Fast casual restaurant

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
(Redirected from Fast casual)

Template:Short description

File:5.2.11SoulDaddyOpeningDayByLuigiNovi7.jpg
Customers dining and ordering at a (now Chipotle) Soul Daddy outlet in South Street Seaport, Manhattan, New York, in 2011
File:George Miller and Thomas Perez eat lunch with Sweetgreen co-founders, 2014 (1).jpg
Assembling meals at Sweetgreen
File:Falafel Super Bowl Salad - Leon 2025-10-27.jpg
A falafel "slop bowl" at Sweetgreen with green goddess dressing

Template:DMCA

A fast casual restaurant, found primarily in the United States, is a restaurant that does not offer full table service, but advertises higher quality food than fast-food restaurants. It is an intermediate concept between fast food and casual dining.[1]

History

The concept originated in the United States in the early 1990s, but did not become mainstream until the late 2000s to early 2010s.[2] During the economic recession that began in 2007, the category of fast casual dining saw increased sales to the 18–34-year-old demographic.[3] Customers with limited discretionary spending for meals tend to choose fast casual for dining which they perceive as healthier.[3][4]

Many fast casual restaurants including Cava, Chipotle Mexican Grill and Sweetgreen serve what are derisively called "slop bowls"[5], where the meal consists of what the New York Times called a "nebulous mash of ingredients"[6] assembled to order in a cardboard container.[7]

Major fast casual food chains saw reduced earnings in 2025, attributed to customers reducing their spending and increased competition. Researchers noted that more consumers, particularly young ones, are making their own lunches.[8]

Origin of the term

The founder and publisher of FastCasual.com, Paul Barron, is credited with coining the term "fast-casual" in the late 1990s.[9] Horatio Lonsdale-Hands, former chairman and CEO of ZuZu Inc., is also credited with coining the term. ZuZu, a handmade Mexican food concept co-founded by Lonsdale-Hands and Espartaco Borga in 1989, filed a U.S. Federal trademark registration for the term "fast-casual" in November 1995,[10][11] leading Michael DeLuca to call Lonsdale-Hands a "progressive pioneer in the burgeoning 'fast-casual' market segment" in the July 1996 edition of Restaurant Hospitality.[12]

Definition

The company Technomic Information Services defined "fast-casual restaurants" as meeting the following criteria:[13]

  • Limited-service or self-service format
  • Average meal price between $8 and $15
  • Made-to-order food with more complex flavors than fast food restaurants
  • Upscale, unique or highly developed décor
  • Most often will not have a drive-through

Examples of fast casual restaurants

Page Module:Message box/ambox.css has no content.

See also

References

Page Template:Reflist/styles.css has no content.

  1. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Liu, Evie. "Fast-Casual Restaurant Stocks Lost Their Sizzle. What Could Bring Them Back". barrons. Retrieved January 8, 2026.
  2. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."2010's Twenty Largest Fast-Casual Franchises". BlueMauMau. Archived from the original on January 25, 2018. Retrieved June 29, 2011.
  3. ^ a b Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Jargon, Julie (February 1, 2010). "As Sales Drop, Burger King Draws Critics for Courting 'Super Fans'". The Wall Street Journal. Yahoo! Finance. Archived from the original on February 4, 2010. Retrieved February 1, 2010.
  4. ^ Panera Bread Most Expensive Expensed Chain Restaurant, By Martha C. White, July 22, 2016, Money
  5. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Creswell, Julie (March 6, 2026). "The Allure of 'Slop Bowls' Fades as Consumers Tighten Spending". Nytimes.com. Retrieved May 27, 2026.
  6. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Goldberg, Emma (May 19, 2025). "Living the Slop Life". Nytimes.com. Retrieved May 27, 2026.
  7. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Price is now the main ingredient in the office-lunch slop bowl". Financial Times. Retrieved April 12, 2026.
  8. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Valinsky, Jordan (November 11, 2025). "Has the American worker fallen out of love with slop? | CNN Business". CNN. Retrieved December 15, 2025.
  9. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Wheelen, Thomas L.; Hunger, J. David (2006). Strategic Management and Business Policy: Cases (10th ed.). Upper Saddle River, N.J: Pearson Prentice Hall. ISBN 978-0-13-149460-2.
  10. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Penelope, Swift (2017). "Amadeus: Fast-Casual - Origin and Trademark". Retrieved February 20, 2018.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  11. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."FAST CASUAL Trademark | Trademarkia". Trademarkia.com. Retrieved May 27, 2026.
  12. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Formula for Success". Restaurant Hospitality. 80 (7): 81–86. July 1996.
  13. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."What exactly is fast casual?". Franchise Times. January 2008. Archived from the original on October 21, 2012. Retrieved January 23, 2011.
  14. ^ a b c d e f g h Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Jennings, Lisa (June 4, 2024). "The 10 largest fast-casual restaurant chains by sales". Restaurantbusinessonline.com. Informa Connect. Retrieved July 16, 2025.
  15. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Thorn, Bret (July 12, 2024). "Chopt continues expansion into suburban markets". NRN.com. Informa. Retrieved September 8, 2025. The fast-casual restaurant is bringing its 'better tastes better' ethos to the drive-thru
  16. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Klein, Danny (July 20, 2021). "Just Salad Secures 'Largest Ever Capital Raise,' Looks to Double in Size". QSRmagazine.com. WTWH Media, LLC. Retrieved September 7, 2025.

Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Navbox/configuration' not found.

Retrieved from "https://cosmopedia.co/index.php?title=Fast_casual_restaurant&oldid=7672850"