RestaurantData Definitions, Research Terms and Methodology

Restaurant Data Dictionary

Standard definitions for the location records, entities, ownership hierarchies, restaurant-development activity, operating characteristics, contacts, technology and research methods used across RestaurantData.

Applies to: Atlas, New Weekly Alerts, EPI, REI and public researchScope: United States and Canada unless a report states otherwiseTerms: 205Version: 1.5Last reviewed: August 5, 2026

RestaurantData research at a glance

Current published coverage as of August 2026. Counts change as records are added, removed, connected and reverified.

835,000+locations across the United States and Canada: operating units and company offices

1.1 million+restaurant and broader foodservice records

5,200+restaurant company and operating headquarters

27,000+headquarters executive and corporate contacts

24,000+restaurant and foodservice developments verified annually

60+searchable restaurant and company attributes

Data provenance. Unless otherwise identified, counts, percentages and verification frequencies on this page are derived from RestaurantData’s internally maintained and verified records as of August 2026. Figures can change as locations, entities, ownership relationships and development records are added, removed, connected and reverified.

How RestaurantData connects the restaurant market

RestaurantData begins with public evidence, creates a location-anchored record, resolves the responsible entity and preserves the verified hierarchy around it. That connected structure supports Atlas, New Weekly Alerts, the Expansion Pressure Index™, the Restaurant Enterprise Index™ and the research published through the Restaurant Research Center.

Public source evidenceFilings, permits, company disclosures, publications and direct research.

Location-anchored recordA restaurant, foodservice site or headquarters at a specific address.

Identified entityThe company, concept, brand, legal organization or person tied to the record.

Verified hierarchyChild, operator, franchisee, parent, grandparent and ultimate-parent relationships.

Connected researchAtlas, alerts, indexes, analytical modules and public research.

The dictionary provides the common language used across these modules so a location, company, count, cohort or research status has the same intended meaning wherever it appears.

Every record is location-anchored and entity-connected.A core record begins with a restaurant, foodservice or headquarters location and must be tied to an identified entity. Personnel and KPI fields are connected to that record.

A brand is not always the company.A brand or concept can be a child of a differently named parent, can sit beneath a holding company and can have franchisees or operating companies beneath it.

Unknown does not mean no.Unknown means objective evidence was unavailable and the remaining evidence was insufficient for a supportable research judgment.

Planned does not mean open.Planned locations remain separate until confirmed, even though approximately 99.5% of the planned locations retained and tracked by RestaurantData eventually open.

Unit count requires a verification date and scope.Counts reflect the latest applicable reverification and can change across openings, closures, transfers, cohorts, modules and user lookups.

EPI records activity, not business performance.It displays documented short-term expansion arcs. Sustained activity can indicate continuing growth, but the index does not predict financial or operating performance.

How to use this dictionary

This dictionary establishes RestaurantData’s canonical meaning for commonly used restaurant-industry and database terms. Read each definition with the applicable verification date, module, cohort and report methodology. Where industry usage is subjective, the entry distinguishes common usage from the more specific RestaurantData classification.

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Core Data Model

Definitions for the location-anchored records, entities, profiles, counts and hierarchy connections used throughout RestaurantData.

Brand: The customer-facing restaurant identity or operating name. Brand and concept are often used interchangeably, but a brand is not necessarily the company. A brand can be a child of a differently named parent brand or company, can sit within a holding company, and can have franchisees or operating companies beneath it. A holding or parent company may also maintain its own brand identity.Core Data Model
Company record: A headquarters or organizational record for a legal entity, D/B/A, operating company, brand or concept headquarters, franchise organization, multi-concept operator, parent, grandparent or ultimate parent. A company record may use the same name as a restaurant location, may sit beneath another company or may control several child entities.Core Data Model
Concept: A restaurant identity, menu and operating format presented to the market. Concept and brand are often used interchangeably. Restaurant operators commonly use concept, while marketers and other observers may prefer brand. The applicable hierarchy and entity relationships remain more important than the label selected.Core Data Model
Connected record count: The number of restaurant locations, concepts, brands, company records or child entities connected to a selected company or hierarchy. RestaurantData can display this count in grid results and hierarchical views so users can see how many records have verified connections to the selected parent or organizational structure.Core Data Model
Entity: An identified company, concept or brand, legal organization, or person connected to a RestaurantData record. Entity is not a general synonym for location; rather, each valid location or headquarters record must be tied to an entity.Core Data Model
Foodservice record: A location-based record for a restaurant or another covered commercial foodservice operation, including hotel, convenience-store and grocery foodservice. The record remains tied to an identified entity and should not automatically be read as a traditional restaurant-only record.Core Data Model
Headquarters location: A physical company office or headquarters address used as the location anchor for a company, brand or concept, franchise organization, operating company, parent, grandparent or ultimate parent record.Core Data Model
Known affiliation: A verified hierarchy relationship connecting a location to a child company, brand or concept, franchisee, operating company, parent, grandparent or ultimate parent.Core Data Model
No known affiliation: A classification used when research has not identified a current parent-child, chain, franchise, operating-group or other ownership affiliation. It does not state that an undisclosed relationship is impossible.Core Data Model
Personnel record: A record for an individual connected to a restaurant location, headquarters or company entity. Personnel data can include title level, department or function, professional email and direct dial. At multi-unit companies, vice-president-level and C-suite decision makers are generally more likely to have professional email and direct-dial information. At single-unit restaurants with no known affiliation, RestaurantData more often identifies the owner’s name, location email and business telephone.Core Data Model
Profile: The connected view of a record or entity, including its verified fields, history, locations, concepts or brands, contacts, technology, development activity and hierarchy relationships. The same underlying profile can be viewed or segmented differently according to unit cohort, ownership level, module or user-selected criteria.Core Data Model
Record count: The number of location or headquarters records evaluated within a selected dataset, KPI analysis, report or filtered module result. The meaning of the count follows the stated record type and filters.Core Data Model
Relationship record: A structured hierarchy connection between two records, such as a location operated by a franchisee, a concept owned by a parent company, a parent controlled by a grandparent or an ultimate parent connected to the child records beneath it. Permanent Unique IDs preserve these links when names, ownership or other record details change.Core Data Model
Restaurant location: A physical restaurant operating or planned to operate at a specific geographic address. The location is tied to an entity and can connect upward through a brand or concept, franchisee, operating company, parent, grandparent and ultimate parent.Core Data Model
RestaurantData record: A structured record anchored to a physical operating location, planned location or company headquarters location and tied to an identified entity. The location may be a restaurant, hotel food-and-beverage operation, convenience-store foodservice operation, grocery foodservice operation or another covered foodservice site. Personnel, key performance indicators, technology, development activity and relationship data can be added to the location or headquarters record. EPI and REI records are likewise connected to an entity and an underlying location or headquarters. A location without an identifiable entity does not meet RestaurantData’s record standard.Core Data Model
Unique brand count: The number of distinct standardized restaurant brands represented within the stated scope. The count applies only to unique brands after name standardization and duplicate removal; separate company or concept records are not automatically combined into the brand count.Core Data Model
Unique company count: The number of standalone company records represented within the stated scope. RestaurantData does not consolidate distinct company records merely because the companies are affiliated; each standardized company with its own record counts separately. Duplicate versions of the same company are resolved before the count is produced.Core Data Model
Unique concept count: The number of distinct standardized restaurant concepts represented within the stated scope. Concept counts are often displayed within the details of a parent company. RestaurantData connects concepts and their restaurant records to the applicable child-parent hierarchy where the relationship is verified; the resulting connection can be complete or partial depending on available public evidence.Core Data Model
Unique ID: A permanent, hard-coded code assigned to a RestaurantData record. The Unique ID does not change when a name, address, ownership relationship, personnel assignment or operating status changes. It is essential for preserving child-parent relationships, hierarchy links, record history, deduplication and updates across RestaurantData modules.Core Data Model
Unit count: The current number of restaurant locations connected to a multi-unit company, concept or brand as of the applicable last-verification date. Unit counts can change after openings, closures, relocations, ownership transfers or reverification. The point in time can vary across cohorts, modules and user lookups, so the verification date and selected scope should be considered.Core Data Model

Companies, Brands and Ownership

Definitions for independent restaurants, multi-unit companies, brands or concepts, franchise systems and parent-child ownership relationships.

