Pricing Alone Won’t Fix Restaurant Traffic
Here’s What Will. After a decade leading restaurant brands across multiple segments, including the last seven years leading full-service concepts, I’ve learned that when traffic softens, pricing is often a lever that leaders reach for. It’s understandable. But it’s also rarely the lever that actually fixes the problem. I’ve seen this cycle repeat itself many times. Traffic slows, costs go up, and the conversation quickly turns to price. Should we discount more? Less? Sharpen our value offers? Hold steady and wait it out? Those are fair questions, but they’re not the whole story. In today’s world, price alone doesn’t change how guests behave. What brings people back, time after time, is whether the experience still feels worth it when they leave. Our industry is full of contradictions. It generates more than a trillion dollars in annual revenue and employs over 15 million people. Total revenue has continued to grow. And yet, traffic has been under pressure for years, particularly since the stimulus-driven surge of 2021 has faded. That pattern held through 2025. According to Black Box Intelligence, same-store sales were modestly positive through much of the year, while traffic remained negative. In September 2025, for example, sales were up about 1.1 percent year over year even as traffic declined roughly 1.5 percent, a signal that pricing, not traffic, drove results. The gap between sales and traffic defined much of the past year for operators. We all understand the importance of growing same-store sales, especially in a high-cost environment. But revenue growth alone doesn’t guarantee profitability or cash flow. The wave of restaurant bankruptcies in 2024—and their continuation into 2025—made that very clear. This disconnect is why the playbook is changing. Relying on price to protect sales is riskier than ever. Why Pricing Doesn’t Change Visit Frequency—Value Does…
Here’s What the Dignity Act Could Mean for Restaurants
How operators could benefit from an expanded pool of legal immigrant workers. The foodservice industry in America is reeling from one of the toughest labor markets in recent memory. The shortage of workers has been pervasive, effecting every sector from quick-service chains to fine-dining establishments, and operators have been caught in the middle just trying to keep the wheels of business turning. High turnover, shallow applicant pools, and the rising costs of recruiting talent are all working together to make it a particularly challenging situation. According to the National Restaurant Association, 77% of restaurant operators say that recruiting and retaining employees remains a significant challenge. At the same time, some positions are harder to fill than others, including chefs and cooks, and kitchen support staff. While efforts like increasing wages, offering signing bonuses, and streamlining training have helped, it still hasn’t been enough to slow down the revolving door. The EB-3 Visa Program as an underutilized solution. One of the lesser-known tools available to help address the workforce shortage in the foodservices sector is the EB-3 visa program. It’s a legal immigration pathway that allows U.S. companies to sponsor foreign workers for full-time, non-seasonal positions when domestic workers can’t be found for those roles. Many jobs in foodservice qualify under the EB-3 program’s “Other Workers” category, including positions like dishwashers, kitchen assistants, and food prep workers. Yet, outdated visa caps and administrative bottlenecks have made the program challenging for restaurant employers who need timely staffing solutions. Under the current law 10,000 EB-3 visas are allocated annually under the “Other Workers” category, but that number also includes the worker’s spouse and children. In reality, that means only around 3,000 actual workers receive these visas each year, with the majority consumed by their dependents. The result has been a years-long backlog that discourages participation. The Dignity Act is a practical policy update…
Bielat Santore & Company – Restaurant Industry Alert
WE SELL RESTAURANTS!
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.
MONMOUTH COUNTY, NJ BYOB RESTAURANT FOR SALE
This highly-rated restaurant located in Monmouth County, New Jersey, boasts a prime downtown location with a modern design and comprehensive amenities. The establishment is housed in a spacious, fully equipped, 4,500+ square foot free-standing building, offering an inviting atmosphere for diners. The restaurant comfortably seats 150 guests indoors, complemented by an outdoor patio and sidewalk seating for an additional 70 patrons, providing versatile dining options. Currently generating approximately $2.4 million in annual gross revenue.
Contact Richard Santore, 732.531.4200 for additional information.
