What’s with Wendy's New $16 Foie Gras Burger?

We’d never eat anything we couldn’t pronounce, least of all a $16 foie gras and truffle burger that Wendy’s is now hawking in Japan.

To mark the occasion, the exuberant franchisee developed the aforementioned goose-liver burger. With dumb ideas like that, it might be another two years before Wendy’s opens its next store in Japan.

Quiznos deathwatch. Quiznos is one of those franchises that everyone expects to die. But somehow it’s still hanging on, barely.

Quiznos says it has devised a plan with its creditors to restructure $875 million in debt. It says the plan will enable the chain to eliminate one-third of its debt and provide it with $75 million in operating capital.

But the deal is not set in stone, and Quiznos admits it could yet file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

Quiznos now has about 3,500 stores after shuttering about 1,500 locations in recent years.

Subway keeps rolling. One franchise that has managed to survive and thrive in the recession is Subway. In 2011, it officially became the world’s largest restaurant chain, measured by number of locations.

And 2012 is looking just as healthy for the chain as it plans to open 2,500 new stores this year.

Clearly, the only sandwich chain that’s going six feet under is Quiznos, not Subway. Ironic, that.

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