Affiliated location: A restaurant location connected through a verified parent-child or ownership hierarchy to a brand or concept, franchisee, operating company, multi-concept operator, parent, grandparent or ultimate parent.Companies, Brands and Ownership
Brand or chain headquarters: The headquarters record responsible for a restaurant brand or chain. Brand headquarters and chain headquarters are treated as the same general record type. The headquarters may have independent operating and decision-making responsibility while still sitting beneath a parent company, as a brand platform can sit beneath a larger ownership organization.Companies, Brands and Ownership
Child organization: A company, operating entity, concept or brand controlled by a parent organization.Companies, Brands and Ownership
Company-owned location: A restaurant location operated directly by the brand owner, franchisor, parent company or a controlled operating company. Company-owned systems commonly have management structures above the individual location that differ from those maintained by an independent franchisee. RestaurantData can also classify the franchised share of a system in ten-percentage-point ranges for KPI filtering.Companies, Brands and Ownership
Concept parent: A parent entity whose direct child records include one or more restaurant concepts, brand headquarters or concept-level operating companies.Companies, Brands and Ownership
Franchise system: The connected organization of the franchisor, franchisees, company-owned locations and restaurant units operating under the same franchise structure. A franchise system typically provides standard operating procedures and marketing structure and may also provide area or regional management support, corporate support and purchasing power.Companies, Brands and Ownership
Franchised location: A restaurant location operated by a franchisee under rights granted by the franchisor.Companies, Brands and Ownership
Franchisee: A person or company authorized to operate restaurant locations under a franchisor’s brand and franchise agreement. A franchisee may operate one location, many locations or several brands. When supported by public evidence, RestaurantData connects the franchisee’s individual locations and related legal entities to the franchisee group and the parent organizations above it.Companies, Brands and Ownership
Franchisor: The company that owns or controls a franchise system and grants operating rights to franchisees. A franchisor may also operate company-owned restaurants.Companies, Brands and Ownership
Grandparent organization: An organization above the immediate parent in the verified hierarchy. It may be an operating platform, holding company, investment entity or another controlling organization.Companies, Brands and Ownership
Independent restaurant: A term that can be subjective in restaurant-industry use. Owners may describe themselves as independent, while industry observers may focus on independent decision-making, the absence of group purchasing power or the lack of affiliation. RestaurantData uses the more specific single-unit independent and no-known-affiliation classifications when an objective database distinction is required.Companies, Brands and Ownership
Multi-concept operator: An organization that operates, owns or controls more than one restaurant concept or brand within a parent-child structure. Multi-concept status describes the portfolio relationship and does not require a large unit count.Companies, Brands and Ownership
Multi-unit operator: A restaurant operator connected to two or more locations. The locations may operate under one concept or brand or under several concepts.Companies, Brands and Ownership
Operating company or operating group: The company or operating group that runs restaurant operations or controls locations. RestaurantData uses the D/B/A name where possible. An operating company may operate its own concept, operate franchised locations or sit within a larger parent-child hierarchy.Companies, Brands and Ownership
Ownership group: Another industry label for a company that controls multiple restaurant concepts or brands. Within RestaurantData, an ownership group is generally treated in the same manner as a multi-concept operator and connected through the applicable parent-child hierarchy.Companies, Brands and Ownership
Ownership hierarchy: The verified sequence connecting an individual restaurant location upward through its operating entity or franchisee, franchisee group, concept or brand headquarters, multi-concept operator, parent, grandparent and ultimate parent, where those levels exist. These connections often require manual entity resolution because no single public source consistently maps all locations and legal entities.Companies, Brands and Ownership
Parent company: An organization that owns or controls one or more child companies, brand or concept headquarters, or operating groups in the restaurant hierarchy. A parent company may itself sit beneath a grandparent organization or ultimate parent.Companies, Brands and Ownership
Restaurant chain: An industry term whose threshold can vary by speaker. RestaurantData generally begins its chain-oriented thesis at 20 or more units, while recognizing that any operator with two or more affiliated units can be described as a multi-unit company and may also be called a chain in ordinary restaurant-industry usage.Companies, Brands and Ownership
Single-unit independent: A restaurant entity with one identified location and no known affiliation to a larger restaurant system, franchise organization or multi-concept operator.Companies, Brands and Ownership
Ultimate parent: The highest identified ownership entity in the known hierarchy and the top verified organization connected to the child, parent and grandparent entities beneath it.Companies, Brands and Ownership

Openings and Development Activity

Definitions used in New Weekly Alerts and other restaurant-opening, transfer, relocation and development research.

Alert issue date: The date on which a New Weekly Alerts record is issued to users. It is separate from the expected opening date and the eventual confirmed opening date.Openings and Development Activity
Change of location: A development status used when an existing restaurant operation is moving to a different geographic address rather than adding a separate net-new unit.Openings and Development Activity
Confirmed opening record: A planned restaurant opening retained after best-available verification that the development is legitimate and tied to the correct location and entity. Because pre-opening activity can be incomplete or change, the exact opening date may remain estimated and can shift. RestaurantData uses objective public evidence together with experienced human research and a supported research judgment when definitive evidence is not yet available. Approximately 99.5% of the planned locations retained and tracked by RestaurantData eventually open.Openings and Development Activity
Development record: A structured location-based observation tied to a potential or verified restaurant opening, relocation, ownership transfer, operation upgrade or another restaurant-development event.Openings and Development Activity
Development stage: The point in the opening process at which RestaurantData researchers encounter and verify a record, such as legal formation, licensing, permitting, construction, pre-opening activity, announced opening or confirmed operation. Available fields differ by stage because each weekly batch is discovered from different public evidence at different points in the restaurant’s development.Openings and Development Activity
Estimated opening period: The best supported period in which a planned restaurant is expected to open. It may be stated as a date, month, quarter, season or broader range when an exact opening date is not available.Openings and Development Activity
Expansion arc: A sequence of qualifying development records showing how a restaurant company moves through several unit milestones, time periods, markets or states. The arc describes documented activity rather than a forecast.Openings and Development Activity
First expansion: The 1-to-2 transition in which a single-location restaurant adds a second location and becomes a multi-unit operator.Openings and Development Activity
Former site: The prior restaurant or foodservice occupant identified at the same opening address. This field preserves the supported site history for the location and helps distinguish a newly established operation from a change involving an existing restaurant space. Former-site information is populated on more than 60% of New Weekly Alerts records when public evidence supports the match.Openings and Development Activity
Growth transition: The movement represented when a company adds a planned or opened location, such as 1-to-2, 4-to-5 or 18-to-19 units. The transition is tied to the current verified unit count and the milestone represented by the development record.Openings and Development Activity
Net-new restaurant location: A newly established restaurant operation at a specific address rather than a duplicate filing, administrative change or simple reference to an existing location. Net-new does not necessarily mean newly constructed real estate; many openings occupy existing shopping-center, freestanding or previously configured restaurant space.Openings and Development Activity
New market entry: A planned or confirmed location entering a metropolitan area, territory or other market where the company did not previously have an identified operating location. RestaurantData typically identifies approximately 30 to 50 new-market entries per week.Openings and Development Activity
New owner, operator or transfer: A development status used when control of an existing restaurant location changes. It is not counted as a net-new opening unless a separate new restaurant operation is also established.Openings and Development Activity
New state entry: A planned or confirmed location entering a U.S. state or Canadian province where the company did not previously have an identified operating location. Interstate expansion, rather than only intrastate expansion, is one of the indicators used to understand concentrated growth across short periods.Openings and Development Activity
New Weekly Alerts: RestaurantData’s recurring delivery of verified restaurant-development records discovered at the earliest lawful and supportable point in the development process. New Weekly Alerts is a curated pre-opening and development publication, not a retrospective census of every restaurant that opens. Each alert is tied to a location and entity and includes available timing, ownership, format, contact and development-stage information. A location first discovered only after it is already operating is generally added to Atlas as an operating location rather than published as a new-opening alert, unless the circumstances qualify under another development status. Verification is required before a raw source item becomes an alert record.Openings and Development Activity
Opening date: The specific or best-supported date on which a restaurant begins operating. New-opening records also carry the date on which the alert or record was issued, allowing users to distinguish the research date from the expected or actual opening date.Openings and Development Activity
Operation upgrade: A material change to an existing location that does not qualify as a net-new restaurant. Examples include a remodel, patio addition or removal, an alcohol-service change such as adding a full bar or beer and wine, a format conversion or another operating improvement.Openings and Development Activity
Planned location: A restaurant site identified before opening and connected to documented development activity. Planned does not mean open, and the planned classification remains separate until the location begins operating or current evidence supports a change in status.Openings and Development Activity
Planned open year: The calendar year assigned to a planned location from available public evidence and research. It is a timing classification rather than a guarantee of opening within that year.Openings and Development Activity
Qualifying record: A development record that meets the research, timing, entity, location and verification standards required for inclusion in the applicable alert, module, dataset or report.Openings and Development Activity
Raw development record: An unqualified source item collected before duplicate removal, source reconciliation, classification and human verification. More than 50% of raw items are typically discarded because they do not meet the identity, timing, location, duplication or verification standards required for final delivery.Openings and Development Activity
Repeat-company expansion evidence: Two or more qualifying development records connected to the same standardized company or concept within the stated research period. Repeated records help establish a short-term expansion arc.Openings and Development Activity
Research period: The dates during which source activity was observed, collected or evaluated for a report. A research period can differ from the alert issue date, estimated opening period, actual opening date or EPI observation cohort.Openings and Development Activity
Restaurant opening signal: Public evidence indicating that a restaurant project is moving toward opening. Signals can originate in corporate registrations, D/B/A filings, licenses, permits, planning records, company disclosures, periodicals, local or regional publications and news stories.Openings and Development Activity
Second-generation restaurant space: A site previously occupied by another restaurant and reused by a new operator or concept. RestaurantData generally communicates this through former-site or site-history information rather than relying on second-generation as a primary database classification.Openings and Development Activity
Unit milestone: The company or concept unit count represented after the associated location is added. Unit milestones show when an operator advances into a new operating cohort or crosses a defined threshold.Openings and Development Activity

Growth Cohorts, Enterprise Context, EPI and REI

Definitions for operating cohorts, enterprise context, the Expansion Pressure Index™ and Restaurant Enterprise Index™.

