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Emerging Brands

New brands and soon-to-open concepts worth watching

Emerging Brands

This fast-casual burger concept was born from the ashes of Burgerim's collapse

 By Lisa Jennings on Jun. 10, 2026

The five-unit iniBurger and sister brands is Halal certified. Founder Abdul Popal, a former Burgerim franchisee, hopes to tap into growing demand for clean ingredients.

Emerging Brands

For Clover Food Lab, an emotional week ends on a high note

 By Jonathan Maze on Jun. 04, 2026

The plant-based chain, which closed last week, has been saved by an investor. Now the hard work of reopening the restaurants begins.

Emerging Brands

The secret is out. This smashburger concept is growing

By Lisa Jennings on Jun. 03, 2026

Buzzworthy Brands: The fast-casual Secret Burger Kitchen was born as a virtual concept that proved to have scalability. What's working is an extra injection of hospitality—and sauce.

Emerging Brands

In an intense chicken category, Guthrie’s has emerged as the ’60-year-old underdog’

By Alicia Kelso on May 26, 2026

According to the Technomic Top 500, the chicken fingers chain’s sales jumped by nearly 17% in 2025, while its unit count increased nearly 8%.

Emerging Brands

This Lithuanian chocolate cafe wants to be America's third place

By Lisa Jennings on May 26, 2026

With European-style chocolate, cakes and more, AJ Chocolate House hopes to tap into the need for experience and human connection.

Emerging Brands

Plant-based Mr. Charlie's TMS wins investment from drummer Travis Barker

By Lisa Jennings on May 20, 2026

The Blink-182 band member and husband of Kourtney Kardashian joins Heavyweight Mike Tyson as a backer of the five-unit franchise brand, which has been called the vegan McDonald's.

Emerging Brands

Supreme Dumplings founder launches manufacturing plant to spread the joy of xiao long bao

By Lisa Jennings on May 19, 2026

Multi-concept operator Brandon Ting brought his soup dumplings to the National Restaurant Show with the goal of growing a wholesale and retail business.

Emerging Brands

Think Chick-fil-A and Raising Cane's are too focused on male diners? This chicken concept is for you

By Lisa Jennings on May 12, 2026

Meet the new Flock & Fresh, launched by Smoothie King CEO Wan Kim. He feels women want better quality—and choice.

Emerging Brands

Bread Zeppelin hits pause on franchising to prove out model

By Lisa Jennings on May 05, 2026

Salad stuffed into baguettes is getting a whole lotta love right now. But this fast-casual concept wants to grow more company-owned units to attract the right kind of franchisee down the road.

Emerging Brands

Jinya Ramen's founder leans fine dining with new flagship

By Lisa Jennings on May 01, 2026

Called simply Jinya., the new more-premium concept in Los Angeles has a menu designed around live-fire cooking and dry-aged meats and seafood. And, yes, there's ramen.

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