As we continue our journey through the biggest restaurants in America by segment, this week we turn our attention to the first limited-service category on our list: Bakery/Café.
Every year, Nation’s Restaurant News and Datassential partner to present The Top 500, the definitive sales ranking of restaurants in America.
One element of this data is restaurant segment, meaning each can be broken down by systemwide domestic sales, unit, and estimated sales per unit. NRN has been analyzing the Top 10 restaurant chains in each segment by sales.
These 10 restaurants, out of 22 on the full Top 500, saw more movement than the full-service segments we’ve looked at, with three experiencing systemwide sales losses in 2022 as consumers continued to return to full-service dining experiences. Six of these chains closed net units last year, although all 10 grew their estimated sales per unit — a bright spot in an otherwise gloomy segment.
It wasn’t all bad news. Last year’s No. 10 bakery-café chain grew sales by 36.1% and units by 25.5% in 2022 to end up No. 4 on this list. And the No. 1 chain maintained its spot, growing sales by 12.3%.
Click through the gallery to see the 10 biggest bakery-café restaurant chains in America.
