2026: Five Things Restaurants Should Rethink, Now.

A new year provides a natural moment and energy to reset, rethink, refresh, revise, and ultimately grow your business.

That said, I believe we are about to experience an unbelievably seismic shift in the restaurant industry for reasons that have nothing to do with the calendar turning.

Between inflation, the current political environment, growing concerns about safety, the erosion of active service in what is supposed to be the hospitality business, increased competition, and the exponential speed at which AI is showing up in our daily lives, the tides are changing and they’re changing fast.

Some restaurants and brands will sit back and rely on what used to work, despite a slow degradation of performance. Others will try to match the curve of change. And an elite few will work to be ahead of it, or at least actively be a part of it.

We are at a moment where what still works is simply not going to work much longer. It’s time to rethink and reshape.

I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about this, doing research, talking to others, and trying to truly understand the state of the industry. With that in mind, here are my suggestions.

I know many of you think of me as the how-to guy, so I’m presenting these in what I believe is an immediately actionable and succinct way.

There’s a lot of talk out there about a future with Cyberdyne Systems systems and fully automated everything. Whether that future is real or not, right now you should be thinking about how AI can help you sell more sandwiches, pizza, or whatever is on your menu.

AI is already being enabled across all parts of the restaurant business, with more advancements coming quickly. Getting familiar with the tools and capabilities now is the right move from a learning perspective. That way, as things develop and your needs change, you won’t be scrambling to catch up. You’ll already be there.

Here’s a very simple example.

I downloaded our year-end, item-based sales report from Handcraft Burgers and Brew directly from our POS provider. I uploaded it into AI with no prompt other than: Ingest the data.

It came back with several insights and five optimization tactics. The first three made everyone on our team say the same thing. “Huh. That makes a lot of sense. Let’s do that immediately.”

Anyone can take an order, flip a burger, or mop a floor. Or at least anyone can be trained to do those tasks.

None of your guests come to your restaurant because your team can execute the basics.

People are spending their money because they want to be taken care of. And no matter how viral one of your food items goes, if the hospitality sucks, people won’t return.

We need to bring in people who actually enjoy service and want to be better at it. And we need to make sure our training is centered around augmenting the guest experience first and foremost.

Replying to a DM, washing dishes, and knowing the correct fryer temp for fries are all things anyone can learn.

There’s a lot of talk right now about people trading down to value, or saving up for a world-class experience. There’s also plenty of debate around how fast casual and casual dining have become too expensive.

What matters is perception. Whatever people perceive to be true is the truth.

People will happily pay $4 for a burger and never care about sourcing or ingredient quality. On the flip side, people will pay $250 for a steak and never ask a single question about the farm it came from.

What they’re paying for is the experience.

Whether it’s the experience of getting something cheap or enjoying a meal that takes them out of their everyday routine, experience wins.

A friendly hello. A welcoming smile. A timely, cheerful goodbye.

These things justify the prices you want to charge.

Think about what you can do to enhance the experience of your service. The people. The packaging. The environment. The ease of your technology. Whatever it is, how do you make it more pleasurable for the guest?

Also, read number three again.

This is a mistake I see across both independent restaurants and large chains. Not properly collecting guest contact data.

Some restaurants don’t try at all to get a name or email address. Others only focus on loyalty programs.

Both are mistakes.

If you’re not collecting data, you have no way to contact that guest and bring them back. Email addresses and phone numbers are retention tools.

If your only method of collection is loyalty, you’re ignoring guests who don’t care about points or downloading an app, but would happily receive emails about promotions, events, or opportunities.

And by the way, once you have someone’s email, you can invite them to join rewards, follow you on social, make another reservation, or share your restaurant with a friend. You can’t do any of that without a way to reach them.

Give your guests at least one clear way to communicate with you.

If you don’t want to answer Instagram DMs, that’s fine, include that in your bio, and tell guests how to get in touch.

If you don’t want to answer the phone in your stores, that’s fine too, but tell your guests how to get in contact.

If you prefer a form, email, or text message number, that’s what we do at Handcraft Burgers & Brew, powered by Ovation. Whatever it is, make it obvious, easy to find, and make sure you respond. Always.

If you’re truly a hospitality business, you interact with your guests. If someone was standing in your restaurant with a question, you wouldn’t stare blankly at them. Leaving reviews unanswered on Google or Yelp is the digital version of doing exactly that.

Every unread or unanswered message from a customer is a missed opportunity to build a deeper connection and earn more revenue.

Here’s my rule of thumb. If it’s a channel you’ve opened or used to promote your business, you’ve opened it for communication and you’re responsible for responding there.

That includes, but is not limited to, your website, social media, Google and Yelp reviews, guest feedback tools, rewards programs, and delivery platforms.

Where do you agree with this? Where did I nail it? Where am I off?

And where do you need help?

Reach out and ask me.

[email protected]

Rev Ciancio

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