Foodies Are Flocking Back To Fast Casual

Consumers are returning to the hard-hit fast casual restaurant segment, with online and physical visits to such restaurants up 8% year-over-year in August.

According to a new report from The NPD Group, that uptick keeps traffic on par or flat to pre-pandemic visits in August 2019. By contrast, visits to fast casual restaurants were down 23% in June 2020 at the height of the pandemic. 

Fast casual restaurants suffered from a lack of drive-thru capabilities and off-premises operational efficiencies of traditional quick-service brands, NPD analysts say. Drive-thrus in particular helped many restaurant chains survive during the pandemic, as they eased the burden on satisfying carryout orders and customers were well-accustomed to ordering food at those chains in that way. Drive-thru trips accounted for 42% of all restaurant visits in the second quarter of 2020, when pandemic lockdowns were at their apex.

But NPD analysts also note that fast casual chains with a “solid off-premise business” before the pandemic clawed some market share during that time.  And “since the early months of the pandemic, those fast casual restaurants that saw declines early in the pandemic have put more focus on their off-premises operations, and many have plans to add or expand drive-thru operations,” the report states. 

Off-premise orders for fast casual chains were up 30% year-over-year in August, and within the segment off-premises traffic skyrocketed to 80% of traffic in the same period.

“Fast casual restaurants have capitalized on the lessons they learned during the pandemic,” says David Portalatin, NPD food industry advisor and author of Eating Patterns in America. “Their customers are happy to return because so many fast casual restaurants have built a strong clientele based on their innovation and ability to deliver a quality customer experience.”

Placer.ai analysts said earlier this summer that overall restaurant visits were approaching pre-pandemic levels, and some brands (like Darden Restaurants’ Longhorn Steakhouse, Eddie V’s, and Capital Grille) were already outperforming the overall industry and surpassed 2019 levels in July of this year.