Restaurant Chains Dominate Top 10 Fastest-Growing Retail Brands

Yelp has released its first-ever list of the 50 fastest growing retail brands in the U.S. The review site compiled its report by using a blended metric that includes net new openings, searches on its platform from 2022 to 2023, and consumer interest.

Of the 50 fastest-growing chains, 35 were restaurant brands. Furthermore, chains owned by publicly traded restaurant companies account for half of the top ten.

Notably, the data demonstrates momentum for "challenger" food, restaurant, and retail brands that are quickly becoming the next class of household favorites.

Challenger brands—defined as businesses that are not market leaders but aim to compete by disrupting their industry—make up over 70% of the brands on the list.

Here are Yelp's top ten fastest-growing retail brands, with additional reporting by CNBC:

10. Jersey Mikes

Jersey Mike's is the second-largest U.S. sandwich chain after Subway. Its current footprint hovers around 2,700 restaurants, but the chain is growing rapidly. Despite its name and origin, most of its restaurants are now in California, Texas, and Florida.

9. Olive Garden

The gem of Darden Restaurants' portfolio, Olive Garden accounts for nearly half of the company's overall revenue. The Italian-inspired chain casual-dining chain also opened new locations recently, adding about 20 new restaurants in its fiscal 2023.

8. Rally House

The sole apparel retailer to land a place in Yelp's top 10, Rally House sells team gear and sports apparel for professional and college teams. The company has been setting its own record for new openings. In August, it opened seven locations in a single weekend.

7. Freddy's Frozen Custard & Steakburgers

This Midwestern fast-casual chain sells comfort food that reflects the nostalgic warmth and familiarity of the region's cuisine. Last year, Freddy's opened 62 new locations, setting a new development record for the chain and surpassing 500 locations overall.

6. Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen

In 2023, Popeyes surpassed KFC as the second-most popular chicken chain in the U.S. by sales, trailing only Chick-fil-A.

As the "Chicken wars" top contender, Popeyes led a pack of comfort food spots touting fried chicken with a nationwide consumer interest increase of 34%. The chain was also the third fastest-growing brand in the Northeast, where it saw a 52% bump in consumer interest.

5. Wawa

Known for its made-to-order cheesesteaks and hoagies, Wawa has been expanding outside its Philadelphia stronghold into new markets down the Atlantic seaboard. The convenience store and gas station chain has also been opening drive-thru locations, encroaching further on restaurants' territory.

4. The Habit Burger Grill

When Yum Brands bought The Habit Burger Grill in 2020, its footprint was less than 280 restaurants. At the end of 2023, the chain had 378 locations on the East and West coasts.

3. LongHorn Steakhouse

Since the pandemic began, sales at the casual-dining chain LongHorn Steakhouse have consistently outperformed the restaurant industry's average, fueled in part by the strong growth of its takeout business.

2. Scooter's Coffee

Founded in in Nebraska 1998, Scooter's Coffee has only recently begun aggressively expanding through franchised locations. The Midwestern coffee chain's standard, drive-thru-only location is only 664 square feet, making it quick to build and cheap to operate.

Scooter's net new locations jumped 53% from 2022 to 2023, giving it the largest percentage growth of any restaurant brand on Yelp's list.

1. CAVA

As a Yelp Challenger Brand, CAVA saw a 54% increase in consumer interest nationwide from 2023 compared to 2022, not to mention claiming the fastest growing brand spot in California, Colorado, Pennsylvania, Georgia, and Alabama.

Best known for its Mediterranean-inspired bowls, fast-casual restaurant's drinks are now rising in popularity. Yelp's review insights revealed that CAVA's beverages, including pineapple apple mint and blueberry lavender, are what keep customers coming back. Yelp users continually praise these drinks for their taste, quality, and customization options. Food Institute Focus

Opinion: Automation Serving up Invaluable Efficiency for Restaurants

I can't say I envisioned this back when I started in franchise development years ago, but we have invested in restaurant robotic and automation concepts. It might sound wild initially, but you have to look at it from a labor perspective.

Automation often makes sense from a financial lens. Chipotle has invested in Hyphen robotics that will reduce service times, increase consistency and eliminate labor from the restaurants and make customers' bowl items. When you visit a Chipotle, most of their locations have two lines, like most QSRs – one for their dine-in customers and one for the drive-thru. But Chipotle now is using robotic lines that actually make bowls for the online orders.

