Not all full-service restaurant chains reported sales declines in 2020, as a handful were able to transition to some combination of outdoor seating and off-premises service or were able to leverage alternative sources of revenue.

Downers Grove, Ill.-based Cooper’s Hawk Winery and Restaurant, for example, relied on its 450,000-member wine club to drive sales, founder and CEO Tim McEnery told NRN last year.

“The wine club continues to save our butts,” he said. “It’s a massive revenue stream coming into the business.”

Cooper’s Hawk also launched delivery to bolster its off-premises sales and opened several net new locations, boosting sales by 12.5%, according to Top 500 data.

Among the American full-service segment, that was second only to Lazy Dog Restaurant & Bar. The Costa Mesa, Calif.-based casual-dining chain leveraged its large floor spaces, patios and an aggressive push into off-premises dining to grow its sales by 14% in 2020.

Operating large dining room/bar areas “really has been a huge strength,” CEO Chris Simms told NRN last summer. “Our sales were rebounding really quickly as we had enough room to seat people.”

Although California shuttered indoor dining across much of the state, Lazy Dog also continued to open new restaurants and quickly pivoted to digital ordering for off-premises sales, which tripled as a percentage of total volumes to just under 30% in the first few months of the pandemic, Simms said.

While most limited-service operators in the Top 500 held their ground in 2020, with sales declines only in the low single digits in most segments, bakery-cafe chains were more likely to struggle.

Some of those that saw the sharpest drop, such as Au Bon Pain, may have been dependent on breakfast and lunch sales from office workers. That prevented an opportunity to drive sales from off-premises solutions.

A handful of bakery-café operators bucked that trend, however, driven in part by ongoing aggressive unit growth and new revenue streams.

Groupe Le Duff–owned La Madeleine French Bakery & Café, which had been in growth mode before the pandemic, tallied 11% sales growth on a 9.6% increase in unit count, and it showed no signs of slowing in 2021. In February, it opened a new, smaller prototype with a drive-thru, and in April announced plans to open 10 Express locations inside Walmart.

Meanwhile, Paris Baguette, a global chain owned by South Korea–based SPC Group, leaned into its status as a bakery to offer loaves of fresh-baked bread to customers, and established partnerships with third-party delivery firms early in the pandemic. Its sales were up 8.2% on 9.9% unit growth.

“Our bread and baked goods — especially our loaf bread — saw an incredible sales increase,” Paris Baguette CEO Darren Tipton said last year.

A strong focus on the on-premises breakfast daypart didn’t help the mid-scale full-service segment last year, as sales plunged 16.2% overall among Top 500 operators.

For the handful of chains that defied that trend, a combination of quick action in adopting off-premises solutions and adding new revenue streams, including alcoholic beverages, may have helped drive success.

Spartanburg, S.C.-based Eggs Up Grill added mimosas to the menu and benefitted from its concentration in states that had minimal restrictions to lead the midscale/family dining segment in sales growth. The 100% franchised chain also waived franchise fees, refunded marketing allowances to local owners and worked with operations to make sure that all received Paycheck Protection Program loans, CEO Ricky Richardson told NRN last year.

The chain also opened several new locations in 2020 and significantly increased its off-premises volume from 5% of the sales mix to nearly 20%, he said. Eggs Up had Toast’s digital system in test at one location when the pandemic hit and rolled it out systemwide in a matter of weeks, facilitating the addition of third-party delivery and curbside pickup options.

Snooze, an A.M. Eatery, also aggressively pursued off-premises dining and unveiled a steady stream of new products and innovative marketing. For example, the chain created virtual brunches with ’80s and ’90s music.

Digital ordering capabilities, drive-thru service and other tools to help offset declines in in-store dining boosted some sandwich chains in 2020, while others may have had poorly positioned locations to blame for their sales declines.

Sandwich chains that had well-established off-premises programs, such as Arby’s, Jersey Mike’s and McAlister’s Deli, were among the top performers among all restaurant companies last year, helping minimize sales declines in the segment to 3.8%.

Their success was not shared throughout the sandwich segment, however. Brands that saw sales dip into negative territory included Subway, which had already been on a downward sales trajectory in 2019 and closed 1,557 U.S. units in 2020 as sales fell 8.2%, according to Top 500 data.

The company may have been affected by the increase in consumers working from home, as in-office lunches and catering dried up. By November, Subway had rolled out digital ordering with curbside pickup to about half of its restaurants.

Charleys Philly Steaks (down 10% in sales) may have been another victim of challenging locations, with many of its restaurants located in retail shopping centers and airports.

FOCUS Brands’ McAlister’s Deli, meanwhile, had begun testing curbside pickup at 50 locations before the pandemic, and quickly rolled the service out to 400 locations within weeks, said William Eudy, corporate executive chef at McAlister’s parent company, FOCUS Brands.

The brand, which saw 9% sales gains, was “already structured to support pickup windows and to-go,” he said.