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Why Even Great Restaurants Are Closing In 2026
The plight of restaurants in 2026. I am no longer reassured by full restaurants. This is new for me. For years, a packed room felt like a kind of victory. From the outside, proof that the food was good, the staff sincere, and the atmosphere persuasive enough to pull me out of pajamas and into my wallet. On the inside? A full restaurant suggested health. Momentum. Maybe, if not safety, then at least the promise of it. Now I find myself scanning busy dining rooms with a less optimistic instinct. One that doesn’t ask ‘is this working?’ but ‘how long can this possibly last?’ The dissonance is subtle but persistent. The food is good—often really good—the interiors immaculate, the staff charismatic (to the point of bordering on intimate). On paper, these places are doing everything right. And yet, if you stay long enough, or talk to the right person, or hang back after service when the adrenaline drops, the conversation drifts away from the pass and toward something, dare I say, sinister. It usually starts with a joke that isn’t really a joke. Someone mentions maybe making rent this month. Someone else mentions energy. Business rates surface with the ease once reserved for olive oil prices or staffing shortages, as though the very architecture of the room has begun to weigh on the people inside it. The tone is never hysterical, either. That’s what, to me, feels most unsettling. Instead, it’s weary, pragmatic, resigned voice of someone who has done the math too many times to believe it will suddenly come out differently. There was a period, not so long ago, when effort still seemed to correlate with outcome. If you worked hard enough, if the food was good enough, if people kept coming, you might not thrive but you would survive. But that sense of possibility feels narrower now, tightened by forces that have very little to do with cooking. The contradiction at the heart of this moment is that many restaurants appear to be flourishing. Despite the headlines, people have not stopped eating out. If anything, dining out has taken on added symbolic weight, standing in for connection, pleasure, even resilience. Any Londoner or New Yorker knows the queues all too well…
New Requirements for ADA Accommodations
What hospitality employers need to know. Last year, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit broadened employers’ obligations under the Americans with Disabilities Act (“ADA”) when responding to accommodation requests from their employees. The court’s holding in that case, Tudor v. Whitehall Central School District, has direct implications for hospitality employers operating within the Second Circuit (the federal judicial circuit that contains New York, Connecticut, and Vermont) and serves as a signal for new best practices nationwide. The ADA prohibits employers with 15 or more employees from discriminating against “qualified individuals” with disabilities in employment practices. Before the Tudor ruling, a “qualified individual” was understood to mean that an employee may not be entitled to a reasonable accommodation if he or she could perform his or her job duties without one. The plaintiff in Tudor, a teacher with post-traumatic stress disorder, had been allowed to take short breaks during the workday to manage her symptoms. A change in school policy eliminated the short breaks, and although she could technically teach and supervise students without them, the school’s denial of guaranteed breaks served as the basis for her failure-to-accommodate claim. The lower court found in the school district’s favor, holding that the school did not need to grant her accommodation because she was able to perform the essential functions of her job without it. On appeal, however, the Second Circuit reversed the lower court’s decision and held that an employee may be entitled to a reasonable accommodation even if they can perform the essential functions of their job without one. In other words, a “qualified individual” under the ADA is someone who can perform the essential functions of their job “with or without” a reasonable accommodation, and therefore, employers should look instead to whether the accommodation is reasonable and/or causes undue hardship to the business. Several other appellate courts across the country have come to the same conclusion…
Meet The Creative Mind Powering McDonald’s Growth
A journey from sketches and palaces to shaping the future of the burger giant’s U.S. restaurants. Tabassum Zalotrawala’s journey isn’t a left turn from art to operations—it’s a continuum. Her eye for design, space, narrative, and human emotion is the through-line that shaped her into the leader she is today. Each step of her career becomes a larger canvas: from Chipotle’s brand turnaround to Panda’s innovation reset to McDonald’s largest era of growth expansion. As the senior vice president and chief development officer for McDonald’s USA, she oversees a portfolio of more than 13,000 restaurants, balancing the legacy of a 70-year-old iconic brand with its path toward modernization. But her career journey doesn’t start inside a restaurant—it begins in a palace. Zalotrawala grew up in a conservative Indian family as a diligent, hard-working student. Looking back, she says she was hyper focused on her grades and eager to fast-track her career, often wishing she had slowed down to savor time with friends, travel more freely, or nurture her creative interests. She has long seen herself as a creative soul—someone who views the world through form, emotion, storytelling, and intention. As a child, this energy revealed itself through the sketching of dresses, designs, and spaces. Drawing was her way of imagining possibilities. Her uncle, an architect, further ignited that spark. Watching him translate ideas from blueprint to building showed her the power of space and form—how environments influence the way people move, feel, and connect. She went on to study fine arts in college, grounding her in the ability to look beyond the surface. Even then, she was attuned to how people experience spaces and how design can signal trust, shape behavior, or strengthen a sense of community…
