Restaurant Industry Shifts Shaping 2026

And we also have Clinton Anderson, the CEO of 4th, who will be moderating the conversation with Jason. Jason, how about I let you provide the audience some information about your background and you can also tell them a little bit about Chop Shop.

Thanks Christina. My name is Jason Morgan, CEO of Original Chop Shop. I have actually been doing this for about nine years now. We purchased the brand name in 2016three unitsand I have actually grown it to 26. Prior to this, I've invested many of my profession in hospitality in some shape or type. After a short stint of trying to be an accountant for about a year and a half, I transitioned into gambling establishment home and worked in corporate financing.

I was the first staff member there after personal equity purchased business. Assisted grow that from 20 to 150 areas, took it public in 2014, and after that left about a year and a half after going public to do this at Chop Shop. My hope is that we can replicate the success we had at Zos, and we're off to an actually excellent start.

We're at the counter, we bring the food to the table. The secret to the program is we have a drink component as well with fresh-squeezed juices and protein shakes.

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A little more complex than some of the walk-the-line ideas that are out there, but we believe we've got something quite special. We're going to add another shop this year and at least 4 shops next year. We will be 31 or so stores by the end of next year.

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Hey, everybody. It's terrific to be with you once again. My name is Clinton Anderson. I'm the CEO here at 4th. I've remained in this role for about six years. 4th, as a number of you know, is a leading company of software application solutions to the restaurant and hospitality market. Our objective is to assist our customers achieve success in driving success and being efficientmanaging labor, handling inventory, and essentially providing them with tools they need to provide their vision.

It's unusual to have business that are beloved and growing quickly, that can repeat that success every year. Jason, one of the reasons I was so excited to have you join our session is the success at Zos was fantastic. I've just satisfied a handful of brands where there was such a strong client affinity for the brand name.

When you talk to customers about Chop Store, they like the place. And to be able to take what is a fairly complicated concept in terms of delivering a great experience for the client, and be able to grow that from a few stores to now north of 30 stores next yearit's fantastic.

We're going to speak about how to scale a restaurant organization. Every restaurateur I ever talk with has imagine taking one shop, 2 shops, five shops, and turning it into something much biggerexpanding throughout the city, throughout the state, into multiple states, and ultimately national, even international reach. It's not simple, particularly in today's environment.

Labor is tough. Stock costs remain high. It's not a simple time to drive success and growth at the same time. However we're glad to have you here today, Jason, because we're going to go into that topic. The concerns are going to be truly around: how do you grow a service? How do you scale it and make it effective? How do you reproduce early success? And from there, after we discuss your experience and the lessons you've found out, we 'd enjoy to then say: well, appearance, how could innovation help? How can you use innovation as a multiplier to duplicate early success to significant success? Second, beyond innovation, how do you scale fantastic teams? And lastly, AI.

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The very first concern I have for you, Jasonlook, you have actually done this two times now in the restaurant market. What has your experience been in terms of what it takes to truly drive success in expanding dining establishments?

We talked a bit before we started about LinkedIn, and I've got a post teed approximately follow this next week about what the playbook is likepoint by pointfor growing an organization. To me, one of the essential things, and I feel very fortunate, is that both brand names I've been involved with are unique.

And there's nothing exactly like Chop Shop in terms of what we're finishing with a big, diverse menu. A lot of brands today are really singularly focused in regards to what they're using from a food. I seem like we began at a benefit with both brands by having something distinct that filled a niche no one else was doing.

A lot of it begins with the brand name. Does your brand have something special that no one else is doing?

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The 2nd thingI came from a financing background, so a lot of my learnings are more financing and data-driven versus a lot of early start-up restaurateurs who are creative types. They enjoy the food, they constructed the menu, they constructed the brand.

They do not know their breakeven sales. They do not understand how margin improves as sales increase. I have actually seen so numerous companies where the numbers simply do not work.

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If you do not have those 2 things, you shouldn't be building shops. Yeah, maybe both? Due to the fact that as I hear your description, you have actually highlighted 3 things: execution, brand differentiation, and monetary practicality. You've got to start with execution. If you don't have an operating design that works, expanding it just increases issues.

Key Regional Shifts for 2026 Growth

Second, you require an engaging brand name or distinct idea that resonates with customers. And third, the mathematics has to work. If you don't comprehend your unit economics, your repaired and variable expenses, you might be broadening blind and losing money. Exactly. And another crucial lesson has to do with going into brand-new markets.

However when we broadened to Dallas, I anticipated new stores to do 5070% of Phoenix sales in the first year. Too numerous operators assume brand-new markets will open at full volume day one. That practically never happens. And when the stores open sluggish, but you've signed leases and developed a monetary model based on higher volumes, you get overextended.