CHICAGO, August 27, 2025 — The celebrated achievements of two former Silver Plate winners are earning the veritable hall-of-famers a shot at new notoriety via the bookcase. 

 

The daunting task of bringing a 1950s-style drive-in chain into the high-tech age is recounted in a new book co-written by longtime Sonic CEO Cliff Hudson, the 2004 Silver Plate winner in the Chain Limited Service category.

 

 

“Bricks and Clicks,” co-authored with former Sonic CIO Craig Miller, provides the full behind-the-scenes story of the transition, a particularly challenging update because of the quick-service chain’s historical reliance on car-side ordering microphones right out of “Happy Days.”

 

The process was also complicated by the wide array of legacy POS systems that were still in use throughout its franchise community—in all, more than two dozen types of varying age and capabilities. 

 

 

While “Bricks and Clicks” is clearly aimed at business and tech-savvy readers, “Miss Betti, What Is This?” is targeted at children in grades one through four. The 32-page, magazine-sized publication recounts how Betti Wiggins, the 2017 Silver Plate winner in the Elementary & Secondary Schools category, transformed the foodservices of Detroit’s public schools while she headed it up.

 

It was written not by Wiggins, who would go on to revamp the foodservices of Houston’s school district, but by Brooklyn freelance journalist Lela Gargi, with illustrations from the Detroit artist Kristen Uroda.

 

The subtitle for the volume is, “How Detroit's School Lunch Lady Got Good Food on the Menu.” In drawings and words, it explains how Wiggins revamped menus to provide more healthful choices to the district’s students, many of whom hailed from underprivileged homes.

 

She started with small steps, like providing fresh apples as a choice, and switching the district from traditional French fries to a sweet potato version.

 

But Wiggins’ vision was anything but narrow. A struggling Detroit abounded at the time of her tenure in lots that were left vacant after their abandoned buildings were torn down. She started a program to turn the spaces into student gardens whose produce could be used in cafeteria salad bars. 

 

The book was published in July by Sleeping Bear Press.

 

“Bricks and Clicks” is published by the business publisher Forbes Books.

 

Nominations are now being accepted for next year’s Silver Plate awards. The deadline for submissions is Sept. 30. More information is available here.

 

As Managing Editor for IFMA The Food Away from Home Association, Romeo is responsible for generating the group's news and feature content. He brings more than 40 years of experience in covering restaurants to the position.