Restaurant Finance Monitor

A 30-second drive thru delay can cost a QSR thousands in lost revenue each week. Most operators know there are inefficiencies hurting profits, they just can’t see them. This practical guide shows how AI-powered video helps restaurant operators uncover hidden operational issues, improve service times, reduce shrink, and gain real-time visibility across every store. Download the guide to see how top-performing QSRs are turning operational blind spots into profit opportunities.

As part of its June 2025 meeting, the Federal Reserve released economic projections that GDP growth will slow and inflation and unemployment will tick higher as the year progresses. If these simultaneous conditions were to occur this year and intensify in 2026, such a backdrop could suggest the U.S. may, in the not-too-distant future, experience low economic growth at the same time it grapples with rapidly rising prices.

A growing number of companies, including restaurants, are accepting Bitcoin as payment for day-to-day transactions. In the paragraphs below, we discuss how difficult, or easy, it is for a business to implement that, and the transaction economics that might support such a decision. We also briefly consider how rapidly customers may demand the ability to pay for goods with digital currencies on a broader scale.

The best laid schemes of mice and men go aft astray, and leave us naught but pain and sorrow for promised joy.” —Scottish Poet Robert Burns Five years ago this month, Krispy Kreme returned to the public market with a successful $500 million IPO led by the “bulge bracket” investment firms, JP Morgan, Morgan Stanley, Bank of America and Citigroup.

Jack in the Box is in a precarious financial condition. It’s in debt to the tune of $1.7 billion, more than $1.3 billion more than in 2004 when “asset lite” became its holy grail. The debt is more than three times what it owed its lenders just 10 years ago. The company’s 6x debt-to-EBITDA ratio is higher than most of the franchisees that bought company stores from them over the years.

Restaurant industry consultant Malcolm Knapp, after 32 years, is no longer publishing Knapp Track, the sales and guest-traffic reporting service that casual dining executives relied on to compare their sales and guest traffic with other chains. Wall Street analysts used it to evaluate public companies, often using the term “Gap-to-Knapp” when discussing where a chain’s performance was better than Knapp’s numbers.

Discover how sustainable technology is transforming energy management and driving the future of business operations. This eBook explores innovative solutions that help companies cut emissions, lower costs, and move toward net zero. Learn how businesses are implementing sustainability technology to reduce energy use by up to 70% and improve water efficiency by 10-15% for smarter, greener operations.

EBITDA is the most common metric used in business valuations. It gained popularity in financial circles during the ‘80s and ‘90s as PE and leveraged-buyout firms attempted to measure a target’s cash flow available for debt service. EBITDA’s usage grew as lenders shifted from collateral-based to enterprise value lending and debt became the major piece of the capital structure.

I seldom say the current topic is so important that it affects almost everyone who owns or has an interest in restaurants. But since most restaurants are set up as an LLC, that’s our starting point for this article. I have enlisted two lawyers in our firm, Mary-Cate Cicero and Katherine Running, to assist in walking you through the intricacies of the use of an LLC. LLCs have come a long way from 25 years ago when they first gained popularity.

This white paper dives into the data to explore the state of the restaurant industry in 2024 and see how leading chains are navigating the challenges posed by rising prices. Read the report to find out: Which restaurant segment is leading the pack in 2024? What strategies have helped Shake Shack and Texas Roadhouse sustain visit growth while raising prices? What impact did Hardee's and McDonald's limited-time offers (LTOs) have on the chains' visitation patterns this summer?