3 key trends and strategies for building resilience in the restaurant industry

Left to right: Photo of Chef D’Andre Carter from Soul & Smoke; photo of smoked prime brisket, smoked duroc rib tips, and signature mac and cheese from Yelp user Christopher V.

Think of the fifth-largest employer in the United States. Is your first guess a retail giant or a tech corporation? You might be surprised: It’s independent restaurants. According to a 2024 James Beard Foundation report, independent restaurants employ 3.9 million people, pay $75 billion in wages, and generate $209 billion in annual revenue across the country.

Despite their significant impact, most restaurants operate with slim profit margins—typically just 3–5%—while grappling with high operating costs amid economic uncertainty, making restaurant ownership today a true labor of love.

“I always think about the restaurant industry as the only one where the CEO is also the one in charge of taking out the trash and cleaning the walk-in and doing the dishes when someone doesn’t show up,” said Dr. Anne McBride, vice president of impact at the James Beard Foundation. “There’s no other industry that’s like that, so it requires a lot of passion and dedication.”

Beyond its well-known awards, the James Beard Foundation conducts research to help independent restaurants navigate challenges in the industry. Below, Dr. Anne shares three major trends and strategies for building resilience in today’s independent restaurant landscape. Plus, hear from Chef D’Andre Carter of Soul & Smoke Chicago, James Beard Foundation Award-winning chef Roy Choi, and other local restaurateurs about what’s working for them.

1. Balancing higher operating costs with transparency and strategy

Unsurprisingly, one of the biggest issues facing restaurants today is rising costs. According to the James Beard Foundation’s 2025 Independent Restaurant Industry Report, 91% of surveyed restaurants increased menu prices last year to accommodate for high operating costs and already thin profit margins.

So far, most customers have been willing to pay a bit more, with many restaurants able to raise prices by 5–10% without losing guests. However, the report found profitability drops when increases exceed 15%, suggesting there’s a ceiling to this strategy.

Over the past few years, the most important thing I realized is you have to adjust your price points to protect the performance of the business, and then you have to identify who appreciates your product and how [to] target that particular market. I know it sounds simple, but there’s a strategy you have to impart in the business to actually do that and get in front of that population.

— Nate Thurston, co-owner of Millers All Day in Charleston, South Carolina

Dr. Anne recommends being open with guests about price increases. “Don’t be afraid to tell your diners what’s going on in your business—why certain things have changed in price, why a dish might not be there anymore, etc.,” she said. “It’s really important because a lot of diners don’t understand the realities of the business right now, and they don’t necessarily connect that they’re paying more at the grocery store, and chefs are paying more also at their grocery store, even if it’s a bigger one.”

Photo of Soul & Smoke co-founders and partners Chef D’Andre Carter and Heather Bublick from Soul & Smoke

Successful restaurateurs are also finding ways to add value to the dining experience, offsetting higher costs for the customer. At Soul & Smoke, a barbeque joint with three locations across the Chicago area, Chef D’Andre has seen success with:

• Adjusting high-margin menu items: Chef D’Andre adjusts pricing at the menu item level to maximize profitability while matching customer expectations.
• Minimizing waste: “We’ve been looking at the menu mix… you know, things like [our Cajun Dirty Rice], that’s a dish where we take greens that would normally be wasted, [and] we make a delicious thing out of that.”
• Being transparent with the customers: “We make social media videos about [supply and demand]. We just want people to feel that you’re able to come here to Soul & Smoke and have a really good experience.”

Dr. Anne also urges restaurants to consider strategic investments, especially in staff. “Our data showed that there’s a greater increase in profit when employees feel a lot of satisfaction and get higher pay,” she said. Soul & Smoke, for example, adopted a service charge model to better compensate employees, which has a ripple effect for customers and the business’s bottom line.

In addition to providing paid sick leave, paid parental leave, and paying people well—which we do—people want to work in a place where they feel like the brand represents who they are. I hope and believe that’s why [Immigrant Food’s] turnover is very low. People end up growing in the company and then take on bigger and bigger roles.

— Téa Ivanovic, co-founder of Immigrant Food in Washington, D.C.

2. Stepping out of your comfort zone (and into the social media spotlight)

Making great food is just the beginning. According to D’Andre, cuisine isn’t enough to survive in the industry today; you also need to provide 5-star service, a pleasant ambiance, and a seamless customer experience—not to mention marketing, social media, and publicity to get guests in the door.

“Being a chef these days is just not about cooking the food,” D’Andre said. “You’ve got to learn how to work with technology. You have to be comfortable with social media. You have to be a mentor. You have to be a community activist. It’s so many different layers of being a chef in today’s world, and it shows that the industry is growing and evolving.”

