Restaurant Online Ordering Recap: Platform Rankings & Combinations

What the Data Shows: 3 Key Trend Patterns

This analysis tracks U.S. restaurant development activity from March 2020 through late 2024, covering approximately 4.5 years of weekly legal filings and verified restaurant opening records. The period begins with the pandemic shutdown and follows the recovery and subsequent stabilization of new restaurant activity.

Key headline: Restaurantdata.com recorded an average of approximately 531 verified new restaurant openings per week across the full tracked period. Recent weekly totals generally ranged from 300 to 550 openings, with many locations identified during the pre-opening stage.

Key Trend Observations

Verified openings recovered and moved into a sustained weekly range. New restaurant activity dropped sharply during the initial 2020 shutdown and recovered through 2021. Weekly opening totals later became more consistent, with periodic peaks and recent activity frequently reaching the upper end of the 300-to-550 range.

DBA and business-formation filings were more volatile than verified openings. DBA registrations, incorporations, and LLC filings fluctuated considerably from week to week. These records identify early business activity, but not every filing represents a new restaurant location that will ultimately open.

Alcohol permit activity was comparatively steady. Combined alcohol filings varied less than DBA, incorporation, construction, and other raw records. The pattern reflects a continuing base of full-service restaurant, bar, and alcohol-serving concept development throughout the tracked period.

Weekly Opening Trends: March 2020 – Late 2024

The three charts below track weekly activity across five measures: DBA filings, incorporation and LLC formations, combined alcohol permits, total raw filings, and verified net new restaurant openings. The series begins with the week the pandemic shutdown started and continues through the end of the tracked period.

How the Filing Categories Compare

DBA filings and incorporations and LLCs: Both categories fluctuated throughout the period. Incorporation and LLC formations generally showed greater week-to-week variation, reflecting the uneven pace of new business-entity formation following the 2020 shutdown.

Combined alcohol permits and total raw filings: Alcohol permit filings remained relatively steady, while total raw filings covered a much wider range. The raw total includes several filing categories and is affected by changes in construction permits, DBA activity, business formations, and source availability across individual markets.

Verified net new restaurant openings: Verified openings followed a more stable pattern than the underlying raw filings. Restaurantdata.com removes duplicate records, checks activity against existing restaurant and chain-location data, and confirms that each retained record represents identifiable restaurant development.

Summary Statistics — Weekly Averages Since March 2020

The table below summarizes the weekly average, minimum, and maximum for each tracked measure across the full 4.5-year period.

* Total Raw represents the pre-vetted aggregate of legal and development records, including DBAs, LLCs, state incorporations, alcohol filings, and building permits. Net New Restaurant Openings reflects the verified weekly count after Restaurantdata.com removes duplicates, checks records against existing chain locations and headquarters data, and validates the location and restaurant activity.

From Raw Filings to Verified Openings

Raw filing totals are consistently higher than verified opening totals because a filing alone does not confirm that a new restaurant location is moving forward. Some records are duplicates, administrative changes, unrelated businesses, abandoned projects, or filings associated with an existing location.

Restaurantdata.com reviews DBA registrations, incorporation and LLC records, alcohol applications, building permits, and other development sources. Records are de-duplicated, matched against existing restaurant and chain-location data, assigned to the correct geography, and retained when they represent identifiable restaurant opening activity.