Casual Dining & the Death of Cool

"The reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated." ~ a quote from Casual Dining attributed to Mark Twain

The news keeps coming: brands on the block; restaurant closings; the stark reality of sales and traffic numbers that can't be attributed to weather, consumer confidence or direct competition; stocks delisted. An alarm has been sounded and a clarion call for new direction has been heard: new CEOs, Presidents, COOs, AORs. Is it death or is it slumber? Let’s agree that it’s time to wake up.

The marketplace implies that casual dining can reclaim their fair share of occasions. Fewer people are cooking at home. Trends are tilting towards tradition with brown spirits, hipster haircuts and game nights. Alcohol remains a leverage. Brand recognition is strong. Our digital society craves more social connection. These are opportunities for relevance amidst the harsh realities of increased labor costs, aging boxes, and fragmented media consumption.

The first step to recovery starts with an admission. Casual dining is uncool. There, it’s out there. How many consumers want to grab beers and a burger with friends at the same place where they drew on the table as a kid with a 5-pack of crayons (which have since been cost engineered to a 2-pack, but that’s a sidetrack)? How many consumers are fooled by the Edison lightbulbs and reclaimed wood in casual dining’s media when their local reality consists of ferns and tiffany lamps? Consumers are savvier than that

Casual dining has become the middle-aged man at the Skrillex show who’s trying too hard to fit in. The consumer sees through the kale and quinoa. They will not trust a restaurant to do pork belly well if the burgers are overcooked and fries are cold. They will not believe in the brand’s humanity and local outreach when their server won’t make eye contact. These are table stakes. Casual dining must first deliver on the primary needs of their consumer: consistent execution by real people with good quality. Consistency is the entry for consideration and service is the accelerant.

Many leaders have attributed casual dining’s decline to its (rich) history as the barrier rather than looking at last night’s execution or the deals blanketing casual dining’s thousands of Facebook pages. It’s easier to point at what was inherited: aging brands with a history of flair, pop-cultural punch lines, and consumers’ childhood memories of crayons and chicken fingers. The past is seen as the barrier to the present.

What if casual dining’s history isn’t an albatross but rather an untapped asset? While the brands may be generally uncool, what's cool lacks an emotional depth. The longest journey a brand can make is from the head to the heart. Casual dining holds an emotional space place in many a heart – childhood memories, dates, pop culture, laughter. Longevity will do that. Remaining vital however comes from being fit and focused, which is the best way to combat the aging process. Brands have instead become bloated and disjointed in an attempt to be everything to everyone without a clear assessment of what is vital to their being.

It’s time to leave what’s cool to its own organic origins and get fit as aging brands. Shed what’s extra: menu items that don't sell but serve a strategic ideal; excessive POP promoting everything instead of one thing; deals that diminish a brand and create an adversarial relationship between servers and Guests. Take note of assets: emotional connections; national platforms; thousands of employees wanting to find meaning in the work they do. Recognize that recovery is a process built upon two steps forward and one step back.

Getting older is a luxury denied to many. Casual dining has earned its place in the pantheon of great American inventions. By owning the past, the path ahead becomes clear and begins with that first step.