How will restaurants fare in 2026?

This week’s episode of the Restaurant Business podcast A Deeper Dive features Michelle Korsmo, the president and CEO of the National Restaurant Association, who talks about the trade group’s State of the Industry Report.

Korsmo discusses the industry’s annual projection of restaurant sales, profitability and trends. We talk extensively about the association’s expectations for foodservice sales this year, projected to be nearly $1.6 billion.

We discuss issues with industry profitability, and why so many operators are simply unprofitable. And we talk about immigration and other association priorities.

This is a great conversation with the head of the restaurant industry’s biggest trade group so please check it out.

What is the status of Starbucks’ turnaround?

This week’s episode of the Restaurant Business podcast A Deeper Dive features Mike Grams, the chief operating officer of the coffee shop giant.

Grams joined us from a Starbucks Reserve location in New York City following the company’s Investor Day presentation.

He spoke extensively about the company’s various plans to improve the operations inside the chain’s coffeehouses.

That includes the remodels the chain is making to make even the smallest locations friendlier for in-store customers. He also explains why that is important for a company that has mobile order, drive-thru and delivery.

Grams discusses the chain’s “Green Apron” service model and why that model both helps with manager morale as well as service time. He also gives an update on the chain’s push to improve service times and what else the company plans to do to speed service.

We also talk about Starbucks’ expansion plans and why the company believes it can fit 5,000 more shops, at least, in the U.S.

We’re talking Starbucks on A Deeper Dive so please check it out.

What are retailers doing to compete more aggressively with restaurants?

This week’s episode of A Deeper Dive looks at the retail sector, specifically convenience stores and grocers. I’m joined this week by Heather Lalley, the managing editor for Restaurant Business as well as sister publications CSP Daily News and Supermarket News.

We talk about how convenience stores are pushing into more prepared food options, including ways they are taking pages out of restaurants’ playbook.

We also discuss the growing demand for THC beverages, and why we haven’t seen many restaurants add these to their beverage menus.

But we talk extensively about the closures of Amazon’s Fresh and Go stores, and what kinds of lessons restaurants can take from those closures.

We’re looking at the retail sector on A Deeper Dive, so check it out.

How will the Saks Global bankruptcy affect restaurants?

This week’s episode of the Restaurant Business podcast A Deeper Dive features Stephen Cohen, a real estate attorney who does a lot of work with restaurants.

We wanted to speak with Stephen about the real estate implications of the bankruptcy filing of the giant retailer Saks Global.

No, Saks is not a restaurant, though it owns a few of them. But it is a major real estate tenant with some 8.4 million square feet.

Many of its locations are in malls populated by a lot of restaurants.

We wanted to talk about the implications this could have on restaurants, both for good or for ill. Cohen talks about the potential implications for foot traffic at some malls and potential opportunities for certain restaurants to get available space in some desirable shopping centers.

But we talk a lot about other topics, including various real estate trends and the opportunities and risks of opening in second generation real estate sites—or closed restaurants, as it were.

We’re talking malls on A Deeper Dive so please check it out.

How do consumers view value these days?

This week’s episode of the Restaurant Business podcast A Deeper Dive features Jen Meyers, growth strategy leader for the restaurant practice with the consulting firm Alvarez & Marsal.

The firm recently completed an extensive survey of consumers on a broad range of topics on restaurants and we wanted to chat with Jennifer about the results and what they mean.

We talk about the value equation and how consumers’ views of value has changed over the years from cheap food to value for the money. We talk about what drives consumers out of restaurants.

We also talk about a lot of other topics, including the growing snacking occasion, consumers’ views on health along with nostalgia marketing.

We’re talking about the consumer on A Deeper Dive so please check it out.

How do franchisees pick winning concepts?

This week’s episode of the Restaurant Business podcast A Deeper Dive features Martha Olmos, chief operating officer with Damm Fine Restaurant Group, a franchisee of Dave’s Hot Chicken and Blaze Pizza.

Damm Fine got into both Blaze and Dave’s early in their history. We talk with Olmos about what goes into operating such brands and how they found those concepts in the first place. We also talk about why they felt confident enough in the brands to get into them.

We spent a lot of time talking about how to build a good company culture and to develop good employees. This is a great conversation for people who operate restaurants.

We talk about the performance of Blaze and Dave’s and the difference in operating the two. We talk about operating restaurants in California and how they got through the state’s increase in the minimum wage. And all sorts of other things.

What is the outlook for restaurants in 2026?

This week’s episode of the Restaurant Business podcast A Deeper Dive features Technomic Senior Principal David Henkes.

We wanted to talk with Henkes about what will happen in 2026.

Restaurants are coming off a 2025 in which consumers cut back on dining frequency. Henkes talks about exactly why that happened and whether Technomic believes things will improve over the course of the year.

We get into a lot of other issues, including the state of the economy and what it will take to get people dining out more frequently again.

We’re talking 2026 outlook on A Deeper Dive so please check it out.

Restaurant sales and traffic challenges were a huge story in 2025.

This week’s episode of the Restaurant Business podcast A Deeper Dive takes a look at the most popular episodes of the year.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, each of them dealt with the challenged industry environment. We spoke with Circana’s David Portalatin about consumers buying on a deal. We spoke multiple times with Technomic’s Rich Shank about the state of the restaurant industry.

We also spoke with National Restaurant Association Chief Economist Chad Moutray about the impact this is having on profitability.

And we wrap it up with Savory Fund Cofounder Andrew Smith on what private equity thinks of all this, specifically why this can be a good time to find high-quality chains.