Business prioritization: The use of EPI and connected company data to segment and organize accounts across SMB, mid-market and enterprise sales teams at the appropriate stage. Users can identify dozens or hundreds of companies within preferred operating and expansion cohorts without treating the index as a financial ranking.Growth Cohorts, Enterprise Context, EPI and REI
Concept portfolio: The set of restaurant concepts or brands owned, operated, franchised or controlled by a company or parent organization. Concept portfolio and brand portfolio can refer to the same collection depending on industry usage.Growth Cohorts, Enterprise Context, EPI and REI
Custom cohort: A user-defined unit-count or company-size range, such as 5-to-20, 10-to-50, 20-to-100 or another selected interval. Custom cohorts allow users to build the market segment that fits their own ideal customer profile.Growth Cohorts, Enterprise Context, EPI and REI
Documented expansion activity: Restaurant development supported by qualifying location records connected to unit additions, new markets, new states, threshold crossings or repeated company activity within the stated observation period.Growth Cohorts, Enterprise Context, EPI and REI
Enterprise change: A verified change involving leadership, concepts or brands, location totals, ownership, franchise documentation, operating companies, purchasing structure, technology, geography or development activity within a restaurant organization that may have enterprise-level operating or supplier needs. The term can apply outside the Restaurant Enterprise Index and does not establish a universal company-size classification.Growth Cohorts, Enterprise Context, EPI and REI
Enterprise profile: A connected view of the records, entities, concepts or brands, locations, ownership links, executive functions, franchise relationships, purchasing structure, development activity and other operating characteristics of a restaurant organization with enterprise-level needs in the applicable business context. Enterprise status can be defined differently by suppliers, vendors, manufacturers, technology providers and restaurant companies and is not determined solely by unit count or inclusion in the Restaurant Enterprise Index.Growth Cohorts, Enterprise Context, EPI and REI
Expansion pressure: The concentration of documented expansion activity within a stated operating cohort and observation period. It does not mean financial stress. Sustained activity across several short periods can be an indicator of continuing growth, but it is not a guarantee or a prediction of business performance.Growth Cohorts, Enterprise Context, EPI and REI
Expansion Pressure Index™: A business-prioritization tool that organizes restaurant companies, concepts and brands with rapid documented expansion over short periods, including expansion into additional states. EPI follows qualifying companies across successive unit-count milestones, from their earlier multi-unit stages through approximately 100 units and selectively beyond. It is not limited to companies with fewer than 50 locations, although smaller and emerging multi-unit companies make up a substantial part of the tracked population. EPI activity can be viewed in three-month cohorts separately or collectively to create a short-term arc of expansion. The index describes documented activity and movement through operating stages; it does not predict financial or operating performance.Growth Cohorts, Enterprise Context, EPI and REI
Growth company: A restaurant company moving through a selected operating cohort with qualifying development activity during the stated period. The label describes documented expansion rather than financial performance.Growth Cohorts, Enterprise Context, EPI and REI
Micro-regional: RestaurantData’s label for a multi-unit company with 2 to 4 units.Growth Cohorts, Enterprise Context, EPI and REI
Operating cohort: A unit-count range used to group and compare companies at similar stages of development. RestaurantData’s current core classifications are micro-regional for 2 to 4 units, regional multi-unit for 5 to 19 units, and traditional multi-unit for 20 or more units. The traditional multi-unit cohort extends from 20-unit operators through the largest restaurant companies and is separate from contextual enterprise classifications. Users can also define custom cohorts, and the selected ranges can be carried consistently from New Weekly Alerts through EPI and Atlas.Growth Cohorts, Enterprise Context, EPI and REI
Operating complexity: The organizational structure created by locations, franchisees, operating companies, concepts or brands, parents, grandparents, ultimate parents, geographic markets and management functions within a restaurant organization.Growth Cohorts, Enterprise Context, EPI and REI
Regional multi-unit: RestaurantData’s label for a company with 5 to 19 units.Growth Cohorts, Enterprise Context, EPI and REI
Relevant operating entity: The company within a larger hierarchy that controls or influences the decision, contract, operation or market being researched. It may differ from the customer-facing brand and from the ultimate parent.Growth Cohorts, Enterprise Context, EPI and REI
Restaurant Enterprise Index™: RestaurantData’s structured research resource focused on the largest and more complex restaurant organizations. REI follows ownership, concepts or brands, franchise systems, operating entities, executive functions, geography, purchasing structure, development activity and material company changes through connected records. Inclusion in REI identifies the scope of the index and should not be interpreted as establishing a universal definition of an enterprise restaurant company. Suppliers, vendors, manufacturers and restaurant operators may apply different enterprise thresholds according to their markets and business requirements.Growth Cohorts, Enterprise Context, EPI and REI
Rolling observation period: A recurring time window that advances as new research is added. In EPI, three-month periods can be reviewed separately or combined to show a broader short-term expansion arc.Growth Cohorts, Enterprise Context, EPI and REI
Three-month observation cohort: A defined three-month EPI period that can be analyzed independently or combined with adjacent three-month periods to form a broader short-term expansion arc.Growth Cohorts, Enterprise Context, EPI and REI
Threshold crossing: A company’s movement from one stated unit range or operating stage into another based on qualifying development records and updated unit counts.Growth Cohorts, Enterprise Context, EPI and REI
Traditional multi-unit company: RestaurantData’s general operating-cohort label for a restaurant company with 20 or more units, extending from 20-unit organizations through the largest restaurant companies. This unit-based cohort does not, by itself, determine whether a supplier, vendor, manufacturer or restaurant operator considers the company enterprise.Growth Cohorts, Enterprise Context, EPI and REI

Restaurant and Location Characteristics

Definitions for service format, cuisine, alcohol, meal periods, operating characteristics and restaurant scale.