Restaurant Operators Across the Country Plan to Participate
In general strike to protest ICE. On the day Congress is scheduled to consider funding for the Department of Homeland Security, restaurateurs hope to send a message to Washington and show support for the industry in Minnesota. Restaurants across the country are announcing plans to participate in a general strike on Friday to protest the ongoing immigration crackdown. Activist groups such as National Shutdown and General Strike U.S. are calling for Jan. 30 to be a day of “no work, no school, no shopping” to protest the Trump Administration’s deportation effort. The action comes a week after a similar move in Minneapolis, when an estimated 700 businesses closed for the day, according to the Minnesota Star Tribune. Over the weekend, however, a second shooting death at the hands of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, agents in Minneapolis has sparked a louder national outcry. Federal border czar Tom Homan is reportedly working on drawing down enforcement activity in Minnesota. But the national day of protest was designed to coincide with a scheduled vote on Capitol Hill in Washington on a spending bill that would have included a measure to fund the Department of Homeland Security, which includes ICE. Senate Democrats late Thursday reportedly struck a deal to strip DHS funding from the bill, in an effort to avoid a full government shutdown. Under the deal, DHS would be funded for another two weeks, while Congress negotiates guardrails for ICE activity. Meanwhile, Minnesota restaurateurs have circulated a letter to Congress that Sean Sherman, the owner of the Minneapolis restaurant Owamni, said would be delivered on Friday with more than 1,000 signatures…
Why Some Restaurants Have Walk-Ins Only
According to a Restaurateur. Picture this: It’s a Friday night, and you’re ready to get your grub on. However, when you and your inner circle enter that restaurant, everyone’s talking about, you’re confronted with a long line and a 45-minute (or longer) wait. We know what you’re thinking, and you’re right: It’s a complete bummer. In a time when instant gratification reigns supreme, waiting for a meal feels not only archaic, but kind of a crapshoot: A walk-in can work wonders for an impromptu night out, but not always. So, what gives? Why have some restaurants ditched the reservations completely? For Tony Gemignani of Tony’s Pizza Napoletana, the walk-in only strategy has been non-negotiable since he opened his San Francisco restaurant back in 2009. “My goal was to make Tony’s a place where anyone could get a table, whether they traveled from Australia, Italy, Modesto, or just across San Francisco,” Gemignani explains. “I never wanted a customer to hear, ‘Sorry, we’re all booked for tonight.’” To say Tony’s is busy is an understatement. Nestled in San Francisco’s North Beach neighborhood, the Italian restaurant’s wait time typically ranges from 45 minutes to an hour during prime time—though some diners have reportedly waited up to two hours. While Gemignani says a lack of reservations might cost the restaurant some guests, the policy “keeps the door open to everyone,” adding that, “by building something truly unique and creative, I knew people would be willing to wait for great food,” he adds. Walk-ins might lay the foundation for a more democratic dining experience, but Gemignani says it also helps the staff. “Restaurants with reservations often face challenges when guests arrive early and see empty tables they technically can’t be seated at, or when tables need to be held for upcoming bookings,” he explains. “That can create frustration for both guests and staff.” Instead, he believes a reservation-free setup allows for “smoother pacing and faster table turns”…
Did You Know?
Non-Alcoholic Options Are No Longer Seasonal. Are You Prepared? A recent survey by Gallup, which has studied American’s drinking behavior since 1939, showed that only 54 percent of adults drink alcohol — a drop from 67 percent in 2022. That’s the lowest percentage in 90 years. There are numerous reasons for this, but what really matters to businesses is the money these consumers aren’t spending at their establishments. Especially during “dry January” when an even greater percentage of people are cutting back on their drinking…
Employee Tip
Why the future of restaurants Is more human than ever. Restaurants have always relied on their people to get the details right. From calling out orders over sizzling fryers to deciphering a server’s scribbled ticket, accuracy was earned through attention and sweat. But we’re not living in that world anymore. Once again, restaurant tech enters the scene. This time it’s related to how tech influences the ultimate employee and customer experiences, beyond it providing the raw information we need, with speed and depth. The first-place energy must shift is toward the one area technology can’t touch: human connection…
