What’s the hottest segment of the restaurant industry? Fast casual. [Infographic]

What’s the hottest segment of the restaurant industry? Fast casual. [Infographic]
Tags: Business Strategy and Profitability, Franchising & Growth, Top 100, Trends / Statistics
October 11, 2011

As leading brands prepare to meet in Chicago for the sixth annual Fast Casual Executive Summit, we thought we'd prepare this infographic that shows how hot the fast casual restaurant segment is.

Just a few short years ago, only a handful of restaurant professionals knew or understood the term "fast casual." Today, every operator, industry association and market-research firm wants a piece of the proverbial fast casual restaurant pie. Why?

Since the economic downturn, the fast casual segment has led the restaurant industry in both sales and unit growth. And it continues to outperform on both fronts. Operators within the segment are innovative, entrepreneurial and unabashed in their passion and zeal for the segment, and to the brands contributing to it.

If you're still not quite sure what fast casual is, look no further than our fast casual infographic. It defines our four key metrics in determining what makes a fast casual restaurant and breaks down why the segment is so hot. So, is the hype living up to fast casual or is fast casual living up to the hype? My bet is the latter.

Click here for the full-sized fast casual infographic. Grab the code at the bottom of the page if you want to post it on your site. We hope you share it far and wide and help us show the world why fast casual is so hot.

Download a PDF of this infographic.

EMBED THE IMAGE ABOVE ON YOUR SITE

<a href="http://www.fastcasual.com/blog/6633/What-s-the-hottest-segment-of-the-restaurant-industry-Fast-casual-Infographic?rb=false" _mce_href="http://www.fastcasual.com/blog/6633/What-s-the-hottest-segment-of-the-restaurant-industry-Fast-casual-Infographic?rb=false"> <img src="http://www.fastcasual.com/images/fcc-info.png" _mce_src="http://www.fastcasual.com/images/fcc-info.png" alt="How hot is fast casual dining? [Infographic]" width="500"  border="0" /> </a> <br /> <a href="http://www.fastcasual.com/blog/6633/What-s-the-hottest-segment-of-the-restaurant-industry-Fast-casual-Infographic" _mce_href="http://www.fastcasual.com/blog/6633/What-s-the-hottest-segment-of-the-restaurant-industry-Fast-casual-Infographic">How hot is fast casual dining? [Infographic]</a> <br /> Compliments of <a href="http://www.fastcasual.com" _mce_href="http://www.fastcasual.com">FastCasual.com</a> and <a href="http://www.fastcasualsummit.com/" _mce_href="http://www.fastcasualsummit.com/">Fast Casual Executive Summit</a>