Same-store sales change for latest completed fiscal years.

*Same-store sales change for latest completed fiscal years.

Noodles & Company’s fourth-quarter same-store sales growth of 4%, though lower than the third quarter’s 5.5% bump, helped the brand realize full-year comps gains of 3.7% and end a three-year string of annual comps downturns. Dave Boennighausen, chief executive, told earnings call listeners the chain will expand the “better-for-you platform” that spurred the zucchini noodles that in 2018 helped lure back lapsed users. Development of in-restaurant pickup shelves and drive-thru-style windows was also cited as a priority by the company.

Red Robin Gourmet Burgers executives said same-store sales erosion at mall locations continued to outpace declines at non-mall restaurants in the fourth quarter, when company-store comps overall fell 4.5%, compared with growth of 2.7% a year earlier. For the year, Red Robin’s same-store sales were down 2.6%, compared with a 0.6% annual improvement in 2017. In the company’s most recent earnings call, CEO Denny Marie Post addressed lagging mall performance, “We’ve seen this get worse now three quarters in a row” and that has the brand “looking with greater urgency at that element of our portfolio.” Post has since stepped down from the CEO post at the company. Board chair Pattye Moore was named interim CEO.

Dave & Buster’s Entertainment Inc.’s fourth-quarter same-store sales growth of 2.9% ended five quarters of negative comps. But that performance didn’t push the brand into positive territory for the year, as its annual rate dipped by 1.6%. That compares with fiscal 2017’s 0.9% drop and 3.3% and 8.9% gains in 2016 and 2015, respectively. Company executives cited strong new-store performance and a virtual reality gaming platform for the improvement and went on to forecast flat to 1.5% same-store sales growth for 2019.

Darden Restaurants Inc. had mixed third-quarter same-store sales results, with four of its eight brands showing negative comps, compared with just two a year earlier. Cheddar’s Scratch Kitchen saw a 2.7% decline, which, while an improvement from the second quarter’s 4% drop, marked the seventh straight quarter of negative comps under Darden. Darden officials said they “need to stabilize the human resources metrics” at Cheddar’s, which expanded its company store base by 66%, or from 94 to 156 units, between May 2016 and May 2018, as annual growth above 10% for any of its brands can put “tremendous stress” on such resources.