A Taste of Tomorrow on Restaurant Row

Restaurants are responding to economic and demographic pressures with anytime snacks, affordable catering, drinkable desserts, and other new offerings.

Food Technology Magazine | Article

A. Elizabeth Sloan

Get set for some wild times in the restaurant business. Economic worries have diners trading down to less-expensive eateries and buying up to premium foods.

The restaurant industry is projected to grow by 3% this year and through 2007.High-spending Boomers are rushing back to restaurants after the kids have gone, with a new set of menu demands and culinary styles almost diametrically opposed to those of Generation Y, long the heaviest users of restaurants.

Although restaurant visits have traditionally declined with age, hard-working Baby Boomers, who continue to buck retire…

Table 1 Top 10 fastest-growing restaurant chains with sales over $200 million. From Technomic (2006a).



Table 2 Top 10 flavors, herbs, and spices most frequently mentioned on restaurant menus. From Mintel (2006c).


Table 3 Claims that consumers worldwide consider extremely or very important to be on food labels. From HealthFocus (2006).


Premium Content
You've reached your monthly limit of free articles.
Access Food Technology
Log in Subscribe

In This Article

  1. Food Categories
  2. Fermented Foods and Beverages
  3. Food Business Trends
  4. Consumer and Marketplace Trends
  5. Food Business Trends
  6. Foodservice
  7. Food Product Development

Food Technology Articles right arrow

4 Entrepreneurship Lessons From Lifeway’s Julie Smolyansky

Replacing Soil With Glass, Regional Preferences Shape Oils Market

Feeding Pampered Pooches and Finicky Felines

Organic Sauerkraut, Sweet and Salty Nuts, Protein-Rich Pasta

Sweet and Spooky

IFT Podcasts right arrow

EP 4: Consumers Don’t Want to Change, So Why Are They

EP 3: The Fuzzy Front End of Product Development

Episode 30: Seeding the Future Global Food System Challenge

up arrow Top