All Special Reports

Whether these concepts grew their incremental sales, opened up or asked to be considered, they made the list of Top 100 Independents for the first time this year.

While many of the Top 100 Independent restaurants on this years ranking are standalone spots, many operate within hotels, providing a built-in group of diners.

The top-grossing independent restaurants located in hotels of 2017.

Even the top-grossing independent restaurants continue to struggle in the face of labor challenges—namely rising wages and attracting and retaining quality workers. Here’s how some are coping with their top concerns.

Las Vegas is home to the top-grossing restaurant in the United States, Tao, along with 13 other high-volume players from the Top 100. The city hosts several celebrity chefs and leading multiconcept operators.

What takes a notion from “that’s cool” to a smart, business-forward point of differentiation? We present 50 of the greatest on-trend ideas we’ve collected.

Ten restaurants among the Top 100 Independents call Florida home. Three are in Orlando’s Disney Springs, and the rest are clustered in and around Miami and Fort Lauderdale.

Some of the biggest restaurant concepts are hotbeds for innovation, testing out ideas that will be a boon for operations of any size.

Wages and workforce quality are the two most prevalent worries among the Top 100 operators. Here’s how they’re coping.

By the RB EditorsFrom Danny Meyer to Taco Bell, some forward-thinking operators are looking beyond pricing and marketing to bolster sales, exploring...

These are the incubators, operating companies, deal-makers and, above all else, funders of some of the biggest moves in the restaurant industry.

Indies may get most of the credit for being innovative, but chain restaurants are keeping pace as hotbeds of inspiration. Take a look at some to follow.

As concepts fight for a foothold in the crowded restaurant industry, determination to be on the cutting edge drives many decisions. These 10 groundbreakers all pushed the envelope during the last 12 months in terms of both design and operation, bending traditions and blurring lines within their typical space to set new directions.