If I’m a PM at BlackRock, Wellington Management, State Street, GAMCO, Citigroup, Two Sigma, or AQR, all of which own a significant number of shares in the restaurant chain, my takeaways are: 1. Crowded as hell, that’s good 2. Patrons are not strictly meth addicts, that’s good 3. Professional conflict mitigation services available on-site (check out how calm, cool and collected the waiter who breaks things up is), that’s good 4. Apparently the cost-cutting through syrup sparsity program is being effectively implemented. So the answer would be hell yes. Continue reading »