Diners adjust to ‘new normal’ economicsDiners adjust to ‘new normal’ economics

We recently got a phone call at Nation’s Restaurant News’ New York headquarters from a local newspaper reporter who wanted to interview one of us. He wanted to know why local restaurants seemed to be doing so well.

Members from the consumer press call us fairly often for insight into the restaurant business. I’ve had to tell them things like: “No, not all chain restaurants are categorized as ‘fast food,’” and, “Well, you can’t really compare the economics of Starbucks and Dunkin’ Donuts because Starbucks is mostly company owned and Dunkin’ Donuts is virtually all franchised.”

But why New York restaurants are doing well — why restaurants in general are doing better than in recent quarters — is a good question. I mean, in New York we have ma...