These days, new hospitality trends seem to rise up and spread faster than ever before. It’s hard to open TikTok or Instagram without coming across yet another buzzy dish, drink, or service style. And as quickly as these trends appear, they often fade away just as quickly.
It can be difficult for a restaurant or bar to sift through the latest “it” concepts and figure out how to separate the flash-in-the-pan flukes from the ideas with real value (and maybe even with real staying power). Luckily, restaurateurs and bar owners have plenty of tools at their disposal to ease these challenges.
We asked a group of savvy owners and marketing pros to share their trend-spotting and trend-implementing secrets, and here’s what they had to say.
For many hospitality business owners, social media is an invaluable way to track trends.
As previously mentioned, social media has, in the 21st century, become one of the most important broadcasting systems for all types of trends, and many restaurateurs look to these platforms to discover the latest industry fashions.
“The main way I track trends would definitely be social media. I use Instagram a lot, and almost all of the people I follow on our company page are chefs, food influencers, and restaurants," says Sean Ferraro, owner of Madison Avenue Pizza in Dunedin, Florida. "I spend part of almost every day looking at what others are doing in the industry. If I see people posting about the same thing or influencers all rushing out to cover something popular, I will try to figure out if it's a good fit for us."
Ferraro pointed to “artisan cheesesteaks” as a trend that he spotted on social media and later incorporated into his menu. “The guys in Philly started using seeded bakery rolls and Cooper Sharp cheese instead of the traditional Amoroso rolls and American cheese or Cheez-Whiz. Everyone was talking about them online, especially the ones coming from Angelo's Pizza in Philly. Nobody was doing anything like it anywhere in Florida, so I actually flew to Philly several times to check out the popular spots and figure out what they were doing.”
This research led Ferraro to “spend months writing a Philly-style seeded roll recipe, and we developed a ‘Philly inspired’ cheesesteak that we could add to our menu. It's become one of our most popular menu items and has changed our whole kitchen; I had to buy new equipment just to keep up with the volume.”
Asking restaurant staffers to keep their ears to the ground where trends are concerned can yield useful intel.
Every restaurant and bar owner knows that their skilled employees are their business’s greatest assets. No one knows a restaurant better than those who work there, so asking trusted servers, bartenders, and cooks for their trend opinions will help owners find new ideas that are a perfect fit for their establishments. “We have consistent dialogue with our staff. That dialogue can uncover what other other local bars are doing successfully and unsuccessfully. The [staff members] are young, they go out a lot, and they often have second jobs at other restaurants or bars. That makes them valuable at intel in the local industry,” says Austin Swint, general manager of The Whiskey House in San Diego, California.
Swint tells us that his employees helped The Whiskey House pick up on the trend of additive-free tequila, "Savvy tequila drinkers are steering clear of distilleries that use additives, [and] when discussing this with my staff several months ago, they even turned me on to a phone app that will tell you which tequilas have additives, what additives they have, and, most importantly, which [tequilas] are additive-free.”
Swint says the discovery of this app enabled The Whiskey House to “scale back on the brands that have additives and add new brands that are certified additive-free,” boosting their tequila sales.
Vendors are able to spot trends and communicate them to collaborating restaurants, and franchises can gain intel through their peer network.
“Staying ahead of trends isn’t optional – it’s essential,” insists Ashley Mitchell, the VP of Marketing for East Coast Wings + Grill (based in North Carolina with locations also in South Carolina, Virginia, and Pennsylvania). One of the methods that Mitchell and ECW+G use to keep up with trends involves peer and partner networks, "I’m active in franchise marketing circles, so I’m constantly exchanging intel with marketers from other restaurant brands. We also gather feedback directly from our franchisees, which is a powerful indicator of local consumer trends. Our supply chain vendor partners are a huge piece of the puzzle, too – they see what’s trending across all of their partners and the industry and share those insights with us early.”
Pay attention to industry newsletters and publications.
