Casual Dining Restaurants Industry Overview

Companies that own, operate, and/or franchise mid-priced casual dining restaurants and chains.

Summary

In his book Red Lobster, White Trash, and The Blue Lagoon, writer and critic Joe Queenan says of Darden Restaurants' popular dining chain: "Red Lobster, I quickly learned, was a chain geared toward people who think of themselves as just a little bit too upscale for Roy Rogers." The casual dining segment might be maligned in some quarters, but it still accounts for a large part of the $500 billion US restaurant industry.

Full Casual Dining Restaurants Industry Description

Industry Employment Growth Steady

Although the pace of job growth slowed during the last recession, the industry has added jobs at a fairly steady pace of 1 to 2 percent per year for the past decade. Demand is higher in rapidly growing markets. Because the industry is highly labor-intensive, job growth is a good indicator of industry volume.

Full Casual Dining Restaurants Industry Trends

• 5 & Diner Franchise Corporation
• Aloha Restaurants, Inc.
• APEX Restaurant Group LP

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Hoover's has developed its own industry classifications to better serve its customers. These classifications are mapped to the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) and the older U.S. Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) system. The Casual Dining Restaurants maps to a number of NAICS codes including:

Full Casual Dining Restaurants Industry Codes

• American Culinary Federation
  
• International Association of Culinary Professionals
  
• International Food Service Executives Association
  

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