Noodles & Company

More than half of the restaurant industry’s $491 billion in sales come from the Top 500 chains. And these giants grew at a modestly stronger rate, both in terms of sales and store counts, than the industry overall. Restaurant Business focused on the leading 250 performers to identify trends for our first-ever special report delivering lessons from Technomic’s annual Top 500 Chain Restaurant Report. This special package includes lessons for all operators from the largest chains by segment, menu category and more.

While comps remained down in Q4, the chain sees some bright spots.

While bigger operations were touting seasonal tie-ins, several smaller restaurant concepts were drawing attention with novel menu additions. Here's a sampler plate.