Airport location: A restaurant operating within an airport terminal or airport-controlled commercial setting.Restaurant and Location Characteristics
Alcohol service: The recorded level of beverage alcohol offered by a location or represented across a multi-unit company, such as full bar, beer and wine, no alcohol or unknown. Multi-unit values may use a weighted or representative classification when individual concepts or locations differ.Restaurant and Location Characteristics
Average unit volume: An estimated or reported measure of average restaurant sales per unit for a stated concept, company or franchise system. Franchise disclosure documents are a common source when available, and the source period should be considered because values change.Restaurant and Location Characteristics
Beer and wine: Alcohol service limited to beer and wine or another supported non-spirits classification.Restaurant and Location Characteristics
Buffet: A restaurant format in which customers select food from a self-service presentation for some or all of the meal.Restaurant and Location Characteristics
Casual or family dining: A sit-down restaurant format that includes both casual and family dining in RestaurantData’s classification. It generally reflects table service, broad customer appeal and moderate pricing.Restaurant and Location Characteristics
Check-average range: An estimated or reported range for typical customer spending per person or transaction. For multi-unit companies with differing concepts, RestaurantData may use a weighted or representative range intended to support market segmentation rather than audited financial analysis.Restaurant and Location Characteristics
Counter service: A restaurant format in which customers generally order before receiving food and table service is limited or absent. Counter service includes quick service and fast casual.Restaurant and Location Characteristics
Cuisine classification: A structured menu category assigned from available restaurant information. A record can carry more than one cuisine classification when the menu spans several established categories.Restaurant and Location Characteristics
Employee range: A grouped estimate or reported range for employees associated with the food-and-beverage operation of a restaurant location or company. Employees working in unrelated company divisions are not intended to be included in the restaurant operating range.Restaurant and Location Characteristics
Estimated sales: An estimated or publicly reported sales value associated with a restaurant location, concept or company. Franchise disclosure documents are used when applicable. Values can vary and change over time. Company-level figures are intended to reflect food-and-beverage operations rather than unrelated business divisions.Restaurant and Location Characteristics
Fast casual: A counter-service format generally positioned between quick service and sit-down dining, often with higher menu complexity, price points or food preparation than traditional quick service.Restaurant and Location Characteristics
Free-standing location: A restaurant occupying a stand-alone building or site rather than an inline shopping-center or mixed-use space.Restaurant and Location Characteristics
Full bar: Alcohol service that includes spirits in addition to beer or wine.Restaurant and Location Characteristics
Hotel location: A restaurant or food-and-beverage operation located within, attached to or operated as part of a hotel property.Restaurant and Location Characteristics
Location type: The real-estate or operating setting of a restaurant, such as freestanding, shopping center, mixed-use, hotel, airport or another supported format.Restaurant and Location Characteristics
Meal period: The part of the day during which a restaurant operates, including breakfast, lunch and dinner. Multiple meal periods may apply. Multi-unit profiles may use the preponderance of locations or concepts to provide a representative classification.Restaurant and Location Characteristics
No alcohol: A classification supported by evidence that the restaurant does not offer beverage alcohol. It is distinct from unknown.Restaurant and Location Characteristics
Opening year: The calendar year in which a restaurant location is identified as having begun operation. The field can remain blank or unknown when a reliable year cannot be established.Restaurant and Location Characteristics
Outdoor dining: A recorded indication that a restaurant offers a patio, terrace, sidewalk seating or another outdoor dining area.Restaurant and Location Characteristics
Primary cuisine: The cuisine category that best represents the restaurant’s principal menu identity when one category is distinguishable.Restaurant and Location Characteristics
Quick service: A counter-service format centered on speed, standardized production and limited table service. Drive-thru, takeout and delivery can be important but are not required for the classification.Restaurant and Location Characteristics
Representative operating profile: A weighted, averaged or preponderance-based description used when a multi-unit company operates concepts or locations with different alcohol service, meal periods, check averages, seating, square footage or other characteristics. The value is intended to help users segment and prioritize companies, not to imply that every location is identical.Restaurant and Location Characteristics
Seating capacity: The number or representative range of customer seats associated with a location, concept or company. Multi-unit values may be weighted or averaged when formats differ across the organization.Restaurant and Location Characteristics
Service type: The primary restaurant operating format. RestaurantData first separates counter service from sit-down restaurants, while buffet is maintained as its own format. Counter service is further classified as quick service or fast casual; sit-down restaurants are further classified as casual or family dining and upscale dining.Restaurant and Location Characteristics
Shopping center or mixed-use location: A restaurant situated within a retail center, lifestyle center, mall, mixed-use development or related multi-tenant property.Restaurant and Location Characteristics
Sit-down restaurant: A restaurant format in which customers are seated and service is primarily provided at the table. RestaurantData’s sit-down classifications include casual or family dining and upscale dining.Restaurant and Location Characteristics
Square footage: The interior or total physical area associated with a restaurant location. Company-level values may be averaged or weighted when concepts and formats differ.Restaurant and Location Characteristics
Unknown alcohol service: A classification used when available evidence does not establish whether alcohol is offered. Unknown does not mean no alcohol.Restaurant and Location Characteristics
Upscale dining: A sit-down format associated with higher check averages, more formal service, premium ingredients or a more specialized dining experience.Restaurant and Location Characteristics
Years in business: The elapsed operating period calculated from the supported opening year or opening date to the stated reference date.Restaurant and Location Characteristics

Geography and Market Coverage

Definitions for location, headquarters and market geography.

City: The municipality or locality associated with a restaurant address or headquarters record.Geography and Market Coverage
Country: The nation associated with a location or headquarters record. RestaurantData’s core directory coverage includes the United States and Canada.Geography and Market Coverage
County: The county or county-equivalent assigned to a U.S. restaurant location. County should be paired with state when the name is not unique.Geography and Market Coverage
Geocoded location: A restaurant, foodservice or headquarters address assigned geographic coordinates after address standardization and location matching. Every active RestaurantData directory record is assigned a geocode.Geography and Market Coverage
Headquarters geography: The city, state, province or country associated with a company headquarters record. It should not be interpreted as the geographic distribution of the company’s restaurants.Geography and Market Coverage
Location geography: The physical geography of an individual restaurant or covered foodservice location. It should not be substituted for headquarters geography.Geography and Market Coverage
Metropolitan area: A city-centered market composed of a core urban area and surrounding communities used for market-level analysis.Geography and Market Coverage
Operating footprint: The set of states, provinces, metropolitan areas or other markets in which a company has identified restaurant locations.Geography and Market Coverage
Region: A multi-state or multi-province grouping used for comparative analysis. The included states or provinces should be stated within the report or methodology.Geography and Market Coverage
State or province: The first-level administrative area associated with a U.S. or Canadian location or headquarters.Geography and Market Coverage
Territory: A user-defined sales, service, distribution or research area. A territory can combine several standard geographies.Geography and Market Coverage
ZIP or postal code: The postal geography associated with a location or company address.Geography and Market Coverage

Contacts and Restaurant Technology

Definitions for decision makers, contact fields and publicly identified restaurant technology.

Business telephone: The principal telephone number associated with a restaurant location or company record.Contacts and Restaurant Technology
Contact availability: A filter indicating whether a selected location or company record has one or more qualifying contact fields, such as a named executive, professional email, direct dial, owner name, location email or business telephone.Contacts and Restaurant Technology
Decision maker: A person with responsibility or influence over a business function, purchase, operating decision, development activity or company strategy.Contacts and Restaurant Technology
Department or function: The business area assigned to a multi-unit decision maker’s title, such as supply chain, purchasing, real estate, operations, development, marketing, technology, finance, human resources, franchising or culinary.Contacts and Restaurant Technology
Direct dial: A telephone number believed to reach a named contact or the contact’s direct business line rather than a general company switchboard.Contacts and Restaurant Technology
Executive contact: A named vice-president-level or C-suite contact connected to a restaurant company, brand, franchise organization, operating group, parent company or other relevant entity.Contacts and Restaurant Technology
Location email: An email address associated with an individual restaurant location. It may be a general store address rather than a named person’s direct email and is often the principal public email field for a single-unit restaurant with no known affiliation.Contacts and Restaurant Technology
Loyalty system: A platform used to manage customer rewards, membership, offers or repeat-visit programs. RestaurantData can identify loyalty-system use from public digital and social-media evidence.Contacts and Restaurant Technology
Online ordering system: A platform used to accept digital orders through a restaurant website, application, marketplace or connected ordering channel. RestaurantData can identify ordering-system use from public digital and social-media evidence.Contacts and Restaurant Technology
Owner or operator contact: A named person associated with the ownership or day-to-day operation of a restaurant location or company. Owner names are most prevalent in single-unit restaurant records with no known affiliation.Contacts and Restaurant Technology
Point-of-sale system: The transaction platform identified for a restaurant location, brand or company system. A location-level provider can differ from the provider used across the broader brand or company. The share of brands with an identified provider and the applicable reverification cadence are reported separately under POS coverage.Contacts and Restaurant Technology
POS coverage: The share of restaurant brands for which a point-of-sale provider is identified. RestaurantData maintains POS data for approximately 90% of unique brands with five or more units and re-verifies the covered population twice annually.Contacts and Restaurant Technology
Provider change: A documented move from one restaurant technology provider to another. POS provider changes can be reported after the semiannual POS reverification cycle; other technology changes are evaluated through the broader periodic research process.Contacts and Restaurant Technology
Reservation system: A platform used to manage bookings, guest availability, waitlists or seating functions. RestaurantData can identify reservation-system use from public digital and social-media evidence and re-verifies the field periodically.Contacts and Restaurant Technology
Technology stack: The set of identified restaurant technology systems associated with a company, brand or location, which may include point of sale, reservations, ordering, loyalty and related platforms.Contacts and Restaurant Technology
Title level: A structured classification of a contact’s organizational seniority, including owner, C-suite, vice president, director, manager or another supported level.Contacts and Restaurant Technology

Research, Verification and Data Treatment

Definitions for public sourcing, human verification, Franchise Disclosure Document discovery and extraction, entity resolution, annual reconciliation, franchisee capital obligations, standardization, deduplication and recurring data maintenance.

Featured methodology

Franchise Disclosure Documents: discovery, extraction and year-over-year reconciliation

A Franchise Disclosure Document is the franchisor’s legally required formal disclosure instrument for prospective franchisees. Under the Federal Trade Commission’s Franchise Rule, an FDD follows 23 standardized disclosure items intended to provide material information about the offered franchise, its officers, operating requirements, required investment and franchise system. For RestaurantData, obtaining the document is only the beginning of the research process.

