Restaurant Management and Operations

Broadly speaking, restaurants can be segmented into a number of categories:
■ Chain or independent (indy) and franchise restaurants: McDonald’s, Union Square Cafe, or KFC
■ Quick service (QSR), sandwich: Burgers, chicken, and so on; convenience store; pasta; pizza
■ Fast casual: Panera Bread, Atlanta Bread Company, Au Bon Pain, and so on
■ Family: Bob Evans, Perkins, Friendly’s, Steak ’n Shake, Waffle House
■ Casual: Applebee’s, Hard Rock Cafe, Chili’s, T.G.I. Friday’s
■ Fine dining: Charlie Trotter’s, Morton’s The Steakhouse, Fleming’s, The Palm, Four Seasons
■ Other: Steakhouses, seafood, ethnic, dinner houses, celebrity, and so on

Of course, some restaurants fall into more than one category. For example, an Italian restaurant could be casual and ethnic. Leading restaurant concepts in terms of sales have been tracked for years by the magazine Restaurants & Institutions.

Their survey of the top 400 restaurants in sales is summarized in Figure 2.1.

FIGURE 2.1: Top 400 segment ratings

⇒ CHAIN OR INDEPENDENT   The impression that a few huge quick-service chains completely dominate the restaurant business is misleading. Chain restaurants have some advantages and some disadvantages over independent restaurants...

⇒ FRANCHISED RESTAURANTS   Franchising is a possible option for those who lack extensive restaurant experience and yet want to open up a restaurant with fewer risks than starting up their own restaurant from scratch. Or, if you’re a go-getter...