B2B newsletters and publications (like Bar & Restaurant News) are key resources for restaurant and bar owners seeking trend information collected by researchers and reporters with intimate understandings of the hospitality industry. “I subscribe to Mark Brown's (Brown Foreman) Industry News update that tracks all tiers of the beverage industry in the USA. This newsletter provides excellent data describing the current supply and distribution climate. It also discusses national and state policies,” says Nick Quiñones, beverage director of Castellucci Hospitality Group in Atlanta, Georgia and Nashville, Tennessee.
Ian Mendelsohn, beverage director of Fifth Group Restaurants in Atlanta, tells us that “I receive several daily emails on different parts of the wine, spirits, beer and restaurant industry. The Silicon Valley Bank reports on the wine industry are required reading, as well as anything that Dr. Liz Thach, MW and her team produce at the Wine Market Council.”
AI tools like Google Trends and ChatGPT make it easier to analyze trend data.
It’s hard to think of an industry that isn’t currently affected by the rise of AI, and hospitality is no exception. Several enterprising restaurateurs have figured out how to take advantage of this technology by letting it analyze trend data, giving the restaurants streamlined insight that they can weave into their business practices. “We leverage AI tools to track emerging food trends and monitor what resonates with different audiences. For trend tracking, we mainly use Google Trends to see what’s gaining traction with consumers and ChatGPT to process industry reports, customer reviews, and social media conversations. These tools help us quickly spot shifts in dining choices, menu innovations, and marketing approaches so we can adapt them to the restaurant,” explains Damian Meak, owner of Yawdie Q in Brooklyn, New York.
Kelli Pilkington, VP of marketing for Flagship Restaurant Group (based in Nebraska but with restaurants in Arizona, Illinois, Alabama, Missouri, and more), adds that “our team regularly uses Meta and Google Analytics to provide analytical assistance and campaign performance insights. We also leverage Reveal Mobile, which allows us to take a sophisticated, location-based approach by narrowing in on specific geographic boundaries and audiences we want to reach. In addition, we’ve worked with platforms like Experian and Placer.ai, which help us tap into AI-powered data sets around consumer behavior, demographics, and movement trends.”
Pilkington says that these tools work together to “give us a blend of hard data and actionable insights, helping us understand who our guests are, how they engage with our brands, and where the biggest opportunities exist to meet them with meaningful and relevant experiences.”
When deciding whether to incorporate a trend into your menu, fellow restaurateurs urge you to stay true to your own vision.
After a restaurant/bar owner pinpoints an interesting trend courtesy of one of the aforementioned methods, how do they decide how (and whether) to put it into action? Our interviewees universally agreed that it’s vitally important to, in the words of Ashley Mitchell, “know your brand first. Trends should amplify your story, not rewrite it. If a trend doesn’t make sense for your operations, your brand personality, or your target guest, it’s okay to sit it out. Not every shiny object belongs on your menu.”
Ian Mendelsohn describes trends as “almost a weathervane to the whims of the public; sometimes the winds are light and airy, and other times they are like a hurricane. It’s our responsibility as leaders in the industry to gauge those winds and see whether to ride the wave or just ignore it and hope that it will pass us by.”
To that end, Kelli Pilkington urges the following: “Don’t copy trends. Curate them. Choose what amplifies your DNA and skip what doesn’t. Guests know the difference between a gimmick and something intentional. To put it simply, we lead because our menus, operations, design, and marketing align to raise the bar higher creating a level of hospitality that doesn’t exist until we make it.”
Are you registered for our Crave and Crave on the Menu newsletters? Sign up today!
Plan to Attend or Participate in the 2026 Bar & Restaurant Expo, March 23-25, 2026, Las Vegas, Nevada.
To book your sponsorship or exhibit space at our events, fill out our form.
Also, be sure to follow Bar & Restaurant on Facebook and Instagram for all the latest industry news and trends.