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Millennials are killing casual dining chain restaurants

Jon said:
there is a really good little place for fresh seafood right down the street from my place in FL. I ate there last week and 1/2 the crowd was eating alaskan king crab legs, which of course only come frozen from the northern pacific. I asked the owner one time and he just shrugged "If I don't have them people get ....y and don't come back, they don't care that they are exactly the same as available where they live"
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Post is useless without the name of the place.

Unless you're trying to keep all of us hooligans from blowing up your spot.
 
bamaphd@una said:
We always go to Dewey Destin's, the original...looks like a dump off the main drag, but oh my!!! Start with their grilled shrimp!!! Oh and for steak on the beach there, McGuire's. Get the ribeye...fantastic!!
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For dessert head to Callahan's Deli. We actually were talking about getting dessert at McGuire's and the server told us to go to Callahan's and he was very correct. The cakes there are baked by a couple of little old ladies that do amazing work. The regular food there is also decent but it's just basic American Deli fare. Which can be nice to mix in on a long stay.
 
Most of the best eats in the Destin/Sandestin area are along 30A.

For breakfast, in Destin, we like the Donut Hole, The Pancakery, and Another Broken Egg. However, if you hop over toward 30A, there's another Donut Hole on 98 just before the 30A turnoff and there's an Another Broken Egg on 30A at Grayton Beach. Then there's also The Perfect Pig on 30A at Gulf Place or in Seagrove Beach.

For lunch or dinner, here's a pretty good list:
Dune Allen Beach:
- Stinky's Fish Camp ***** Best seafood in the area
Gulf Place:
- The Perfect Pig
- La Playa - Haven't sampled the lunch/dinner menu but have heard great things, and it's great for late-evening music.
Blue Mountain Beach:
- Marie's Bistro
- Johnny McTighe's Irish Pub - To be honest, the food's not that great and it's not really Irish but, for some reason, we like it. :)
Grayton Beach:
- The Red Bar - Excellent food. Good for a semi-quiet lunch or for late-evening dinner and music.
- Abrazo
- The Craft Bar
Seaside:
- The food trucks - you'll have to stand in line but some really good walking-around fare
- Bud & Alley's
- The Gathering Spot
Seagrove Beach:
- The Perfect Pig
- Cafe 30A
- Steamboat Bar & Grill

We've heard some good things about a couple of places in Seacrest and Alys Beach but, thus far, haven't made it that far south along 30A. :)

While we haven't done it, for anyone who charters a fishing boat out into the gulf, I've heard that both Stinky's and The Red Bar are willing to prepare your catch for you.

For dessert, we like the aforementioned Donut Hole, The Creamery & La Lobas Bakery in Blue Mountain Beach, and Heavenly's Shortcakes in Seaside.

Finally, for our beer lovers, there's Growler's Garage in Santa Rosa Beach and, off of 98 due north of Watersound, the taprooms of Grayton Beer Company and Idyll Hounds Brewing about a quarter-mile away from each other.

An interesting note, Seaside is a bit of a tourist location for several reasons, one of which is that it was the primary filming location for The Truman Show.
 
I'm not sure if its as much the Millennials as it is the saturation of restaurants in the restaurant industry. Take where I live for example. In the most popular and wealthiest part of town there is a "crisis" of businesses closing their doors. The overwhelming majority of the businesses that are closing aren't retail stores, but restaurants. The shopping strip (on both sides of the rode) is packed with eateries. There's simply too many of them for the amount of people who shop up and down that strip.

Then add to the saturation problem, Americans' have come accustomed to "cheap" prices. Sure, you have your segment who has the attitude of "I'd be willing to be pay more for better quality". But that's not the majority of Americans, that's not the masses. The majority of Americans have the mindset of "I want higher quality for cheap prices." Which in the restaurant business is very hard to do.
 
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Bamabuzzard said:
Maybe we can send some y'alls way. There's a new restaurant opening and closing seemingly every week here.
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It would be nice. I get tired of Moe’s/Willy’s, Orient Express, Figo, and random sandwich places and the Publix hot bar. Chik-Fil-A and Five Guys are only good once a month or 2 and I don’t do any other fast food. There are 3 good pizza places here. The rest of the places are sit down for 2 hours type places. There needs to be some good lunch places that do take-out. We have an Anther Broken Egg here that used to be pretty good but it has gone downhill and I haven’t been back in over a year. A really good BBQ place would be ideal (preferably not a chain).
 
MattinBama said:
Post is useless without the name of the place

Unless you're trying to keep all of us hooligans from blowing up your spot.
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actually not the first place I would recommend in the area that would be Killer Seafood in Mexico Beach, the owners there would laugh and tell you to pound sand if you complained about not having crab legs
 
DzynKingRTR said:
It would be nice. I get tired of Moe’s/Willy’s, Orient Express, Figo, and random sandwich places and the Publix hot bar. Chik-Fil-A and Five Guys are only good once a month or 2 and I don’t do any other fast food. There are 3 good pizza places here. The rest of the places are sit down for 2 hours type places. There needs to be some good lunch places that do take-out. We have an Anther Broken Egg here that used to be pretty good but it has gone downhill and I haven’t been back in over a year. A really good BBQ place would be ideal (preferably not a chain).
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You have better options on UberEATS for lunch?
 
2003TIDE said:
IMO they suffer from the same problem as malls and box stores. Market oversaturation. Everyone likes blaming millennials, but there are too many restaurants out there. 60% of restaurants fail in the first 3 years anyway
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Is that all? Around 90% new businesses fail in the first 3 years. I guess the chain restaurants are already established, as a business model. A new location could have different closure rates.
 
Jon said:
absolutely. When I have a lunch meeting and someone recommends one I will usually chime in with something local or several options of local. Especially in the great food city that Atlanta has become. What boggles my mind is that there is an Olive Garden smack dab in the middle of Times Square just a few blocks north of Little Italy and the Olive Garden is never empty when I'm in the City. Reminds me of Michael Scott going to Sbaro for "authentic NY Pizza" on an episode of the office.
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I've been sick, for several days. Thought I was on the mend, until I read this. It may be several more days before I am able to return.

(And the crowd cheers!)
 
But seriously the casual dining chain restaurant is nothing to get worked up over...I'm glad my generation is killing it. The world doesn't really need Chili's or Applebee's. I'd rather have more locally owned businesses even if the turnover is higher...
 
rgw said:
But seriously the casual dining chain restaurant is nothing to get worked up over...I'm glad my generation is killing it. The world doesn't really need Chili's or Applebee's. I'd rather have more locally owned businesses even if the turnover is higher...
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Using the Wal-mart analogy (but on a smaller level). Chili's and Applebee's (as examples) have better buying power than local establishments, so they can afford to offer lower prices than more one-shot restaurants. They also have more staying power in a bad economy.....they can afford to lose a bit for a short time - until things turn over. One-shots usually cannot do that.

Chili's and Applebee's each have well over 1000 units each. I personally eat at neither, because the food quality has gotten so bad. But, for many people, they love it....

They hire 10's of thousands of people nationwide -- one-shots simply won't do that, and most will often hire people they know or trust -- which, in turn, will hurt many segments of our country who need these jobs.

I know things shift/change, etc....but for people who get caught up in the "old way" -- it's sure going to be tough for them to adjust.

I saw where McDonald's is moving more and more to multi-kiosk order-takers. One person can now take six+ orders at once....vs having six cashiers. (That's another story, but part of the same - shift)
 
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