SPECIAL REPORT
FAST-CASUAL WAS THE HAPPY PLACE IN 2024 Sales in the segment far exceeded industry trends, boosted by growth brands like Chipotle, Wingstop, Raising Cane’s and Jersey Mike’s Subs. But some brands were left behind.
W hile the quick-service and casual-dining sectors bat- tled it out with value deals through 2024, the fast- casual sector served as a shelter in the storm for most brands. Fast-casual chain sales among the Top 500 grew 9% last year, far exceeding the 2.3% growth of quick-service and 1.3% growth in casual dining. Segment leader Chi- potle climbed to No. 7 among the top 10 res- taurant brands, and Panda Express appears poised to push into the top 10 at No. 11. The segment included some of the biggest growers of restaurants: Chipotle, Wingstop and Jersey Mike’s Subs added more than 200 units last year, for example, helping to offset the closures of struggling chains, according to the Technomic Top 500 Restaurant Chains report. It was a good year to be a fast-casual chicken chain. But it was a terrible year to be in fast-casual pizza or a legacy bakery-café brand. Two hot chicken brands led the segment, in terms of systemwide sales growth. Dave’s Hot Chicken has been on a tear as one of the fastest growing chains and continued its dou- ble-digit sales growth, with a more than 57% increase to $616.6 million, increasing its unit count by 43% to 245. That growth reportedly caught the atten- tion of Roark Capital, which is rumored to be in talks to acquire the Los Angeles-based company in a deal valued at about $1 billion. As part of the Roark portfolio, Dave’s would become a relatively small fish in a big pond. Roark owns the sandwich chain Subway, as well as GoTo Foods (Auntie Anne’s, Carvel, Cinnabon and more), Inspire Brands (Buffa-
lo Wild Wings, Arby’s, Dunkin’ and more), along with CKE Restaurants (Hardee’s and Carl’s Jr.), Culver’s, Miller’s Ale House and Nothing Bundt Cakes. And sharing a bit of the spicy heat on the Top 500 is also the much smaller Hangry Joe’s Hot Chicken & Wings, a McLean, Vir- ginia-based hot chicken chain with a similar choose-your-spice-level menu of tenders and chicken sandwiches. Hangry Joe’s graduated from the Future 50 list. Hangry Joe’s grew sales nearly 88% last year to $97.5 million. That growth was like- ly largely the result of a more than-90% in- crease in unit count to 97 at the end of the year. Not far behind are less-spicy chicken spe- cialists Wingstop and Raising Cane’s, both of which grew sales by more than 30% in 2024, propelling both brands into the Top 25, ac- cording to the report. And though Wingstop, as a public com- pany, spent 2024 dazzling the industry with double-digit same-store sales increases based largely on traffic, Raising Cane’s continued to grow its average unit volume to nearly $7 million—more than three times Wingstop’s AUV of $2.14 million. Raising Cane’s, of course, insists on calling its tenders “chicken fingers.” Wingstop, however, achieved that growth largely with an all-franchised system that relied on paper chits. The Dallas-based brand is now rolling out a new digital Smart Kitchen system that CEO Michael Skipworth describes as a game changer. It’s expected to be in all units by the end of the year. But when Wingstop wasn’t the talk of the fast-casual town, it was Cava.= The Washington, D.C.-based Mediter-
LISA JENNINGS
LISA.JENNINGS@INFORMA.COM
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RESTAURANT BUSINESS JULY 2025
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