Core disclosures

Franchisor legal structure, parents, predecessors and affiliates
Executive backgrounds, litigation and bankruptcy history
Initial fees, estimated investment and ongoing financial obligations
Real estate, equipment, signage, technology and leasehold-improvement requirements
Supplier, purchasing, territory, training and operating requirements
Design standards, remodeling obligations and system upgrades when disclosed
Renewal, termination, transfer and dispute-resolution provisions
Financial-performance representations in Item 19 when the franchisor elects to provide them
Outlet growth, ownership turnover and franchisee information in Item 20
Audited financial statements and franchise-agreement exhibits

Document availability is fragmented

There is no single comprehensive federal public repository containing every current restaurant FDD.
Public availability, search tools and downloadable documents vary by state, filing year and franchisor.
Wisconsin’s Franchise E-Filing system permits public searches that can display filing status and disclosure documents.
California’s franchise filing resources provide public filing search and access through the state’s franchise system.
A prospective franchisee may also request an FDD directly from a franchisor after the franchisor has received the application and agreed to consider the prospect.
The absence of a filing from one public repository does not, by itself, establish that no FDD was prepared, delivered or filed elsewhere.

Why FDD research requires human verification

RestaurantData researchers must first locate the applicable filing, determine whether it is current, identify the correct legal entity and brand, and establish the reporting period. The document may then require technical extraction before the information can be evaluated.

PDF quality and extraction

FDDs are commonly delivered as lengthy PDF files containing exhibits, outlet tables, financial statements and franchisee lists.
Some PDFs are digitally searchable. Others are scanned images that require optical character recognition, or OCR, before the text and tables can be searched or extracted.
Filing stamps, handwritten annotations, rotated pages, low-resolution scans, broken tables and inconsistent formatting can reduce extraction accuracy.
OCR output is treated as a working transcription rather than verified fact. Names, addresses, outlet counts and financial values are checked against the page image and other evidence.

Franchisee and entity resolution

Item 20 information can identify franchisees through LLCs, corporations, holding companies, surnames or management-company names rather than the natural person who ultimately controls the operation.
Different locations operated by the same organization may appear under several legal entities, including entities formed in different states.
Researchers compare corporate registrations, D/B/A filings, addresses, officers, managers, telephone numbers, email domains, surnames, locations, concepts and prior filings.
Experienced research may identify a possible connection between differently named entities, but the relationship remains a research lead until supporting public evidence is found and reconciled.

LocateFind the applicable filing or obtain the document.

PrepareDetermine version, period and document quality.

ExtractOCR and isolate outlet, financial and entity information.

ResolveMatch LLCs, owners, locations and related concepts.

ReconcileCompare prior filings, websites, releases and reporting.

ConnectUpdate the location, franchisee and ownership hierarchy.

From franchisee identification to location-level hierarchy

Once the applicable FDD records are extracted, standardized and reconciled, RestaurantData applies the resolved ownership information to the restaurant locations operated by each franchisee. This includes single-location franchisees and franchisee groups that operate multiple locations, whether under one brand or across several concepts.

Company-to-location and location-to-parent connections require separate research

RestaurantData develops hierarchies from either direction according to the available evidence. Corporate disclosures, FDDs and company records may allow researchers to move from a parent or ultimate parent downward through brands, concepts, operating entities, franchisees and locations. In other cases, research begins with an individual restaurant and moves upward through its D/B/A name, legal entity, operator or franchisee, brand and parent organizations.

There is often no complete public map showing which legal entity, D/B/A name, owner or management company controls every location. Researchers compare FDD outlet tables, corporate registrations, D/B/A filings, addresses, officers, managers, telephone numbers, email domains, company websites, prior filings and other public evidence. The work requires human judgment because similarly named entities can be unrelated, while differently named entities may be part of the same operator or franchisee group.

RestaurantData reconciles top-down and bottom-up evidence where possible. Some organizations have supported relationships across every applicable level, while others remain partially connected because public evidence does not identify every name, legal entity or operating relationship. RestaurantData records only the relationships that can be supported and updates them as additional evidence becomes available.

RestaurantData review process

Collect the current filing and available prior filings as they become publicly accessible or are otherwise lawfully obtained.
Identify the filing date, reporting period, geographic scope, legal entities and applicable restaurant brands.
Assess whether the PDF is digitally searchable or requires OCR, then review the extracted text against the original pages.
Standardize Item 20 outlet tables and compare franchised, company-owned and total system counts across filing years.
Extract Item 19 sales, average unit volume or earnings information when disclosed, including its stated population, period and limitations.
Identify signed but unopened agreements, projected openings, closures, transfers, franchisee exits, reacquisitions and corporate reassignments.
Resolve franchisee entities and franchisee groups, connecting LLCs, corporations, D/B/A names, owners, headquarters and multi-concept franchise operations when public evidence supports the relationship.
Review disclosed investment, supplier, remodeling, equipment and operating obligations that can affect franchisee capital requirements.
Reconcile the filing with Atlas, prior FDDs, company websites, company announcements, periodicals, trade publications, public records, court records and subsequent disclosures.
Apply the resolved ownership information at the restaurant-location level, then connect each supported location through the applicable franchisee, franchisee group, brand, company and parent-child hierarchy records.

Annual reconciliation of franchise-system records

FDD research continues from year to year. Each filing adds another reporting period to the history of the franchise system, its locations, franchisees, company-owned restaurants, openings, closures, transfers and projected development. RestaurantData consolidates the current filing with prior FDDs and other publicly available information, including company websites, company announcements, corporate filings, local and national periodicals, trade publications, public records and media reporting. After franchise-system records are reconciled, the resolved ownership information is applied back to the location population so multi-location franchisee groups and multi-concept operators remain connected to the parent companies above them wherever the public evidence supports the relationship.

Why credible counts can disagree

A company website may reflect a more recent operating date than an annual FDD. A press release or public-relations firm may use a rounded systemwide count. The FDD may separate franchised outlets, company-owned outlets, transferred locations, reacquired locations and signed agreements for restaurants that have not yet opened. Differences can also result from openings, closures, acquisitions, delayed website updates and the reassignment of outlets between operators.

RestaurantData records the applicable source, reporting period, ownership category and verification date before using a count in Atlas, EPI, REI or a public research report. Researchers evaluate whether a reported difference represents actual growth, contraction, an ownership change, a timing difference or a different method of counting the same restaurant population.

Franchisee transfers, terminations and outlet reassignments

A restaurant location can remain open even when the franchisee responsible for operating it changes. Franchise agreements establish conditions governing renewal, termination, sale and transfer. Depending on the agreement and circumstances, a franchise relationship may be terminated, not renewed, sold or reassigned when contractual obligations, operating standards, payment requirements or other disclosed conditions are not met or when the parties otherwise approve a transfer.

The end of one franchisee’s operating rights does not by itself establish that the restaurant closed. The location may be transferred to another approved franchisee, reacquired or temporarily operated by the franchisor or an affiliate, sold with the operating assets, or eventually closed. RestaurantData evaluates the location and operating entity separately. When the restaurant remains active, the location record is preserved while the franchisee, operating company, ownership hierarchy and company-owned or franchised classification are updated as supported by current evidence.

Franchisee capital obligations and financing exposure

FDDs and their attached agreements can identify required investment and contractual obligations, but they do not always show whether a particular operator can obtain or renew the financing needed to meet them. RestaurantData therefore separates the disclosed obligation from the operator’s later financing condition and evaluates both when public evidence is available.

Fixed assets and refinancing

Restaurant real estate, leasehold improvements, kitchen equipment, furniture, signage, technology and expansion projects require capital.
Commercial mortgages and other fixed-asset loans may mature with a balloon payment, leaving the operator dependent on a replacement loan, additional equity or another source of capital.
When renewal rates are materially higher than the prior loan rate, refinancing that may once have been routine can produce substantially higher debt service, stricter underwriting or lender refusal.
Weaker store performance, reduced collateral values, merchant-cash-advance obligations or other claims on restaurant revenue can further limit refinancing options.
FDD Items 5 through 7 can describe fees and estimated investment, but the operator’s actual debt structure, maturity schedule and refinancing capacity may require court records, lender filings, company disclosures or direct research.

Remodeling, upgrades and approved vendors

Franchise agreements and operating standards may permit the franchisor to require periodic remodeling, renovation, reimaging, equipment replacement or technology upgrades.
The work may be required on the franchisor’s timetable, to prescribed specifications and at the franchisee’s expense, subject to the governing agreement.
Depending on scope, site conditions and the agreement, the required work can range from a limited paint-and-signage refresh to a major renovation costing several hundred thousand dollars.
Required suppliers or approved vendors can limit purchasing alternatives and affect the cost and timing of a project.
RestaurantData reviews the FDD, Item 7 investment tables, Item 8 supplier restrictions, Item 11 assistance and operating requirements, the franchise agreement, amendments and other public evidence where available.

Current franchise operating context. Rising labor, food, occupancy, insurance and other operating costs, inflation and tighter financing can reduce the cash available for required remodels, new-unit development and debt service. Together, these conditions can increase franchisee risk and affect location development, ownership transfers, lease decisions and eventual closures even when the original franchise system remains active.

