Young chains bring new energy to Next 20Young chains bring new energy to Next 20

This year’s class of Next 20 restaurant chains offers a view of legacy brands that have endured and continue to grow. Twelve of the brands are more than 20 years old, with some spanning more than five decades.

But it is the relatively small subset of younger brands — particularly the crop of rapidly expanding fast-casual pizza concepts — that are topping the growth charts, and perhaps have the best chance of making into the Top 200.

In fact, the top four growth chains within the Next 20 were all founded within the last eight years, and all within the same niche: fast-casual pizza. The concepts offer build-your-own, baked-in-minutes pies as customers walk a service line.

MOD Pizza, Blaze Fast Fire’d Pizza and Pie Five Pizza Co. are fast-casual pizza chains that recorded triple-digit sales growth in the Latest Year, with both MOD Pizza and Blaze Pizza growing by more than 200 percent.

Pieology, also a fast-casual pizza player, ranked No. 4, with 67-percent sales growth.

Slipping in at No. 5, with nearly 43-percent growth, is Another Broken Egg Cafe, founded in 1996. (The chain started franchising in 2004.) Decidedly not a fast-casual pizza chain, Another Broken Egg has capitalized on the growing category of breakfast, along with brunch/lunch. 

The nearly fully franchised chain’s sales growth was largely driven by unit expansion. Another Broken Egg ended the Latest Year with 51 cafés, a 55-percent increase.

Three more somewhat new brands follow in the growth rankings.

Casual-Dining Cooper’s Hawk Winery & Restaurant, founded in 2005, showed a domestic systemwide sales increase of 26 percent in the Latest Year. Cooper’s has a wine focus that differentiates the brand from the crowds of gastropubs.

Cooper’s also bumped True Food Kitchen to No. 7 in the Latest Year. True Food Kitchen, a concept created by Fox Restaurant Group in 2008, grew sales 23 percent in the Latest Year, largely as a result of opening another restaurant, to end the year with 11 units, a 10-percent increase. True Food Kitchen’s estimated sales per unit declined slightly in the Latest Year.

Meanwhile, STK more than doubled growth in the Latest Year, with a 22-percent increase in domestic systemwide sales. With estimated sales per unit topping $9 million, the polished-casual steakhouse is growing domestically, with three restaurants added in the U.S. in the Latest Year. New York-based parent The ONE Group Hospitality Inc. is also growing a variation on the brand called STK Rebel, with a similar menu and more accessible price point.

Stonefire Grill, founded in 2000, recorded nearly 13-percent growth in domestic systemwide sales in the Latest Year. The Pasadena, Calif.-based concept has a fast-casual, order-at-the-counter format, and a menu that competes more directly with full-service grill concepts, with ribs, chicken and tri tip, along with pizza, pasta, sandwiches and salads. The chain’s estimated sales per unit of $6.4 million grew 5 percent in the Latest Year.

Wetzel’s Pretzels was the only snack concept in this year’s Next 20. The Pasadena, Calif.-based chain grew domestic systemwide sales by more than 12 percent in the Latest Year, with increases in both unit count and estimated sales per unit.

For the most mature chains in the Next 20, it was not about growing units but running better restaurants.

Fifty-seven-year-old Monical’s Pizza, for example, recorded a 3-percent decline in unit count, falling to 63 locations at the end of the year, but estimated sales per unit rose more than 7 percent, to $1 million. Overall, domestic systemwide sales increased nearly 6 percent, to $64.9 million.

The 50-year-old Lee’s Famous Recipe Chicken had the highest sales within the Next 20, of $160.4 million, a nearly 8-percent increase, although the net unit count of 134 locations remained unchanged at the end of the year. Lee’s estimated sales per unit of $1.2 million increased more than 8 percent.

Contact Lisa Jennings at [email protected]
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