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‘Repurposed Spaces Offer Three Key Advantages for a Fast-Casual Brand: Cost, Time, and Customers.’

Modern Restaurant Management

With big-box retailers closing up shop, more than 140 million square feet of desirable retail space has become available, presenting the opportunity for restaurants such as fast-casual concepts to expand their businesses. In more recent years, there's been a wider adoption of fast-casual concepts. Has it evolved?

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It’s All in the Glass: Selecting the Right Glassware to Complement Your Restaurant’s Vibe

Modern Restaurant Management

Just as a chef elevates a signature dish with bold, unique flavors that please the senses, the right glassware can enhance the presentation of drinks and food, creating a visually engaging experience for customers. Cut and hand-blown glass for old-school charm, a trend that continues to be popular among fine and casual establishments alike.

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2025 Restaurant Payment Trends and Predictions

Modern Restaurant Management

When customers can pay quickly and without friction, it enhances their experience and shortens wait times, leading to improved customer satisfaction—particularly in fast-casual settings where speed is essential. However, this increase in digital ordering and card-not-present transactions has skyrocketed their processing rates.

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The Marketing Value Combo: The Most Important Deal for Fast Casual Restaurants to Perfect in 2025

Modern Restaurant Management

For fast casual chains, competition includes usual suspects like casual dining and QSRs as well as c-stores and grocery chains who are ramping up foodservice offerings to capitalize on the trading down trend. Sitting in a pricing sweet spot, FCRs have an opportunity to win share from both QSRs and casual restaurants.

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2025 F&B Trends: Newstalgia, Stealth Health, and Botanical Beverages

Modern Restaurant Management

Building on the company’s 2022 tour, this year’s research included six markets – Tampa, FL; Los Angeles, CA; Austin, TX; Portland, OR; Denver, CO; and New York City, NY – spanning 45 diverse casual dining, polished casual, fine dining, and cocktail bars.

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From Kitchen to Counter: Outfitting Your Team for Comfort, Style, and Brand Visibility

Modern Restaurant Management

Fine dining venues benefit from understated elegance through embroidered logos on professional attire, while fast-casual concepts can leverage more dynamic graphics and color palettes to reflect their energetic atmosphere. Strategic use of color should inform uniform design decisions.

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Why Do Fast-Casual Restaurants Get a Pass on Appropriation?

EATER

But such is the world of giant quick-service and fast-casual business : Find interesting, “trendy,” flavorful ideas from any culture, dilute them into their most mass-marketable forms, and reap monetary gain without acknowledging the sources. To light the way , a new wave of fast casuals is actively changing the status quo.