Restaurants to Watch: Fishbowl Releases 2018 Emerging Brands Report

Fishbowl, a data, marketing, and analytics solution provider that serves the restaurant industry, released its fifth annual “Emerging Brands Report” last week. The report identified the 30 upcoming brands for 2018 “that exhibit a strong promise of potential growth in the near future and embrace progressive developments that are both innovative and unique.”
 
In the report, the top 10 brands included (in order) True Food Kitchen, Bareburger, Harvest Seasonal Grill, Tupelo Honey, La Colombe Coffee, Lazy Dog, Mendocino Farms, HopCat, and Cava Grill.
 
This year, the Fishbowl Social Score was used in ranking the brands. The Social Score uses KPI’s to rate restaurants’ success in social media on a 1-10 scale.
 
According to Fishbowl, the scores are calculated across multiple social media channels using the sentiment score derived from the mining and analysis of consumer feedback, frequency measures from ratings and check-ins per location, and the Enthusiasm Index based on the number of “buzz phrases” in collected data.
 
Fast casual, casual dining, and polished casual are the three segments that make up the list this year. Polished casual and casual both increased their presence on the list this year, conversely fast casual declined.
 
Casual dining increased its presence from seven to 10 on the list this year. Polished casual increased its presence to nine, as opposed to the four spots it had last year. Fast casual only has 11 on the list this year, whereas last year they had 20.
 
The 10 brands on the list excelled the most in five key areas: food, ambiance, service, price, and beverage.
 
True Food Kitchen has the highest positive food mentions, with 41 percent, followed by Cava Grill and Harvest with 37 percent each.
 
The ambiance of La Colombe Coffee was the most enjoyable for customers at 29 percent, with HopCat in a close second at 28 percent, and Harvest and True Food Kitchen both at 27.
 
From a service standpoint, Tupelo Honey led the way at 26 percent. Lazy Dog was second in terms of service at 25 percent.
 
La Colombe Coffee and Harvest had the best price and value in the eyes of reviewers with 17 and 12 percent, respectively.
 
Lazy Dog and La Colombe led the way in beverage positivity, with 14 percent, followed by 13 percent for the latter.
 

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