Our guests want food that’s representing the people who are making it. Having good food, having good ingredients—that’s the basics. That’s what you need just to stay in business. But what really resonates with diners right now is food that’s telling a story, either about where the chef is from and what they are trying to do, or a story of ingredients, farmers, or why a specific ingredient is being sourced. And I think what Holbox has done well is just tell the story of my upbringing as a Mexican, as an immigrant, and as a chef.

— Chef Gilberto Cetina, owner of Holbox in Los Angeles, #1 on Yelp’s Top 100 Places to Eat 2025

Chefs are evolving with the times, too. For example, D’Andre said he initially struggled with being himself on social media. Online engagement didn’t come easily to him, but he knew it was an important skill to develop in order to expand his business’s following. Today, he regularly shares updates and behind-the-scenes footage with his 32k+ Instagram followers.

“As the industry changes, you have to be open, you have to be comfortable, you have to be resilient. That’s pretty much how you’re making it today—it’s like stepping outside of your comfort zone. You got to be okay with that,” he said.

These days, many diners’ first impression of your restaurant is online, whether it’s scrolling through Instagram or landing on your Yelp Page. Building an authentic online presence can help you turn passive viewers into loyal customers.

“You really have to make the experience of visiting you a differentiator, and [very often] it does start online,” Dr. Anne said. “What you might see in a restaurant’s account or in a chef’s account makes you want to go there.”

You’re a story capturer. You’re already doing the things that people want to know about, [like] bringing people behind the scenes and showing them what it’s like to run a barbecue business in San Diego… Some of our best performing content is when I’m just live streaming at my restaurant, where Bernice, our pitmaster, is preparing ribs on the smoker. I’m talking about the process and why we’re doing the things that we’re doing. It’s a chance for us to build a connection.

— Shawn Walchef, owner of Cali BBQ in San Diego

3. Engaging today’s diners through a purpose-driven approach

As dining out becomes more expensive, customers are getting increasingly selective about where they spend their money, often choosing to support businesses that align with their values.

“Where you are spending your money is really critical,” Dr. Anne said. “That’s part of the community [thinking]: ‘I know that this restaurant treats their staff well, sources their ingredients well, really cares about their food, brings a lot of joy to their community, and to me personally.’”

For many restaurants, purpose-driven approaches start internally, with better working conditions and pay structures for staff. In fact, a large majority of restaurants increased pay by more than 10% in 2024, according to the Independent Restaurant Industry Report.

We started [increasing] transparency—financially and otherwise—and started teaching people about the business. We started having them participate in it. That was a sea change because I think most companies any of us have ever worked in, restaurant or not, it’s very rare to have people share any meaningful financials or to engage collaboratively on figuring out how to improve them. But that really made a huge difference for us.

— Erin Wade, founder of Homeroom in Oakland and Berkeley, California

Chefs are also supporting their wider communities in new ways, from donating meals to victims of the Los Angeles wildfires to advocating for immigrant workers. D’Andre said he’s made the biggest impact with these outreach efforts at Soul & Smoke:

• Donating meals: Chef D’Andre partnered with Chef José Andres of World Central Kitchen, as well as the Evanston Community Foundation, to provide over 200,000 meals to the Chicago community during the pandemic.
• Hosting a community fridge: “Once COVID was over, we wanted to find a way to continue to connect with our community. So we added a community fridge, where we can prepare hot, well fresh meals that we can add in the community fridge every day.”
• Mobilizing via food truck: “We send the food truck out anytime [there’s] a disaster in the community or [there’s] something that’s really hard or compelling that someone wants to support. We try to be available to support the community in that sense.”

Not sure where to start? Dr. Anne encourages restaurant owners to meet with their staff and pick a few causes that they care about, where they can also have the biggest impact locally.

“We have some chefs in our ecosystem who meet with their teams once a year and they decide collectively, and then that goes on the website,” she said. “And when someone makes an ask, they can point to: ‘Here is our manifesto this year for impact, for example, and what we’re supporting.’”

I really listen to my team. I try to pose questions. I try to take a strong stance for certain decisions, and then open it up to the room because that’s how we operate in the kitchen.

— Roy Choi, James Beard Foundation Award-winning chef and owner of Kogi BBQ

These lessons come from an episode of Behind the Review, Yelp & Entrepreneur Media’s weekly podcast. Watch or listen below to hear more from Dr. Anne and D’Andre, or visit the show homepage to learn about the show and find more episodes.