Starbucks’ remodeled location is a shift back toward in-store service. | Photo courtesy of Starbucks.
For much of the past, oh, several decades, the restaurant world has shifted dramatically toward convenience.
The drive-thru emerged shortly after the car did. The popularity of pizza delivery led Pizza Hut to completely change from a full-service model to a delivery-focused concept. Online ordering appeared. Then third-party delivery. Mobile ordering. The pandemic accelerated all this.
By January of this year, three-quarters of restaurant visits were for consumption somewhere outside of the restaurant. People are far more likely to eat by themselves in their car than they were in 2019.
And yet here we are, in 2025, and the best-performing restaurant chain in the U.S. right now is Chili’s. And the brand that theoretically did the most to push forward into this new takeout-led world, Starbucks, is dramatically and publicly reversing course.
All of which makes us wonder: Is this the beginning of the end of this takeout revolution? Is the U.S. consumer rediscovering its love of hospitality?
Maybe. Consider that in the first quarter, full-service restaurant chains easily outperformed quick-service concepts and performed on par with fast-casual brands. While Chili’s blew the curve a bit, more than half of full-service chains generated same-store sales growth last quarter. Brands like BJ’s Restaurants and Red Robin both appear to have regained some momentum of late.
Olive Garden, meanwhile, yielded its best results since 2022, though to be fair some of that was due to its use of third-party delivery.
To be sure, it’s probably too early to declare the takeout shift over. It’s just one quarter, after all.
But consider what’s going on at Starbucks. The coffee shop giant was built on the idea of the “third place.” Yet its biggest innovations in recent years have been aimed at takeout. It added drive-thrus aggressively. Its loyalty program and mobile app are among the industry’s best.
It did so well that the company cut back on in-store seating, replacing many locations with takeout-only units. But after a year and a half of sales challenges it is reversing course, adding back seats and upping the level of in-store hospitality.
(Check out RB’s Same-Store Sales Tracker.)
That said, many of the high-growth competitors in the industry are drive-thru-only concepts, like Dutch Bros and 7 Brew. But those concepts, too, were built on hospitality. So those takeout customers apparently like a pleasant voice in the morning. Imagine that.
Major fast-food chains, meanwhile, have realized their upper pricing limit.
In recent years, chains like McDonald’s and Chick-fil-A were able to raise prices because the convenience they offered was worth it. And then customers saw how much they were paying and they pushed back. And they’ve continued to push back, even as fast-food chains offered a slew of discounts and bundled meal options.
Chili’s last year tapped into that pricing frustration, helping to set off one of the most extraordinary sales runs we’ve seen. But several other full-service chains are mimicking that brand’s strategy, investing in operations and food quality while using strategic value bundles to get customers in the door.
These recent results should inspire more than a few executives of full-service brands that have seemingly been fighting an uphill battle for much of their careers.
Do your job right, invest in marketing and hospitality, and win over customers. Because the consumer still wants quality service.