That's Chipotle's way of getting 100% consistency and knocking out a bunch of labor costs, because menu items like bowls can be automated.

In recent years, a restaurant chain in Boston called Spyce Kitchen had a robot make Asian bowls, with a tumbler that tumbled ingredients into a bowl before it was automatically cleaned. That's the definition of efficiency.

Spyce was eventually purchased by Sweetgreen in 2021, expressly for its automation and robotics.

My company is a partner with the Rise Biscuits & Chicken chain. Historically, Rise had six employees every shift – a cashier, the people making food, and an expo person delivering to customers. Rise eventually got rid of the cashier for kiosks and an app. Rise also uses a heated locker. So, just by automating those two things, Rise got rid of 33% of its labor.

The ironic thing is Rise gets voted as having some of the quickest – and best – service, with locations that garner plenty of 4-star yelp ratings or better. And it's actually less service from humans. But if you're not going to be able to staff up with cashiers that can do suggestive selling the way that an app can ... well, then you have to ask yourself if that's worth the labor cost.

You hear stories about people who order at a kiosk or on an app and it results in 17% higher sales. In that situation, the restaurant has gotten more sales even despite eliminating a position. Rise's sales rose 20% when they began using kiosks. If you think about it, most cashiers aren't great a suggestive selling, aren't incentivized to grow the check average, and just want to get on to the next customer. Kiosks always ask if customers want more – and, if you ask, you typically get. Kiosks are a no-brainer to drive sales.

And, instead of having a worker who's basically dead weight when there's no orders, with a locker setup restaurants have an employee making the food and simply sticking it in the locker while the customer gets a notification on their phone.

When considering investing in automation, you just want to make sure that you're not spending $10 to make $1.

You want to spend $1 and make $10. And that's the trick with any technology; you need to make sure, before you invest in it, that it creates efficiencies and legitimately saves you money.

But, when you do the math these days as a restaurant operator, there are certainly scenarios where turning to automation makes the most sense. Food Institute Focus

Beef. It's Still What's for Dinner

Prices, environmental concerns, and healthier eating advice be damned: 70% of consumers still want their beef. That's the latest from Technomic's 2024 Center of the Plate: Beef and Pork Consumer Trend Report.

The report found the demand for protein has driven an increase in beef purchases at food service locations since 2022, with restaurants being a significant driver.

The consumer love affair with beef continues despite the latest Bureau of Labor Statistics figures that reveal beef prices are up as much as $2 per pound compared to last year; recent environmental reports estimate the beef industry contributes 14.5% of global greenhouse gas emissions, mainly in the form of methane; and advice from healthier eating advocates urges Americans to consume a more plant-based diet.

Registered dietitian Catherin Rall told The Food Institute much of the attraction of beef is cultural.

"A lot of people see beef as a premium meat and associate it with things like prosperity and masculinity. 

Beef is also incredibly rich in fat and protein, so our bodies are primed to crave it," Rall said, noting federal subsidies, restaurant menus, and advertising all reinforce beef's place "in our grocery stores and on our table."

That doesn't mean consumers are ignoring price. Online meat purveyors like Omaha Steaks and Meat N' Bone said there's growing interest in buying meat directly from farmers and stocking their freezers.

Omaha Steaks has seen a 52% increase in business since 2019. Nate Rempe, president and CEO, Omaha Steaks, said the industry is expecting a 3% drop in production this year, which likely will have an impact on prices.

"Rising meat prices are often most noticeable at your local grocery store and restaurants which typically have quicker reactions to supply chain price increases they pass on to their customers. Those more dependent on imported meats often see prices rise due to transit, too, versus those of us based in the Heartland," Rempe said.

"Many Americans have adapted by being smarter shoppers and looking beyond prices alone, but value – particularly with meats. The average American family throws out $1,600 of food each year due to spoilage. That's a significant dent in an already increased food bill for most."

Gabriel Llaurado, co-founder chief marketing officer of Meat N' Bone, said consumers also are interested in premium cuts sourced from smaller farms with high-quality programs.

"Yes, folks are still hankering for their steaks despite market pressures at the moment," Llaurado said.

In other words, there's no need to chew the fat with your local butcher about their summer prospects with expensive beef prices – they're probably doing just fine. Food Institute Focus