4 emerging FAFH segments you may not know about 

 

 

CHICAGO, September 29, 2025 — Chick-fil-A turned heads in the food-away-from-home industry last week with the disclosure it’s following Taco Bell, KFC, and a host of other quicks-service giants in spinning off a beverage-focused concept. The venture, called DayBright Coffee & Refreshment, will feature smoothies, blended coffee drinks, fruit and vegetable juices, and complementary foods not available in a Chick-fil-A restaurant. 

 

The move, coinciding with KFC’s purchase of 13 PDQ restaurants for conversion to beverage-heavy Saucy by KFC locations, is validation that drinks specialists are carving out a small but growing sector of the business. In addition to recent converts like Taco Bell, with its Cafe, and McDonald’s CosMc’s, whose drinks menu is being co-opted into the mother brand, the market includes fast-growing operations like 7 Brew, Swig, Dutch Bros, Tropical Smoothie Cafe, and the now-beverage-focused Dunkin’.  

 

The situation has some trend-watchers wondering what type of restaurant might be the next sort to take off as a market darling. 

 

Here are some possibilities drawing attention. 

 

Deep-immersion concepts 

 

Every evening from a typical Friday through the following Thursday, a relatively small group of adventure-seekers in Phoenix take their seats within a reconstructed 1970s-vintage commercial airliner for a 90-minute excursion likely to set them back a few hundred dollars. Yet their aim is to go nowhere but back in time, to the days when traveling by air still held some glamor.  

 

As customers of a new dining concept called Carry On, the “passengers” have purchased tickets for the experience of flying during those bygone days when travelers dressed up for flights, enjoyed elaborate inflight meals, and eased into their trip with a cocktail or two. The menus feature the signature dishes of the exotic locations guests can imagine they’re leaving or about to visit. Yet they’ll never leave the ground. 

 

Instead, they’ll enjoy complimentary peanuts and shortbread cookies while buying drinks and deciding whether they want to spring for the $100 Captain’s Club ticket, the upgrade to first class that entitles them to a four-course tasting menu and three craft cocktails of their choice. 

 

The charge is in addition to what they paid for a ticket to board, which cost them $40 for a party of two, $50 for three guests, and $90 for five or more. A limited number of tickets are released every Monday to reserve seats for the following Friday through Thursday. 

 

Carry On is a prime example of a new type of restaurant whose major draw is offering patrons a deeply immersive experience. Some describe them as eatertainment outlets on steroids—attractions that go to extremes to provide an escape.  

 

The mini-sector recently drew attention when another concept that fits the bill, four-unit Level99, drew a $50 investment from Panera Bread founder Ron Shaich. The outlets feature rooms where guests have to solve a puzzle or pull off a physical feat to advance to the next room and challenge. The patrons wear a wristband that gives them access to each stage or level and tabulates their scores, which are displayed for all to see.  

 

Shaich has described Level99 as the most exciting concept he’s embraced, and that includes Cava as well as Panera.  

 

The concept is not intended to eventually dot every streetcorner. Units are located near highly trafficked draws like tourist destinations. 

 

Seafood-boil specialists 

 

Red Lobster’s addition of seafood boils—essentially boil-in-bag medleys of seafoods and vegetables—drew plenty of attention this summer, largely because it was the casual-dining chain’s first major action aimed at resuscitating the ailing brand. Less noticed was the validation it gave the handful of concepts that have sprung up in recent years with menus sporting little else than seafood boils—up-and-comers like Boiling Crab, Crafty Crab, The Juicy Crab, Red Crab, and Angry Crab Shack, to name just a sampling. 

 

All are still small, but they enjoy considerable pro-growth attributes. For one thing, they lend themselves to franchising because their operations are relatively simple. Cooking consists of steaming the sealed bags of seafood and extras, and the plating amounts to putting the bags in a bowl. Little skill is needed. 

 

The concepts are also a good deal, relatively speaking. Personal experience has shown that the protein-rich entrees tend to be priced much closer to a hamburger platter than, say, a salmon filet. 

 

Plus, many of the brands offer beer, wine, and popular cocktails like margaritas, offsetting the squeeze on margins from expensive ingredients like crab and shrimp. 

 

Exclusive clubs 

 

Restaurants serving the limousine travelers of cities like New York, Miami, and Washington may be seeing their clientele eroded by the return of private clubs, the cathedrals of conspicuous consumption that were once a hospitality staple.  

 

These are not the stale old places where rich ancestors would enjoy a cigar after mediocre lunches with their bankers. The new generation is ultra-exclusive, with admittance strictly limited and membership fees running far into six figures.  

 

If you want to hobnob with the forces behind the Make America Great Again movement, for instance, your best bet may be joining the Executive Club, a new members-only establishment in Washington, D.C. that was started in part by Donald Trump, Jr.  

 

Merely joining will cost you $500,000 a year. Yet the club opened earlier this year with a long waiting list. 

 

For that kind of money, the club offers restaurant-caliber fare and top-name wines and spirits.  

 

Similar establishments are now serving the elites of most large American cities, with the top requirement being an ability to afford the steep membership fee.  

 

Although the number of establishments has grown quickly, the sector has yet to assume much of a form. Menus vary widely, as do annual meal-purchase requirements and the methods by which the places are resupplied. 

 

Chefs who make house calls 

 

Hiring a chef to cook a special meal in your home is nothing new. But the concept is getting a twist from AirBnB, the service that started as a way for budget-conscious travelers to book accommodations for less than they’d spend at a hotel. Instead of staying at a Hilton or a Marriott, early users would rent all or part of someone’s home. 

 

The service has run into major resistance in many of the markets it serves, with local hotels demanding that AirBnB landlords pay the same taxes and fees they do. The resulting rise in the cost of the accommodations has been a damper on bookings. 

 

Now AirBnB is trying to reinvigorate its business model by stressing that its accommodations provide a far richer experience than what you’d get from a cookie-cutter chain hotel. To sharpen the message, it recently added a service whereby hot local chefs will come to your AirBnB accommodation to prepare a meal as the guests watch and learn. 

 

Of course, the service carries an extra fee.  

 

In Chicago, for instance, visiting parties pay $179 a head for a four-course meal, beverages not included. A customized sushi meal runs about $250 per person.  

 

Preparation of the meal is part chef demo and part out-of-the-ordinary indulgence. AirBnB has yet to reveal what sort of return it has enjoyed from the new service but is continuing to tout the offer via tv commercials.  

 

 

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