Franchise Disclosure Reports archive
Top 100 franchise-system outlet analysis
Current FDD filings and growth trends
Franchisee transfers and ownership reshuffling

Legal and public-access references: Federal Trade Commission Franchise Rule, the FTC’s Consumer’s Guide to Buying a Franchise, Wisconsin Franchise E-Filing and California FRANSES information. RestaurantData reviews newly issued restaurant FDDs annually, generally from late winter through the summer, as filings and amendments become available. Filing continuity and public availability can vary by company, state and year.

Address standardization: The normalization of street, city, state, province, postal and unit information before matching, deduplication and geocoding.Research, Verification and Data Treatment
AI-assisted discovery: The use of artificial intelligence to locate potentially relevant public evidence at greater scale. AI-assisted discovery does not by itself create a verified RestaurantData record. RestaurantData researchers determine whether an item is valid, unique, correctly classified, matched to the proper record and connected to the proper entity.Research, Verification and Data Treatment
Approved supplier or vendor requirement: A franchise-system rule requiring specified goods, equipment, services or construction work to be purchased from the franchisor, a designated supplier or an approved vendor. The requirement can support system consistency while also limiting alternative sources, pricing choices and project timing. Item 8 and the related agreements are common places to review these restrictions.Research, Verification and Data Treatment
Balloon-payment refinancing risk: The risk created when a substantial remaining loan balance becomes due at maturity and the operator expects to replace it with a new loan. Changes in interest rates, underwriting, store performance, debt-service coverage, collateral value or lender appetite can increase the new payment, require additional equity or prevent refinancing.Research, Verification and Data Treatment
Blank field: A field intentionally left unpopulated because neither objective public evidence nor a sufficiently supported research judgment provides a usable value. Blank field describes the absence of a displayed value; Unknown is an explicit classification. A blank field is not automatically a no, none or zero value.Research, Verification and Data Treatment
Company disclosure: Public information released by a restaurant company, brand, operator, franchisor, parent or authorized representative.Research, Verification and Data Treatment
Corporate registration: A state, provincial or federal filing establishing or updating a corporation, limited liability company or another legal entity.Research, Verification and Data Treatment
Corroborating source: A separate public source used to strengthen or test a record, field value or analysis. A corroborating source supports the same underlying fact or direction; source reconciliation determines how multiple sources with different dates, scopes or descriptions should be interpreted together. EPI research commonly presents several corroborating sources when available.Research, Verification and Data Treatment
Coverage: The portion of a defined market, entity group or field population represented by the dataset. Coverage depends on the stated scope, record type, date and applicable verification cycle.Research, Verification and Data Treatment
D/B/A or fictitious name: D/B/A means doing business as. It is a filing or public designation that records a business name used by a person or legal entity when the operating name differs from the legal company name.Research, Verification and Data Treatment
De-duplication: The identification and removal or consolidation of repeated source items and records that refer to the same underlying entity, location or event. De-duplication follows matching and identity review; name or address similarity alone is not sufficient to combine records. Preventing duplication is a central control in the RestaurantData research system.Research, Verification and Data Treatment
Direct verification: A verification method based on direct communication with a restaurant, company, operator, property representative or another party connected to the record. Direct verification is one form of evidence used during ingestion and recurring maintenance; it is distinct from verification based only on public documents or digital evidence.Research, Verification and Data Treatment
Entity resolution: The continuing process of determining whether names, records and source observations refer to the same or different real-world company, concept or brand, location or person, and how those parties are related. Entity resolution is broader than record matching because it can establish or revise ownership, franchisee and parent-child relationships across several records.Research, Verification and Data Treatment
Estimated: A current or historical value derived from supported public evidence or a stated method when an exact reported value is unavailable. Estimates are identified as estimates and are distinct from projections, which are forward-looking.Research, Verification and Data Treatment
FDD document extraction: The process of isolating usable outlet, franchisee, ownership, financial-performance, investment and contractual information from a Franchise Disclosure Document and its exhibits. Extraction can involve searchable text, OCR, table reconstruction and manual page review. Extraction makes the information usable; verification and reconciliation determine whether the extracted value is correctly interpreted and connected.Research, Verification and Data Treatment
FDD filing cycle: The annual period in which franchisors issue, renew or amend Franchise Disclosure Documents and RestaurantData receives and reviews newly available restaurant filings. The principal filing period generally begins in late winter, continues through spring and can extend into the summer. Completed prior-year outlet information is commonly disclosed during the following year’s filing cycle.Research, Verification and Data Treatment
FDD public repository: A government or other lawful public-access system through which Franchise Disclosure Document filings can be searched or downloaded. Availability varies by state, franchisor and filing year. Wisconsin and California maintain public franchise-filing search systems, but no single public repository contains every current restaurant FDD.Research, Verification and Data Treatment
Financial performance representation (Item 19): A franchisor’s disclosed representation concerning sales, income, gross profit, average unit volume or another measure of financial performance. The Franchise Rule does not require a franchisor to provide a financial-performance representation, but when one is made it must appear in Item 19 and have a reasonable factual basis. RestaurantData records the reported population, period, format and limitations so the value is not treated as universally applicable to every location.Research, Verification and Data Treatment
Franchise Disclosure Document (FDD): The franchisor’s legally required formal disclosure instrument for prospective franchisees. Under the Federal Trade Commission Franchise Rule, the FDD follows 23 standardized disclosure items covering the franchisor, parents and affiliates, executive backgrounds, litigation and bankruptcy, fees, estimated investment, supplier obligations, operating requirements, franchise agreements, system outlets, franchisee information, audited financial statements and other material terms. Item 19 may contain financial-performance representations when the franchisor elects to provide them, while Item 20 reports outlet activity, ownership turnover and franchisee information. RestaurantData reviews newly issued restaurant FDDs annually, locates filings across fragmented public sources, performs OCR and manual extraction when required, resolves franchisee entities, reconciles year-over-year counts and connects the results to company, brand, franchisee, location, ownership, development and operating records.Research, Verification and Data Treatment
Franchised and company-owned mix: The proportion of a franchise system operated by franchisees compared with locations operated directly by the franchisor or an affiliated company. RestaurantData may display the franchised percentage in ten-percentage-point ranges, such as 70% to 80%, 80% to 90% or 90% to 100%, to support KPI filtering and market segmentation. The mix also helps users understand operating control, system structure, ownership change and the level at which purchasing, technology, real estate and other decisions may be made.Research, Verification and Data Treatment
Franchisee entity resolution: A specialized application of entity resolution used to determine whether differently named LLCs, corporations, holding companies, management companies or individual names represent the same franchise operator or related organization. Possible relationships remain research leads until corporate records, addresses, officers, managers, contact information, locations, prior filings or other public evidence support the connection.Research, Verification and Data Treatment
Franchisee fixed-asset financing: Debt, lease or other capital used by a franchisee to acquire or improve restaurant real estate, leasehold improvements, kitchen equipment, furniture, signage, technology or other long-lived operating assets. An FDD can describe estimated investment and required assets, but it does not establish that a specific operator will qualify for financing or be able to refinance the obligation later.Research, Verification and Data Treatment
Franchisee ownership transfer: A change in the franchisee or operating entity connected to an existing restaurant location. The outlet may be transferred to another approved franchisee, reacquired or temporarily operated by the franchisor or an affiliate, or placed into another documented operating structure. A transfer or reassignment does not by itself establish that the restaurant closed or that the brand changed. RestaurantData evaluates the location and operating entity separately, then updates the connected entity, ownership hierarchy and company-owned or franchised classification as supported by current evidence.Research, Verification and Data Treatment
Human research: The work performed by RestaurantData researchers to interpret source evidence, classify observations, match records, resolve entities, reconcile conflicts, prevent duplication and determine the correct location, timing and hierarchy. This includes manually connecting restaurant locations to franchisees, franchisee groups, multi-concept operators and parent entities when no complete public ownership map exists. Human research is the broader activity; verification is the evidence-based decision that a record or field meets the applicable standard.Research, Verification and Data Treatment
Ingestion workflow: The structured sequence used to evaluate a discovered item before it enters the connected RestaurantData system. The workflow assigns the item to the correct record type and research stage, matches or creates the applicable location and entity records, removes duplicates, applies verification and connects the resulting fields and hierarchy relationships.Research, Verification and Data Treatment
Last verified date: The most recent date or period in which a record or field completed its applicable review. The last-verified date identifies the point in time of the latest review; the update cycle describes how often the field or population is scheduled for maintenance.Research, Verification and Data Treatment
Legal filing: A public document created through a government, court, regulatory or statutory process that records a company, transaction, dispute, license, permit or other business activity. Legal filing is the broad source category; individual filing types, such as corporate registrations and licenses or permits, can provide different evidence.Research, Verification and Data Treatment
License or permit: A government authorization or application related to alcohol, foodservice, building, health, signage, occupancy, construction or another regulated activity. Licenses and permits are a specific type of public legal record and are frequently used to identify and verify restaurant-development activity.Research, Verification and Data Treatment
Match rate: A subscriber-defined result showing the share or number of records that satisfy the filters, KPI values and other criteria selected by the user. The match rate is not a fixed RestaurantData score. It changes as the user adds, removes or modifies filters to create the desired company, location or ideal-customer-profile cohort.Research, Verification and Data Treatment
Name standardization: The normalization of company, brand, concept and location names so variations can be matched consistently and the restaurant can be classified correctly as unique, independent, affiliated or part of another organization.Research, Verification and Data Treatment
Not inferred: A research rule under which unsupported relationships or field values are not presented as fact. When objective evidence is unavailable and the remaining evidence is insufficient for a supportable research judgment, RestaurantData leaves the field blank or uses Unknown rather than filling the value through assumption.Research, Verification and Data Treatment
Optical character recognition (OCR): A process that converts scanned document images into machine-readable text. OCR is often required when an FDD is supplied as an image-based PDF, but OCR output is a working transcription rather than verified fact. The extracted text is reviewed against the original pages because poor scans, handwriting, filing stamps, rotated pages and complex tables can create transcription errors.Research, Verification and Data Treatment
Other: A grouped category for supported values that fall outside the principal listed classifications. Other is distinct from unknown.Research, Verification and Data Treatment
Outlet and franchisee information (Item 20): The portion of an FDD that reports franchise-system outlet history, growth, ownership turnover and franchisee information. Item 20 can include franchised and company-owned units, openings, closures, transfers, projected openings, current franchisees, certain former franchisees and people holding signed franchise agreements for outlets not yet open. RestaurantData standardizes these tables across filing years before comparing systems or updating ownership relationships.Research, Verification and Data Treatment
Projected: A forward-looking value taken from a stated public source or produced by a supported method. A projection describes an expected future result and is not the same as an estimated current value or a completed, verified event.Research, Verification and Data Treatment
Public record: A government, regulatory, legal, licensing, property or administrative record available to the public. RestaurantData uses public information rather than private or improperly obtained information.Research, Verification and Data Treatment
Record matching: The process of assigning a newly discovered observation to the correct existing company, concept or brand, location, contact or hierarchy record, or determining that a new record is required. Record matching is narrower than entity resolution, which evaluates whether several names or records represent the same party and how the parties are related.Research, Verification and Data Treatment
Regional or local reporting: Market-level reporting from local and regional publications, periodicals and news organizations that documents restaurant development, ownership, leadership or operating changes.Research, Verification and Data Treatment
Reporting-period reconciliation: A specialized form of source reconciliation that compares FDDs, prior filings, company websites, announcements, public records, periodicals and media reporting from different dates. The purpose is to determine why franchise-system counts differ and which count applies to the stated reporting period, ownership category, geographic scope and verification date.Research, Verification and Data Treatment
Required remodel, renovation or upgrade: A contractual or operating-standard obligation requiring a franchisee to refresh, renovate, reimage or materially upgrade a restaurant, its equipment, signage, technology or appearance. The governing agreement may permit the franchisor to set the timing, specifications and approved sources, while the franchisee bears some or all of the cost.Research, Verification and Data Treatment
Research trail: The connected chronological sequence of public evidence retained or referenced to follow a restaurant, company or development event from early formation or development signals through opening, expansion, maturity, ownership change and possible closure.Research, Verification and Data Treatment
Signed but unopened franchise agreement: A binding franchise agreement granted to a franchisee when the corresponding restaurant outlet had not opened as of the FDD reporting date. It is documented pipeline evidence rather than an operating location. RestaurantData keeps the agreement or projected outlet separate from a confirmed opening until location-level evidence supports the operating status.Research, Verification and Data Treatment
Source reconciliation: The comparison of public evidence about the same subject to determine whether the sources describe the same event, different events, a timing difference, a scope difference or a genuine conflict. Source reconciliation is part of daily research and data hygiene; duplicate evidence, changing counts and conflicting descriptions are resolved before records are counted, updated or connected.Research, Verification and Data Treatment
Unknown: An explicit value used when objective public evidence was unavailable at the time of research and the remaining evidence was insufficient for a supportable research judgment. Unknown is distinct from a blank field, which is an unpopulated display state. Unknown does not mean no, none or zero.Research, Verification and Data Treatment
Update cycle: The maintenance cadence assigned to a field or record population. Daily cleanliness and data hygiene are performed continuously; the broader directory is scanned and re-verified approximately every three to four months. POS coverage is re-verified twice each year, and Franchise Disclosure Documents are reviewed annually as new filings become available. The update cycle is distinct from the last-verified date recorded for an individual record or field.Research, Verification and Data Treatment
Verification: The evidence-based review used to determine that a record or field is supportable, correctly classified, not duplicated and connected to the appropriate location, entity and hierarchy. Verification can use public records, company disclosures, digital evidence, direct communication and other lawful sources, together with human research. It is applied during ingestion and recurring maintenance and represents the best-supported result as of the applicable last-verified date, not a guarantee that the restaurant or company will not later change.Research, Verification and Data Treatment

