New Openings

8 Hottest Restaurant Concepts in 2024

September 25, 2024

Here’s what’s trending in the hospitality industry at the moment.

With thousands of restaurants opening each year, there’s no shortage of concept ideas. We scanned through media coverage about new restaurants in 20 U.S. cities to find patterns and trends about what’s hot currently.

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What is a Restaurant Concept?

Simply put, a restaurant concept is your theme. It’s a culmination of the type of menu you have, your serving style, and the aesthetic you create. It informs your restaurant branding and everything that follows, including the restaurant’s name, logo, interior design, and mission statement.

8 Trending Restaurant Concepts

To truly stand out in a saturated market, your concept needs to be memorable. From women’s sports bars to pickleball parlors to listening bars, these are the top eight types of concepts seeing traction in 2024.

1. Reimagined Indoor Spaces

Many restaurateurs are making use of nontraditional venues like former bank vaults, churches, schools — even jails and mortuaries.

La Grande Boucherie in Washington D.C. opened in April 2024 inside a historic bank building that had been abandoned for many decades. Swim Club in Austin, Texas is a once-used indoor swimming pool turned restaurant that opened in June 2024.

Source: Swim Club Austin Instagram

2. Women’s Sports Bars

Even though media attention of women’s sports has tripled over the past few years, it still only makes up 15% of sports coverage. Walk into any sports bar across the country and chances are men’s sports will be streaming. There’s a movement happening to change that — it’s a new generation of sports bars for women, by women.

A Bar of Their Own — a playful spin on the name of Virginia Woolf’s book A Room of One's Own — in Minneapolis, Minnesota exclusively streams women’s sports. The Sports Bra in Portland, Oregon, which opened in April 2022, recently announced its franchising program to bring the concept nationwide.

3. Australian-Inspired Cafes

You might be wondering — what exactly is Australian-inspired food? There’s a heavy focus on “brekkie” (Australian slang for breakfast) including avocado toast, benedicts, and a lot of acai bowls & smoothies. Whatever it is, it’s in right now.

Dudleys is an Australian pub and bistro in New York City. The spot serves brekkie until 4pm and then turns to a pasta-and-burger-focused dinner menu. Two Hands is an all-day cafe serving Australian-inspired food in Texas, Colorado, Tennessee, and New York while Bluestone Lane is a coffee roaster with cafes in nine states.

Source: Dudleys Instagram

4. Pickleball Parlors

Doesn’t it seem like everyone’s into pickleball these days? It’s surged in popularity over the past few years, and restaurant owners are taking notice.

Painted Pickle in Atlanta, Georgia is a 32,500 square foot space with eight indoor pickleball courts, a stage for live music, and a putting green. The food features a full list of shareables, from salads to sushi rolls to charcuterie boards.

PKL in Boston, Massachusetts is a similar concept. It’s a slightly smaller venue at 22,000 square feet, but it boasts five indoor pickleball courts with two bars and dining areas. The team serves upscale bar food like housemade French onion dip and wagyu pigs in a blanket, and each drink on the cocktail menu is named after a celebrity.

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5. Open-Fire Cooking Kitchens

Certain concepts are bringing the heat — quite literally. Ember Kitchen in Austin, Texas and Leña in Detroit, Michigan both tout cooking over flames as their differentiators. Ember uses a Josper oven in its kitchen for “live-fire cooking with Latin flare.” Leña, which means firewood in Spanish, has a built-in hearth in the kitchen and uses the language “kissed by fire” in its marketing materials.

Source: Leña Instagram

6. Robot-Powered Restaurants

Automation might be the hottest thing in hospitality right now. From AI to robots, there’s much interest in how technology is enhancing the dining experience.

Kernel in New York, New York is the latest on the scene. The brainchild of Chipotle founder Steve Ells, this plant-forward fast-casual concept uses robots for food prep. CaliExpress by Flippy just finished up a run as a pop-up in Pasadena, California (Flippy is the name of the robot designed by robotics company Miso).

7. Retro Diners

There’s that saying: everything old is new again. That’s certainly the case for 1950s-looking diners, which are back in style.

The latest concept from Berg Hospitality Group — and its first foray in fast-casual — is a nod to the American soda fountain experience called Buttermilk Baby in Houston, Texas. The spot serves up comfort food like fried chicken, buttermilk biscuits, and burgers. There’s also soft serve ice cream, thanks to a partnership with the iconic Carvel ice cream brand.

Source: Buttermilk Baby Website

8. Listening Bars

Listening bars originated in Japan but have since expanded across the United States. In a piece called What Is a Listening Bar and Why Are They Everywhere? published by Eater in February 2024, the food media publication shed light on the trend.

Foxhole in Miami, Florida turns into a vinyl listening bar at 11pm, offering a chill alternative to the city’s well-known nightlife. The 36-seat cocktail and listening bar Eavesdrop in Brooklyn serves small bites and natural wines while its state-of-the-art sound system plays records. Commune in Atlanta, Georgia tapped an architectural acoustician and audio engineer who had a hand in redesigning the Sydney Opera House for its design layout. The team has a wine program focused on boutique producers and a globally-inspired menu.

Ready for Your Own Restaurant Concept?

If you’re ready to open your own restaurant, nailing the concept is key. In general, there are 14 main types of restaurants. Use these as a base to get started. When brainstorming through a restaurant idea, consider the following questions:

Will you offer table service or counter service?
What type of cuisine will you offer?
What’s unique about your menu?
Picture the decor. What does it look like?
What ambiance and vibe do you want to cultivate?
Is there a name in mind?

We’re experts in new restaurant openings here at BentoBox. Connect with us to set up your website, launch online ordering, set up a merchandise store, sell gift cards, and more. Book time here.