Emerging Brands

New brands and soon-to-open concepts worth watching

Emerging Brands

Denny's-owned Keke's Breakfast Cafe begins national expansion push

Three years after it was acquired by Denny’s, the 74-unit family-dining chain is ramping up new openings with plans to grow its footprint by 25% to 30% annually.

Emerging Brands

Pepper Lunch carves a niche in the Panda Express-dominated world of Asian fast casual

The Japan-born franchise brand has 540 units globally, but only nine in the U.S. CEO Troy Hooper expects to see 20 to 25 open across the country in the next 12 months.

The latest food-and-games concept focuses on pickleball, padel and other racquet sports. With $30M raised by a powerful group of investors, it is scheduled to debut in Philadelphia next month.

The three-unit Utah-based bakery-cafe chain brings fine-dining-level talent into a scalable concept known for speed of service.

Move over tacos. Juici Patties is bringing a taste of Jamaica to the U.S. as a franchise brand after four decades of growth on the islands.

The upcoming full-service Piebird will be part of a stable of scalable restaurants developed by an in-house creative team for its hotel operators.

Robbie Wilson and wife Emily Perry Wilson are taking on the fast-casual segment with a new burger concept, even as they prepare to open the high-end Lion's Share in Nashville.

Scream Truck allows customers to summon its ice cream trucks via text. The high-tech concept plans to expand nationwide, and into other cuisines like pizza.

The co-founder and CEO of Madras Dosa Co. sees the crepe-like pancakes as the vehicle that could capture the fast-casual flag for Indian cuisine.

Buzzworthy Brands: With investors that include Patrick Mahomes and Travis Kelce, Chicken N Pickle is juicing the social dining niche with a low-tech focus on community.

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