The End of ‘The Middle’ in the Restaurant Industry
The brands winning in each segment obviously aren’t lucky; they have made the right strategic choices. The restaurant industry today is not neutral about strategic neutrality, it’s penalizing it. The restaurant industry is in the middle of a strategic sorting that in many companies still feels like the gyrations of our macro environment, but increasingly, it is not that. What is happening increasingly in successful businesses across QSR, fast casual, and full service, is the market rewarding the brands that have made a clear choice about what they are and withdrawing from the ones that haven’t. The pattern is easier to see looking across segments. In casual dining, Chili’s and Texas Roadhouse are both posting consistently strong performance. In quick service, McDonald’s and Chick-fil-A are doing the same. In fast casual, Jersey Mike’s and CAVA also winning. What may not be as obvious is that in each of these segments, winning companies can generate strong performance with different winning strategic choices. Where companies across the rest of the industry may be struggling, many are attributing this to a disappearing consumer, and this is definitely the demand constraint today. However, what can often be observed in these companies, is that the core strategic choices (how are we going to win?) have not actually been made. These are the companies and brands in The Middle. The Middle is Where the Losses Are Concentrating.
The industry is contracting selectively, not uniformly. Casual dining’s net unit growth has been negative 3.3 percent since 2022 while QSR grew 5.8 percent and fast casual grew 15.5 percent over the same period. Inside every segment, the pain seems concentrated in the middle. Mid-tier casual dining chains are closing units on a scale not seen in a decade…
The Top-Line Growth Restaurants Already Have
When high-value demand arrives at the wrong time. Most full-service groups looking to grow revenue reach for the same two levers: open more locations or raise prices. Both work, and both are slow, costly, and harder than ever in the current climate. But there is a third source of top-line growth that most operators underuse, and it sits inside a blind spot created by their own discipline. Modern restaurants are meticulous measurers. They track covers, table turns, and average check. They watch delivery mix, online conversion, and the performance of every digital ordering channel down to the item. That rigor has made restaurants sharper businesses, but it follows a pattern with a cost: the channels that get measured are the ones that measure themselves. A digital order logs itself. A delivery app reports its own numbers. An online reservation leaves a clean trail. The channels that run through software are instrumented by default, and because they are visible, they get managed, staffed, and optimized. The channels that run through a person tend to leave no trail at all. They are not measured because they are hard to measure, and what is hard to measure quietly stops being managed. That gap matters more than it appears, because the unmeasured channels are often where a restaurant’s highest-value demand lives. The most valuable inbound demand a full-service restaurant receives rarely arrives at a convenient moment. A catering inquiry, a request to book a private room, a large party planning a birthday or a corporate dinner: these are among the highest-value transactions a restaurant can take, and they come through a call rather than a tidy online form. They also tend to come when the restaurant is least able to answer, in the middle of a dinner rush, late in the evening, on a weekend, or after the line has gone to voicemail for the night. A guest planning a fifty-person event does not wait for a slow Tuesday afternoon to call, and if no one picks up, the next restaurant on the list is one dial away…
Bielat Santore & Company – Restaurant Industry Alert
Since 1978, the principals of Bielat Santore & Company, Barry Bielat and Richard Santore, have sold more restaurants and similar type properties in New Jersey than any other real estate company.
RED BANK, NJ RESTAURANT-BAR-CAFE ASSET SALE
A rare opportunity to acquire a newly built, premium restaurant, bar, and hospitality infrastructure in one of New Jersey’s most desirable downtown dining destinations Designed for an owner-operator, hospitality group, or established brand, this offering allows buyers to step immediately into an impressive, fully equipped operation. The extensive build-out, premium quality finishes, and commercial infrastructure represent a massive capital investment already deployed, eliminating delays and escalating costs of modern restaurant construction, allowing the right owner/operator to launch their concept instantly.
- Restaurant/Bar: 5,300 square feet across two levels
- Café/Event Space: 2,500 square feet
- Fully Equipped Chef’s Kitchen
- Wood-Fired Pizza Oven
- Chef’s Table Private Dining
The current owner is a real estate investor, not an active, hands-on restaurant operator and has elected to transition the business to an experienced hospitality operator at an asking price of $2.3M. The asking price includes a two-million-dollar build-out, all furniture, fixtures and equipment and an operating interest in a valuable Red Bank, NJ liquor license. Seller financing is available to qualified.
