The Second Coming of Chain Restaurants Is… Not Great

Last year, I wrote about the growing younger millennial and Gen Z nostalgia for experiential chain restaurants like the Rainforest Café and Medieval Times. And just last month, Eater reporter Amy McCarthy made a bold declaration: “casual dining chains are back.” She’s right. After years of declining sales (and countless assertions that the chain restaurant was dead), many of the iconic chains us ‘90s babies grew up with are now seeing rising sales numbers once again, with Olive Garden’s sales up over 11% in recent months.

Why are these once-maligned restaurant chains making a resurgence? McCarthy pointed to the effects of inflation. Prices have increased steeply over the past few years, and wages have not kept up. So while some who were lucky enough to have a steady source of income during and immediately after the worst of the pandemic took advantage of their additional disposable income to spend more money on going out to eat in 2020 and 2021, many of us are in a different financial situation today. 

Chain restaurants offer cheaper meals than you can find at many independently owned restaurants, and they’re known for their consistency. If you have a limited going out budget, are you more likely to spend $20 on an entrée you can feel fairly certain is going to taste good, or will you fork over the same amount for a tiny plate of grilled octopus that could be hit or miss at the trendy new restaurant in town? People who are really into food might still opt for the latter option, but for more casual diners, the former could very well be the better choice.

As I mentioned in my piece for Thrillist, I do think that there’s a sense of nostalgia that comes into play in regard to the newfound appreciation for chain restaurants. Going out to eat at the places we may have frequented with our families as children is, for many people, a way to relive a simpler, less sociopolitically complicated time. But, the fact is that we do live in a more sociopolitically complicated time—many consumers are more critical of the hyper-capitalistic structures that play a role in building what has become an increasingly homogenized food system (Darden, Olive Garden’s parent company, being one of them).

I don’t feel great about the idea of “voting with your dollar,” and I don’t really think that my abstention from eating at Applebee’s is going to have any major impact on their bottom line, let alone somehow inform them that I’d prefer supporting a restaurant that buys from local farmers instead of paying them for the mass-produced, frozen slop that comes out of their kitchens. I do, however, feel inclined to financially support the local restaurants in my community, the spots that are run by people I know, people who are busting their asses every day to offer me a place to sip on a glass of wine and pick at an app when I’m tired of being inside my house. Of course, I know it’s a huge privilege to be able to afford to go out to places like this, even occasionally, even on a budget.

Don’t get me wrong: I enjoy a round of endless breadsticks just as much as the next person. Coming from a middle-class, suburban background means that I grew up going to many of these iconic chains; Olive Garden was a go-to for my family when we wanted to go out for a nicer dinner. I also don’t begrudge anyone who decides that eating out at a chain is a better option for them on a financial or flavor front.

But I think that those of us who do have options to choose should do so with intention and revisit our distaste of these chains not from an elitist, “foodie” standpoint but from a practical one. Is it better for our communities, our culture, our food system as a whole to skew more in the direction of chains or independent restaurants that may be better equipped to reflect our cultures and our values? This isn’t a black and white issue, of course, but obviously, I’d argue for the latter. Yes, I do love Olive Garden’s breadsticks, but increased corporate leverage over our food system—or even just one facet of our food system—doesn’t seem quite as appetizing.

Samantha Maxwell is a food writer and editor based in Boston. Follow her on Twitter at @samseating.