Operating Status, Closures and Analytical Outputs

Definitions for active-location status, periodic closure review, retained closure records, public reporting scope, analytical methods and subscriber outputs.

How closure research completes the location lifecycle

RestaurantData periodically reviews the full active restaurant-location universe in Atlas to determine whether each location remains in business at its recorded address. The review is location based and uses the same verification, matching and source-reconciliation standards applied elsewhere in the directory.

When a closure is confirmed, the location is removed from the active restaurant universe but retained as a historical closure record. Its supported opening and closure timing, geography, service type, cuisine, ownership connections and other available KPIs remain attached to the location, allowing closure outputs to use the same structured attributes that were maintained while the restaurant was active.

Public closure reports are scoped analytical publications. Depending on the stated methodology, a report may present closures alone, compare closures with openings, or calculate net location change. A published closure total should be interpreted as a net-change figure only when the report expressly includes the corresponding opening population and states the net calculation.

Restaurant-location closure status does not apply to headquarters or company records. A headquarters, operating company or parent organization may become inactive, be dissolved or cease business, but it is not counted as a restaurant-location closure merely because the organizational record changes status.

Atlas: RestaurantData’s core connected directory and subscriber intelligence environment. Atlas contains the segmented location universe, entity records, child-parent-grandparent relationships and searchable attributes. The New Weekly Alerts and Expansion Pressure Index™ modules are connected within the same intelligence environment.Operating Status, Closures and Analytical Outputs
Closure record: A historical, location-level record for a restaurant confirmed as no longer operating at the recorded address through multiple-source evaluation and human verification. RestaurantData periodically reviews the full active Atlas restaurant-location universe and removes confirmed closures from the active universe while retaining the location for closure research and historical analysis. The closure record preserves the supported closure date or period, the opening date or year when available, and the location’s other verified fields and KPIs. A location closure does not automatically mean the company or concept has ceased operating elsewhere. Headquarters and company records are not classified as restaurant-location closures.Operating Status, Closures and Analytical Outputs
Closure period: The best-supported date on which a restaurant location ceased operating. When an exact date cannot be established, the field may use a month, quarter or another stated period. Closure analysis generally retains the restaurant’s opening date or opening year when available so operating duration can be evaluated. The reporting period used in a public closure analysis may differ from the date on which RestaurantData verified or published the record.Operating Status, Closures and Analytical Outputs
Cohort analysis: An analysis that groups companies or records by a shared unit range, development stage, time period or characteristic. RestaurantData uses defined cohorts in published analyses, while users can construct their own cohorts through selected filters.Operating Status, Closures and Analytical Outputs
Cross-tab analysis: An analysis comparing two or more structured fields, such as cuisine by geography, service type by operator size or ownership by development stage.Operating Status, Closures and Analytical Outputs
Custom lookup: A subscriber-directed search built from the filters and field values selected for a particular research, sales, market or operating purpose. The user determines which company, location, ownership, development, contact, technology and KPI criteria apply, and can add or remove filters while refining the result.Operating Status, Closures and Analytical Outputs
Customer-file match: The process of comparing a customer or prospect file with RestaurantData entities to identify matches, related organizations, hierarchy connections and qualifying records not already represented.Operating Status, Closures and Analytical Outputs
Data extract: A selected set of location, headquarters or connected records exported from the broader database for a stated research, delivery or customer purpose.Operating Status, Closures and Analytical Outputs
Historical archive: A collection of earlier RestaurantData reports maintained for long-term reference. Definitions, counts and methodologies should be read in the context of each publication date.Operating Status, Closures and Analytical Outputs
Open: The active directory status assigned when current evidence supports that a restaurant is operating at the recorded address. RestaurantData does not use temporarily closed as a separate status. Unless a closure is confirmed, the location remains open in the active restaurant universe.Operating Status, Closures and Analytical Outputs
Operating status: The researched, location-level field used to determine whether a restaurant remains in the active Atlas universe or is retained as a confirmed closure record. For directory purposes, RestaurantData distinguishes open locations from confirmed closures. Temporary-closure signals are evaluated as evidence but do not create a separate operating-status category. Headquarters and company records are organizational records and are not assigned a restaurant-location closure status.Operating Status, Closures and Analytical Outputs
Research Center: RestaurantData’s interconnected public research area for methodologies, reports, Atlas, New Weekly Alerts, EPI, REI and related analyses. It explains the public-facing research while the full location records, hierarchy data and subscriber modules remain within RestaurantData’s connected data environment.Operating Status, Closures and Analytical Outputs
Saved search: A reusable set of user-selected filters saved for later review or further analysis. Each subscriber can return to a saved search, rerun it against the current data, and add, remove or change filters as the research objective develops. Individual users retain their own saved-search workspace within the account.Operating Status, Closures and Analytical Outputs
Searchable attribute: A structured field available for filtering, segmentation or analysis within Atlas or another RestaurantData module.Operating Status, Closures and Analytical Outputs
White space: Qualifying restaurant companies or locations within a user-defined market or ideal customer profile that are not represented in the matched customer file.Operating Status, Closures and Analytical Outputs

