Original RestaurantData research on restaurant openings, closures, expansion, ownership, franchising and industry trends across the United States and Canada.
What Is the Restaurant Research Center?
The Research Center brings together RestaurantData’s alerts, indexes, definitions, reports and brand expansion histories. Follow restaurant businesses from early development through opening, expansion and ownership changes, then use Atlas to examine the underlying company and location records.
Research at a Glance
Published Atlas and Dictionary coverage figures as of August 2026. A development record may describe a planned location; it is not necessarily a confirmed opening. Counts change as records are added, resolved and reverified.
Core Research & Methodologies
RestaurantData connects restaurant locations and concepts to their operating companies, franchise organizations and parent entities when supported by evidence. These resources explain the classifications and methods used throughout the research.
Restaurant Data Dictionary
Definitions for locations, development stages, operating cohorts, entities, ownership hierarchies and verification. Use this reference when interpreting a RestaurantData count or classification.
Restaurant Opening Analysis
How RestaurantData interprets verified opening and development activity by operator type, market, service format and other characteristics. A planned opening, confirmed opening and ownership transfer are distinct events.
Expansion Pressure Index™
A short-term view of concentrated, documented expansion by emerging and growing restaurant companies. EPI helps users prioritize research; it does not predict financial performance.
Restaurant Vector™
A long-term view of a brand’s expansion, tracing the timing and state reach of selected, verified opening and development signals. Compare current activity with earlier expansion periods to assess account and territory fit.
Restaurant Enterprise Index™
Connected research on larger restaurant enterprises, franchise organizations, multi-concept operators and parent companies, including ownership and development relationships.
Underlying research platform: Atlas by RestaurantData connects location, company, franchise, contact and development records. Subscribers can search and export the underlying records.
Latest Restaurant Research
Selected studies cover growing companies, expansion pressure and closures. Browse all posts in date order in Industry Insights.
Published September 19, 2026
Summer 2026 Growing Restaurant Companies and Emerging Concepts
RestaurantData examined documented development activity among multi-unit operators and emerging concepts, identifying named companies within a defined summer research file.
Published September 1, 2026
Biscuit Belly and Maman: Expansion Pressure
A comparison of documented growth in two operating-size cohorts, showing how the Expansion Pressure Index follows activity across periods and states.
Published July 21, 2026
First-Half 2026 Restaurant Closure Report
RestaurantData’s review of documented closure activity in the United States and Canada, with definitions and the January–June 2026 research period.
Restaurant Industry Data & Reports
These studies examine ownership, franchising, openings and closures. When citing a report, include its source, research period, geography and definitions.
Multi-Concept Restaurant Operators
RestaurantData’s analysis of 1,339 operators connects concepts, locations, company size and geography in a dated research extract.
Top 100 Restaurant Franchisors
Year-end 2025 U.S. franchise-system outlet counts and 2022–2025 changes, using disclosed franchise information and stated count definitions.
Summer 2026 Restaurant Opening Cross-Tab Analysis
Tables of 4,382 verified U.S. locations expected to open June through September 2026, analyzed by operator tier, geography, service style, cuisine and other characteristics.
Weekly Restaurant Opening Alerts
Verified location and development observations issued in weekly subscriber files and searchable through Atlas. These records also support published analyses; an alert is not the same as a confirmed opening.
Historical Research
The Historical Research Archive preserves earlier RestaurantData and RestaurantChains.net studies. Rankings, outlet counts and sales estimates retain their original publication dates and definitions; they do not represent current company counts.
How RestaurantData Conducts Research
- 1. DiscoverResearchers find legal and license filings, permits, local reporting and company disclosures. AI can help locate raw source material.
- 2. VerifyResearch systems flag potential matches and conflicts; human researchers check the evidence and determine what it supports.
- 3. Resolve entitiesResearchers classify locations, concepts, operators, franchisees and parent organizations using consistent definitions.
- 4. Connect recordsAtlas links supported child, parent, grandparent and ultimate-parent relationships. Unsupported connections remain unassigned.
- 5. AnalyzeResearchers compare verified activity by period, geography, operator size and ownership, separating planned locations from confirmed openings.
- 6. Publish and put to workDated reports explain the findings. Teams use Atlas records for account research, market segmentation and CRM workflows, including exports and API connections with Salesforce or HubSpot.
- 7. ReverifyContacts and decision makers are checked multiple times a year, with verification dates recorded. Companies are reviewed once or twice a year for operating status, ownership and expansion; new evidence can prompt additional updates.