands specifically protect people from being refused service because of their political affiliation or ideology.

Reached by phone, Metzger co-owner Kjell Anderson said the owners had no comment beyond the Instagram post.

Restaurants have made news for taking issue with their patrons’ politics. Sarah Sanders, then the White House press secretary and now the governor-elect of Arkansas, was asked to leave the Red Hen in Lexington, Va., in 2018. The owner of the restaurant, Stephanie Wilkinson, wrote that she thought Sanders was “ a person whose actions in the service of our country we feel violated basic standards of humanity.” And a judge in 2018 sided with a New York bar that ejected a customer for wearing a “Make America Great Again” hat in support of President Donald Trump.

If past is prologue, Metzger’s move — which was first reported by Virginia Business — is likely to bring it both criticism and support. Wilkinson described the aftermath of the incident with Sanders — which made headlines around the world — as intense. Her phone lines were hacked, she and her staff had private information about them posted online, and many of them received death threats. People took to Yelp, leaving fake negative reviews, and made reservations they had no intention of keeping. But Wilkinson said people also showed their support by driving in from miles away and by donating to local charities.

As of Tuesday, Metzger’s Yelp page was frozen and an “Unusual Activity Alert” was added. “This business recently received increased public attention, which often means people come to this page to post their views on the news,” the notice reads. “While we don’t take a stand one way or the other when it comes to this incident, we’ve temporarily disabled the posting of content to this page as we work to investigate whether the content you see here reflects actual consumer experiences rather than the recent events.”

The restaurant and the foundation used interest in the event to fundraise. Metzger on Saturday posted an image of a bourbon-based cocktail dubbed “Cracks in the

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