Village Inn led the Family-Dining segment in systemwide sales in this year’s Second 100 report.

Second 100 Family-Dining chains are tapping ideas successful around the industry — gourmet hamburgers on specialty buns, trendy ethnic sandwiches and local food connections, to name a few — as they struggle for growth against formidable competition.

Contraction in sales and unit growth is still a reality for the segment. As a group, the seven brands that make up the Second 100 Family-Dining segment generated an aggregate $1.55 billion in U.S. systemwide sales in the Latest Year, down from $1.6 billion in the Preceding Year. At the end of the Latest Year, the group had a combined total of 1,168 units, a decrease of 3.8 percent from 1,214 outlets in the Preceding Year.

Nevertheless, Family-Dining players are fighting back with menu and decor revamps and branding tweaks. For example, new menu items at Beaverton, Ore.-based Shari’s Restaurants are seeking to take on competitors in other segments during key dayparts, such as quick- service chains at weekday breakfast, fast-casual restaurants at weekday lunch and casual-dining restaurants at weeknight dinner, according to senior vice president Kevin Bechtel.

Two examples are the hot-selling Porchetta Street Sandwich, a Roman- inspired roasted pork sandwich with herb sauce and cracklings, and the Cuban Sandwich of pulled pork, smoked ham, Swiss cheese and dill pickles.

Data

• Second 100 Rankings and Results

“These are the type of sandwiches we need to be more competitive at dinnertime,” Bechtel said.

Village Inn ended the Latest Year with 205 units, up from 202 in the Preceding Year. Jeff Guido, president of the Family Restaurant Division at American Blue Ribbon Holdings LLC, Village Inn’s Denver-based parent, told Nation’s Restaurant News in April that the company had spent about $14 million revitalizing the look and feel of the concept, including changes to the exterior color scheme, logo, seating plan and graphics.

Menu-wise, Village Inn has bolstered one of its core strengths — breakfast served all day — with a new customizable meal offering called My Inn- credible V.I.B., or Village Inn Breakfast, which invites guests to build a meal from more than 30 food options, Guido said.

Atlanta-based Huddle House, also known for serving breakfast any time, notched the highest percent growth in estimated sales per unit, or ESPU, in the segment in the Latest Year, with 2.7 percent.

Players leveraging the gourmet burger craze include Village Inn, with the All-American Pretzel Cheeseburger and Brat & Pretzel Burger, and Homestead, Pa.-based Eat’n Park, with the Southern BBQ Burger, dressed with sweet potato fries, bacon, Cheddar and barbecue sauce on a brioche bun.

Several chains play up local and regional connections — Shari’s by highlighting fresh Northwest blackberries; Eat’n Park by serving produce from its FarmSource local purchasing program, which was founded more than a decade ago; and Sonny’s Real Pit Bar-B-Q, based in Winter Park, Fla., which promotes its local restaurant pitmasters on the company website.

Eat’n Park had the highest Latest-Year ESPU in the Second 100 Family-Dining segment, with $2.4 million. Coco’s rebounded from seventh to second place in ESPU growth in the Latest Year, with a 1.6-percent increase, up from a 9.8- percent decline in the Preceding Year.

New at Nashville, Tenn.-based Shoney’s — which posted an 11.7-percent decline in systemwide sales in the Latest Year, the largest decline of the group — is a mall prototype unit that features a full bar and an attached quick-service dining option. The unit is Shoney’s first location inside a mall. 

“I’m really wanting to get back to the core value of the brand, and that is the food,” David Davoudpour, chairman and chief executive of parent Shoney’s North America Corp., told NRN in January.

By the numbers

(Continued from page 1)