Family-dining restaurants typically succeed in catering to the whole family by developing expansive menus that bring people in at every daypart. But lately Spartanburg, S.C.-based Denny’s has been trying to excel at the much harder task of marketing to all the disparate age groups found in the majority of American families.


After two-plus years of sleepy sales at breakfast, the steadily improving economy appears to be spurring a modest rebound for morning transactions in the family-dining segment.


According to Mintel Research, after breakfast sales in family restaurants rose through the first half of the decade, they plummeted a total of 10.6 percent across 2008 and 2009. Still, operators at several U.S. chains say business is on the rise as recession-weary customers gradually return to their tables.