How Acting Local Made Texas Roadhouse a National Powerhouse
Texas Roadhouse has become the largest casual-dining brand in the U.S. In May 2024, Texas Roadhouse introduced its first ever “purpose statement”: “Serving our communities across America and the world.” The phrase highlights both the steakhouse chain’s community focus and its global ambitions. Since then, the Louisville, Kentucky-based chain has ascended to become the largest casual-dining chain in the U.S. by systemwide sales, thanks to quarter after quarter of sales and traffic growth as well as a steady pace of new-store openings. Today, it has 755 locations, including 62 overseas. It is by every definition a national brand, with a growing global profile as well. And yet it still acts like a local restaurant, a practice that it believes has contributed to its success. Unlike most chains with a national footprint, Texas Roadhouse has never spent a dollar on national TV ads. It doesn’t plan to change that anytime soon, CEO Jerry Morgan confirmed on an earnings call Thursday. “We absolutely believe [in] that local store marketing, grassroots kind of approach,” Morgan said. “Getting out into the local communities, shaking people’s hands, delivering some fresh baked bread, and just talking about Texas Roadhouse and what we can do for them, for their business, for their families.” It might sound a little saccharine if it didn’t seem to be working so darn well. In the second quarter, Texas Roadhouse’s same-store sales rose 6.2% on 3% traffic growth. That’s 12% same-store sales growth on a two-year stack, 21.3% over three years, 30.4% over four … you get the idea. The chain has not recorded a same-store sales decline since 2010, excluding the pandemic…
What Planned 2026 Openings Reveal About Restaurant Size and Seating
Planned 2026 location records do not point to one restaurant prototype. Restaurant real estate is often described through one broad theme: smaller boxes, more off-premise capacity and fewer dining-room seats. Planned 2026 restaurant openings show a more varied market. Compact fast-casual and quick-service locations are expanding alongside casual/family and upscale restaurants built around substantially larger dining rooms. RestaurantData reviewed 3,381 growth-stage location records tied to planned 2026 activity among restaurant companies operating from two through 19 units. Square footage was available for 294 locations, while seating capacity was available for 166. Those fields are incomplete across the full population, but the recorded subset provides a useful view of how space requirements differ by restaurant format, price point and operating model. Across locations with recorded square footage, the median planned footprint is 3,000 square feet. The middle half ranges from 2,000 to 5,000 square feet. Recorded seating has a median of 90 seats, with the middle half ranging from 50 to 175 seats. The strongest distinction is not between younger and more established multi-unit companies. It is between operating formats. Fast-casual and quick-service locations each have a median recorded footprint of 1,750 square feet. Casual/family restaurants rise to 3,500 square feet, while upscale dining locations have a median of 6,000 square feet…
How Hotels are Redefining the Sports Bar Experience
From craft cocktails and local partnerships to private events and premium viewing experiences, the category is evolving. For years, the hotel sports bar occupied a familiar place in the hospitality ecosystem: a convenient spot to catch a game, grab a beer, and spend some downtime between meetings, events, or sightseeing. But as food and beverage has become increasingly important to the overall guest experience, operators are rethinking what those spaces can be and what role they can play within a property. Today, a growing number of hotels are investing in sports bars that look and feel less like traditional game-day hangouts and more like destination venues. Elevated food and beverage programs, thoughtful design, local storytelling, flexible event capabilities, and premium viewing experiences are transforming these concepts into key gathering spaces for hotel guests, locals, corporate groups, and private-event clients alike. The trend is playing out in different ways across the country. At Gaylord Opryland Resort in Nashville, Tennessee, Foundry Fieldhouse Sports Bar & Taproom combines a 707-seat footprint, multiple event spaces, and a 38-foot LED screen into a multi-use gathering place. Beneath Portland’s historic Benson Hotel, Honorable Mention takes a more intimate approach, positioning itself as a luxury sports lounge with a cocktail-forward beverage program, upscale atmosphere, and strong community focus. All reflect growing investment in sports-centric venues that offer far more than the traditional hotel sports bar experience. The common thread is a recognition that simply showing the game is no longer enough…
Why Clearly Labeled Plant-Based Menu Options Have Become a Business Necessity
Businesses can capitalize on the 42% of consumers who identify as ‘flexitarian. Restaurant operators have spent the last several years navigating inflation, labor shortages, changing consumer habits, and rising ingredient costs. At the same time, one long-term shift is reshaping menus across the industry: more consumers are looking for plant-based meals. This is no longer a niche trend: Today’s diners include vegetarians, vegans, flexitarians, and omnivores who simply want more plant-based choices when dining out. For operators, the opportunity is not about replacing traditional menu favorites — it’s about making plant-based options easy to find and order. Consumer demand continues to grow: Global market research firm Grand View Research estimates the vegan food market reached more than $22 billion in 2025, and projects continued double-digit annual growth through 2033. NielsenIQ has also reported continued growth in plant-based purchasing behavior. Importantly, many of these consumers are not strict vegans or vegetarians. They still eat meat but are increasingly incorporating plant-based meals into their diets throughout the week. Many are looking for flexibility, variety, and perceived health benefits. According to Euromonitor, 42% of global consumers identify as following a flexitarian diet, meaning they are intentionally reducing consumption of animal-based products without eliminating them entirely. In the United States, plant-based eating has expanded well beyond consumers who identify as vegan or vegetarian…
Did You Know?
Prevent Ghosting in Hospitality Hiring. Ghosting is often less about the individual being irresponsible and more a sign that disengagement set in before the employment relationship ever really began, explained Danielle Balow, Vice President, Customer Transformation at Click Boarding. When a candidate doesn’t feel like a priority during the hiring process, silence becomes an easy exit. In restaurant hiring specifically, the pace works against operators here, she added, because interviews happen fast, offers go out fast, and then candidates are often left waiting with no clear next step or contact. That gap is where ghosting takes root. The trend is expected to continue as long as high-volume, fast-turnaround hiring treats communication as optional rather than built into the process, while operators who invested in structured, consistent candidate communication are already seeing it become less of a problem. The survey also revealed that…
Employee Tip
Restaurant industry jobs declined again last month. The restaurant and bar industries continue to lose people. The latest Bureau of Labor Statistics jobs report shows that foodservice saw a significant drop in total employees for the second month in a row, with 26,100 jobs shed in July, on top of nearly 33,000 jobs lost in June. This is the first time in over a year that the restaurant industry lost jobs two months in a row. The sharp downturn reflects challenges on the larger job market, which showed a hiring slump for all non-farm industries with an unexpected net decline of 23,000 jobs in July, though the national unemployment rate dropped slightly to 4.1% as people continue to leave the workforce…