In the world of emerging brands, it seems chicken and coffee are the future.
That’s according to the Future 50 ranking of up-and-coming restaurant chains, published by Restaurant Business and sister company Technomic. The list reflects growing restaurant chains that won't be topping the Top 500 ranking of the country's largest restaurant chains anytime soon. Nevertheless, though, these 50 brands made nearly $2.5 billion in sales last year and they are paving the way for future growth.
Limited-service chains dominate this year’s Future 50 ranking, which looks at 2024 sales and unit-count growth. But among those limited-service chains, chicken chains dominated: Seven made the list this year, and most were fast casual, including three offering the mouth-blistering Nashville-style hot chicken that Gen Z diners, in particular, have embraced.
Houston TX Hot Chicken, for example, grew sales more than 105% with 25 units last year, up nearly 80%. That’s phenomenal growth in the shadow of the more-than 300-unit category leader Dave’s Hot Chicken.
Not far behind chicken concepts on the Future 50, however, were the coffee concepts. There were six on the list this year, mostly quick service, including the 100-unit Ziggi’s Coffee, alongside 83-unit Foxtail Coffee Co., and the 39-unit fast-casual bakery-café concept Maman.
It’s not terribly surprising to see chicken and coffee concepts stepping up. This picture of the nation’s emerging restaurant chains mirrors the hot trends reflected in the Top 500 ranking this year, which also showed strength among both chicken concepts and beverages, particularly coffee.
The emerging brands list, however, also shows clear interest in healthful dining.
The Future 50 includes four concepts in the healthy/salad category, and another four Mediterranean concepts, riding a wave of interest sparked by category leader Cava.
In fact, every year there is some overlap as Future 50 brands reach Top 500-level ranking, and that was the case this year for Great Greek Mediterranean Grill, which ranked 432 on the Top 500 but is also among the emerging brands among the Future 50.
Sandwiches and snack brands also were well represented on the Future 50, with four of each type of concept on this year’s list.
And Americans still love burgers. They just apparently like them small.
Of the three emerging burger brands on the list this year, two were slider concepts: Smalls Sliders—which more than doubled its sales and nearly doubled its unit count—along with Savvy Sliders, which grew sales and units more than 50%.
In fact, Smalls was the fastest-growing emerging chain by unit count, ending the year with 21 locations, a more than 90% increase year over year.
Meanwhile, Jaggers, the fast-casual spinoff of Texas Roadhouse, continued it growth trajectory with sales up nearly 60%. That’s a brand Texas Roadhouse plans to lean in to for future growth.
Leading with sales
This year’s Future 50 class of growing chains had $75 million in sales or less. These are concepts that are growing sales largely with the organic boost of opening more restaurants.
Leading the chart with that $75 million was Snarf’s Sandwiches, a quick-service brand that grew sales more than 53%, ending 2024 with 47 units, a 27% increase.
There were only seven casual-dining brands among the Future 50, but Kyuramen—the sole Asian concept on the list—came in at No. 2, with more than $74 million in sales, a nearly 60% increase.
Kyuramen was also the largest casual-dining chain on the list in terms of units, ending the year with 39 restaurants, a more than 60% increase from the prior year.
Last year, however, casual dining more broadly appeared to be struggling, while the fast-casual sector seemed to represent how American consumers preferred to eat.
That dynamic shifted in 2025, with sales slowing among the larger fast-casual brands, and casual-dining stalwarts like Chili’s driving blockbuster results.
All eyes will be on the emerging casual-dining brands to see if that consumer excitement will extend to casual-dining chains more broadly.
Snacks and treats
It was a good year for emerging snack and ice cream brands in 2024.
Peach Cobbler Factory, for example, grew sales nearly 75% to $41 million with 101 outlets in 2024, up more than 44%.
Parlor Doughnuts grew sales to $48.7 million, a more than 70% increase, with units up more than 65% to 63 at the end of 2024.
And two competing cookie brands—Dirty Dough and Chip City Cookies—drove sales increase by more than 60% last year. Chip City was the smaller of the two brands, with 45 units compared with Dirty Dough’s 69 last year.
That, however, may not be the case for long if Chip City continues its pace of growing unit counts by 50% (compared with Dirty Dough’s 15% growth rate.)
In fact, that remains the question for all of these rapidly growing brands.
The new year brought a vastly different macroeconomic climate, with consumers slowing their spending across all segments in 2025. For these rising brands, will the pace of growth be sustainable?