Luby's to Buy Fuddruckers, Magic Brands

Luby's Inc. said Friday it will buy most of the assets of burger chain Fuddruckers Inc., its parent Magic Brands LLC and their affiliates for about $61 million in cash.

The Houston-based cafeteria chain also will assume some of Fuddruckers' obligations, real-estate leases and contracts. It will pay $2.45 million more in cash if it doesn't assume some contracts.

Luby's, which has 96 restaurants, bought the assets in an auction Thursday.

Fuddruckers filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in April, saying that would ease the company's sale to private-equity firm Tavistock Group for $40 million.

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17 Inadvertently Meaningful Chinese Menu Misspellings

Whether these represent typos, misspellings, bad transliterations, or -- as some have suggested, Chinese menu writers are working with a badly flawed 19th century English dictionary -- all of these come from restaurants located in the five boroughs. Whatever the cause, they form a highly entertaining and cross-cultural type of meta-literature.

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Bed-bug sniffer dog Lola starts work in UK hotels

Lola, the first certified bed bug scent detection dog in Europe, has started working for a number of UK hotels.

Trained and certified by the National Entomology Scent Detection Canine Association (NESDCA), Lola is a 16-month-old Jack Russell. She arrived back in the UK in May after receiving her training in the United States and is now checking out bedrooms in independent and group hotels on behalf of London-based company Trust K9.

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Bidder for Amelia Island Plantation expects success

A weak economy and lack of financing forced the owner of the Amelia Island Plantation into Chapter 11 bankruptcy last fall. But the potential new owner of the well-known resort says it has the financial strength to ensure its success once it emerges from bankruptcy.

The Amelia Island Co. filed a Chapter 11 reorganization plan in late May that is centered on a $45.9 million buyout by a fund associated with Atlanta-based Noble Investment Group. The money will be used to pay off the company's debts and allow the resort to emerge from bankruptcy.

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Starwood Plan For Extended Stay Gets Unsecured Creditors' Support

Extended Stay Inc.'s unsecured creditors are backing investor Starwood Capital Group's plan to take over the hotel chain, and they're seeking to end Extended Stay's exclusive control over its Chapter 11 case.

In court papers filed Tuesday, the committee representing the company's unsecured creditors said Extended Stay should lose its exclusive right to file a bankruptcy-exit plan so that creditors can consider Starwood's rival proposal to inject up to $700 million in cash into the company. Extended Stay is seeking to emerge from Chapter 11 with a $3.93 billion investment from Centerbridge Partners LP and other investors.

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Krispy Kreme in Court Fight Over Secret Recipe

Famed doughnut company Krispy Kreme is suing the operators of its last remaining New York City store over a claim that they cooked up their own recipe when they ran out of "key proprietary Krispy Kreme ingredients," the New York Post reported Friday.

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Ft. Lauderdale creating $110m Atlantis-style water park

A potential competitor to Bahamas tourism could spring up in two years as Fort Lauderdale launches a partnership to build an Atlantis-style water park resort with a company which worked on Paradise Island's attractions.

Currently Fort Lauderdale is one of the corridors through which thousands of U.S. tourists cruise and fly to The Bahamas but now that city's aging sports stadiums could be turned into a major water park resort by 2012.

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