The popularity of quick-service restaurants like Chick-fil-A, McDonald’s, Taco Bell, and Whataburger grew immensely in these last two years. While the restaurant segment catered to the growing demands with hygienic food and quick service, consumers continued to look for more. As diners re-emerged from limited dining options, many wanted to experience the joy of upscale dining experience out without a high price tag.
Polished Casual – A Fresh Idea to Elevated Dining Experiences
Restaurant owners were put to work. They needed to bridge the gap between high-cost ingredients and diner amenities, to providing a heightened customer experience with a new category of restaurants. Americans embraced a new segment of ‘Polished Casual Restaurants’ in a niche between fast-casual and fine dining restaurants. These restaurants offer the experience of impeccable service and varied cuisine while maintaining the excitement and ambiance of a hip destination. The restaurant design community jumped on the opportunity and brought innovative and creative ideas to attract customers to polished-casual restaurants.
Who are the players?
Getting To Know the Polished-Casual Dining Trend
Technological innovations and creative thinking kept the restaurant industry thriving during the pandemic. After witnessing the unprecedented success of QSRs and fast-casual concepts like Shake Shack, Panera Bread, and Chipotle Mexican Grill, restaurant operators saw opportunity. They looked at optimizing consumer wants through healthier food options and young consumers’ liking for craft beers and picture-worthy fun cocktails – all these carefully combined in an appealing restaurant setup and seamless service.
It’s the downside of staying at home for too long during the lockdown; consumers are not willing to give up their comfy casual wear. Catering to these consumers without the fuss, polished casual restaurants are a careful withdrawal from casual dining, yet not categorized as a fine dining experience. The restaurant is all about delicious food, fun music, beverage experiences and exciting environments to include patio dining.
An average bill for polished casual restaurants is between 25-50 dollars per person. (Reynolds, 2021)
Some of the known restaurants in this category are The Cheesecake Factory, Uncle Julio’s Mexican, Fleming’s Prime Steakhouse & Wine Bar, Marlow’s Tavern, Cooper’s Hawk Winery & Restaurant, and Burtons Grill.
Image Source – (Walker, 2019)
Polished Casual Restaurants Looking Up to the Stars
The boundaries of dine-in restaurants are blurry, and polished casual restaurants are building a niche for themselves in the ever-growing industry. For some people, the price points for these restaurants may seem a little high, but customers, particularly millennials, want to pay for a fun dining experience.
Polished casual restaurants have taken the best parts of fast-casual, traditional casual, and fine dining to craft a unique experience for their customers. Recent data by Placer.ai indicates that fine dining brands are doing well in traffic.
The overall top gainer among the 28 chains studied was Eddie V’s Prime Seafood, one of the higher ticket brands within Darden’s fold. The small upscale concept saw customer counts soar 28.3% above the 2019 mark in June. (Romeo, 2021)
The researcher also stated that the rebound in foot traffic is happening swiftly, citing an example of growing sales for Fleming’s Prime Steakhouse & Wine Bar, a polished-casual steak brand run by Bloomin’ Brands. (Romeo, 2021)
There Is Always More to Do
Polished casual restaurants have steered great demand amongst their clientele. We still think there is always an untapped potential to add more value and enrich the customer experience in any restaurant segment, whether it’s by introducing new technology like audio branding, upgrading service quality, and technology driven menu experiences.
If you are thinking of taking the plunge and opening a restaurant, let’s congratulate you and extend our expertise elevating your customer experience. Our recent blogs cover trending technology and everything to know about opening a new restaurant in Texas.
Business Sound & Communications is a leading sound and communications dealer in the United States, selling and servicing drive-thru communications, POS systems, and enhanced customer experiences with music and digital menu boards from leading manufacturing brands like HME, PARTech, Panasonic, Steady Brand Streaming Music and Mood Media Scent Marketing solutions. We’re ready to help you bring new excitement to your elevated Polished Casual dining experience.
For more information, contact us at sales@bsctx.com or 281-590-3400.
Works Cited
Reynolds, A. (2021). Defining polished casual. Grand Rapids Chair Blog. Retrieved March 31, 2022, from https://blog.grandrapidschair.com/what-is-polished-casual
Romeo, P. (2021, July 16). Casual dining’s traffic is nearly back to pre-pandemic levels, study finds. Restaurant Business. Retrieved March 31, 2022, from https://www.restaurantbusinessonline.com/consumer-trends/casual-dinings-traffic-nearly-back-pre-pandemic-levels-study-finds
Walker, C. (2019, November 13). Challenging polished casual dining concepts to look up. Response Marketing. Retrieved March 31, 2022, from https://response.agency/blog/2019/11/challenging-polished-casual-dining-concepts-to-look-up/