Related RestaurantData resources

Restaurant Research CenterPublic research, methodologies, reports and indexes.
RestaurantData AtlasConnected restaurant locations, entities, hierarchies, contacts and searchable attributes.
Expansion Pressure Index™Short-term documented expansion activity organized by user-defined cohorts.
Restaurant Enterprise Index™Connected research on larger and more complex restaurant organizations.
Restaurant Opening AnalysisMethods and analyses derived from verified development records.
Multi-Concept Restaurant OperatorsResearch on companies that control more than one restaurant concept or brand.
Franchise Disclosure ReportsAnnual FDD reviews, outlet histories, performance disclosures and franchisee ownership changes.
Top 100 Restaurant FranchisorsFranchise-system research and ownership context.
Historical Research ArchiveEarlier RestaurantData reports retained for long-term reference.

Applying RestaurantData Definitions in CRM, Analytics and Data Workflows

RestaurantData definitions provide a consistent way to interpret locations, companies, brands, ownership relationships, development activity and operating characteristics across business systems. The same terms apply when reviewing Atlas records, populating a CRM, matching accounts, creating segments or comparing openings and closures.

How can RestaurantData records be mapped into a CRM?

RestaurantData supports API integrations for HubSpot and Salesforce. Records can be matched using names, addresses, telephone numbers, domains, geography, Unique IDs and identifiers. In Salesforce, RestaurantData data can populate a custom object through a nightly refresh. Where relationships are verified, the object can represent the location and its operator or franchisee, brand or concept, parent, grandparent and ultimate parent in Salesforce’s hierarchy. A RestaurantData Unique ID provides a persistent reference when names, addresses, ownership or operating status change.

How do location, company, brand and parent records relate?

RestaurantData develops hierarchies from either direction according to available evidence. Corporate disclosures may allow research to move from a parent downward through concepts, brands, operators, franchisees and locations. Other research begins with an individual restaurant and moves upward through its D/B/A name, legal entity, operator or franchisee, brand and parents.

The structures can overlap. An operator may own locations under several proprietary concepts while also operating franchised locations for an unrelated brand. RestaurantData reconciles top-down and bottom-up evidence where possible. Some organizations have supported connections across every applicable level; others remain partially connected because names, legal entities and operating relationships vary or are not fully disclosed.

How can RestaurantData records be used for market segmentation?

Users can organize records by geography, unit count, cohort, service type, cuisine, alcohol service, check-average range, technology, development activity, contacts and other searchable attributes. Saved searches preserve selected criteria, while custom cohorts can compare companies at similar stages, define an ideal customer profile or identify white space in a customer file.

How should openings and closures be compared?

Opening and closure records should be read according to the stated period, population, cohort and methodology. RestaurantData can prepare a private omnibus output containing applicable opening and closure populations for a defined client scope. The populations can be compared over short or extended periods to calculate net location differences. Subscribers can also request on-demand analysis by cohort, geography or company group.

Public reports may present openings alone, closures alone, selected cohorts or both populations. A figure represents net location change only when the opening and closure populations and calculation are expressly stated. New Weekly Alerts is an early-development publication, not a retrospective census of every opening.

How should blank, Unknown, Estimated and Projected values be handled?

These values have different meanings. A blank field is unpopulated because a supportable value is unavailable. Unknown means the evidence does not establish the value. Estimated identifies a supported current or historical value derived through a stated method. Projected describes an expected future value or event. None should automatically be read as zero, no or not applicable.

Can these definitions support analytical and AI-assisted workflows?

The definitions provide reference context for analytical systems, data mapping and AI-assisted review by establishing the meaning of fields, record types, hierarchy levels and research statuses. Some data teams describe location-to-parent structures as nested relationships. RestaurantData may develop them from corporate entities downward, locations upward or both.

Coverage varies by company and is not represented as perfect or ubiquitous. Where evidence supports the connections, records can roll from a location through an operator or franchisee to a brand, parent and ultimate parent. Custom research and entity resolution are available when a client requires additional company-to-location or location-to-parent connections.

Frequently asked questions

How does RestaurantData use Franchise Disclosure Documents?

RestaurantData reviews newly issued restaurant FDDs annually, standardizes relevant Item 19 and Item 20 information, compares multiple filing years and reconciles the disclosures with Atlas, public records, company disclosures and operating-location research. The process can identify outlet growth, company-owned and franchised mix, signed but unopened agreements, closures, transfers and changes in franchisee ownership without treating every ownership change as a restaurant closure.

What is a RestaurantData record?

A RestaurantData record is anchored to a restaurant, covered foodservice or company headquarters location and tied to an identified entity. Personnel, KPIs, technology, development activity and hierarchy relationships can be connected to that record.

Is a brand the same as a company?

A brand and a company can share the same name, but they are not necessarily the same entity. A brand or concept can sit beneath a parent or holding company, can have its own headquarters and can connect to franchisees, operating companies and other child entities.

Does unknown mean no?

Unknown means objective evidence was unavailable at the time of research and the evidence was also insufficient for a supportable research judgment. Unknown does not mean no, none or zero.

Does a planned location count as open?

Planned and open are separate research states. Approximately 99.5% of the planned locations retained and tracked by RestaurantData eventually open, but a location is not treated as open until confirmed.

Does EPI predict restaurant performance?

EPI organizes documented expansion in three-month periods and shows short-term expansion arcs. The activity can be a growth indicator, but it is not a prediction of financial or operating performance.

How frequently is RestaurantData re-verified?

Daily cleanliness and data hygiene are continuous. The broader directory is scanned and re-verified approximately every three to four months, POS coverage is re-verified twice each year, and FDDs are reviewed annually as updated filings become available.

What franchisee capital and financing risks can FDD research reveal?

FDDs and attached agreements can disclose estimated investment, fixed assets, supplier restrictions, remodeling obligations, system upgrades and other capital commitments. Balloon maturities can expose operators to higher renewal rates, tighter underwriting, additional equity requirements or lender refusal, while required projects may have to follow the franchisor’s timetable, specifications and approved-vendor rules. RestaurantData evaluates those disclosures separately from the operator’s actual debt structure and later financial condition, which may require court records, lender filings, company disclosures or direct research.

Does RestaurantData use temporarily closed as an operating status?

RestaurantData evaluates temporary-closure signals as part of the evidence for a location, but does not use temporarily closed as a separate directory status. Unless objective research confirms a closure, the location remains open in the active restaurant universe.

How does RestaurantData review and retain restaurant closures?

RestaurantData periodically reviews the full active restaurant-location universe in Atlas to determine whether each location remains in business at its recorded address. A confirmed closure is removed from the active restaurant universe but retained as a historical location record with its supported opening and closure timing, ownership connections and other available KPIs. Closure status applies to restaurant and covered foodservice locations, not to headquarters or company records.

How should public closure totals be interpreted?

Each public closure report should be read according to its stated period, population and methodology. RestaurantData may publish closures alone, compare closures with openings, or calculate net location change. A closure total represents net change only when the report expressly includes the corresponding opening population and states the net calculation.

What is the publication scope of New Weekly Alerts?

New Weekly Alerts is designed to publish qualifying restaurant-development activity at the earliest lawful and supportable stage. It is not a retrospective census of every restaurant opening. A restaurant first discovered after it is already operating is generally added to Atlas as an operating location rather than published as a new-opening alert, unless the circumstances qualify under another development status.