Nation's Restaurant News on the Go #80
Nation's Restaurant News
The #1 source of news and business intelligence for restaurant and foodservice industry professionals
Good things are (finally) brewing
Hey readers,
Managing editor Leigh Anne Zinsmeister here. Over the last few weeks, I’ve had the opportunity to travel around and visit some fast-casual chains. And I have to say, one of the most unexpected throughlines — at least unexpected for 2024 — is the tangible optimism I’m gleaning from operators.
First, last month, I went down to Blaze Pizza’s Disney Springs flagship for an event kicking off the chain’s new signature menu line. But as I chatted with people — in total, eight executives and franchisees — I realized that the menu is really a small part of what’s happening at Blaze these days. Every single person I spoke with was buzzing with excitement about something different: a high-tech training program, development plans, a long-term charity partnership. Limited-service pizza is a tenuous segment to operate in since the highs of the early pandemic, and it was so refreshing to be in a room full of people ready to carry one of those brands into the next phase of its evolution.
Then, earlier this week, I found myself in Charlotte for the grand opening of Bobby’s Burgers by Bobby Flay’s first traditional unit — and no, that’s not a typo. The chain’s seven other restaurants are in casinos, stadiums, and airports, but going forward we can expect to see a lot more freestanding “neighborhood” stores. Flay himself told me that franchising is something he takes “very, very seriously,” and again it felt so good to be in a room just brimming with possibility.
After a rough few years for the industry, this summer, I really feel like we’re on the brink of something good at long last. I see it in these two brands, and in every one on our 100 Under 100 list, which published this week and features 100 thriving chains still full of potential. I can’t wait to see which restaurant has a happy surprise in store for me next.
Bobby’s Burgers by Bobby Flay opens first traditional unit in Charlotte, N.C.
Bobby’s Burgers by Bobby Flay, a fast-casual burger restaurant chain from the celebrity chef, officially opened its first traditional unit in Charlotte, N.C., on Wednesday.
“I think that Charlotte is a great American city,” said Flay of the new unit’s location. The store will serve as headquarters, training center, and test kitchen for the brand as it moves further into the franchising space.
“This is going to be where we do R&D, where we will bring people who potentially want to franchise Bobby’s Burgers, to this place where they can see the neighborhood location,” Flay said.
The unit, which soft-launched on June 28, is in an office complex in the city’s SouthPark area. The chain’s seven other locations are all inside casinos (Las Vegas, New Orleans, and Atlantic City, N.J.), stadiums (Yankee Stadium in New York), and airports (Phoenix), but streetside restaurants and franchising are going to be a priority going forward.
100 Under 100: Emerging restaurant chains take the United States by storm
Emerging restaurant brands are no doubt fun to follow. They’re often bringing new menu and branding ideas to the table, tapping into consumer trends in creative ways that showcase a glimpse into the future. But emerging brands are also important to follow because they could someday be international juggernauts whose every move is emulated by the rest of the industry.
With this list of the top 100 emerging chains with fewer than 100 locations, Nation’s Restaurant News set out to quantify which emerging brands truly possessed the most momentum across the U.S. To create this list, NRN partnered with Datassential to review sales and unit-count information for the top 750 restaurant chains. The list was cut to only those with 100 locations or fewer at the end of 2022, then sorted by the rate of unit-count growth between 2021 and 2022.
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Behind the scenes of Blaze Pizza’s transformation
Blaze Pizza attracted attention last month when it announced it was re-vamping its signature menu line, the first such overhaul in the restaurant’s 12-year history. But the new menu is only the beginning, as the Pasadena, Calif.-based fast-casual restaurant brand has many more plans in store, from redesigns to a long-term charity partnership.
“We are introducing our purpose for existing,” said CEO Beto Guajardo at a June event launching new menu items and the charity partnership.
Guajardo joined Blaze in early 2023 from Focus Brands, and while he had plenty of big ideas, he wanted to spend time talking to everyone in the company before putting plans into action. The first major change was the new signature pizzas.
McDonald’s has experienced a traffic bump from its $5 Meal Deal
It’s been a tough year across the board for restaurant traffic as consumers tighten their spending in favor of cooking at home. Despite a wildly successful run these last few years, McDonald’s hasn’t been immune to the current environment. In February, CEO Chris Kempczinski said the company was experiencing transaction reductions from those making $45,000 and below – an overindexing demographic for the chain. Executives cautioned that those headwinds were expected to continue through the duration of 2024 and that seems to be the case so far based on new data from analytics firm Placer.ai.
In the 27 weeks measured this year, McDonald’s has experienced negative year-over-year comparisons for nine of them. For the rest of those weeks, just three generated traffic comps higher than 3% – the week of Jan. 29, which was up 7.6% year-over-year; the week of Feb. 5, which was up 3.5%; and the week of July 1, up 3.1%.
NRN's In the Mix: Menu price increases, restaurant closures, the coffee craze, and more
In this episode of NRN's In the Mix, Nation's Restaurant News editors discuss the June consumer price index report. From rising menu prices to the unfortunate wave of restaurant closures, we explore the factors driving these trends and what they mean for both businesses and consumers.
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