Restaurant Industry Trends: Darden vs CAVA and the New Rules of Growth

AI is reshaping restaurants faster than most operators realize. In this episode of Restaurant Pulse, we break down three major stories impacting restaurant operations right now: AI drone food delivery, Wendy’s menu shakeup, and how AI is streamlining restaurant ordering systems. This episode covers: 🚁 Whether AI-powered drone delivery is a realistic option for restaurants—or still years away 🍔 What Wendy’s menu changes reveal about speed, simplification, and protecting margins 🤖 How AI-driven ordering tools are improving accuracy, throughput, and labor efficiency Instead of chasing headlines, we focus on what these changes mean at the operator level—how they affect costs, workflows, guest experience, and scalability. Restaurant Pulse is your weekly briefing on the business, technology, and strategy shaping the restaurant industry.

In this episode of Restaurant Pulse, we break down one of the biggest stories in restaurant growth right now: Darden vs CAVA — two winners taking completely different paths. Darden is the blueprint for scale, operational discipline, and portfolio strength. CAVA is the modern growth play: brand heat, throughput, and a digitally savvy fast-casual engine. So what do these strategies reveal about where the industry is heading — and what “winning” looks like in 2025 and beyond? In this video, we cover: The new rules of restaurant growth (and what changed) Darden’s playbook: scale, consistency, and margin protection CAVA’s playbook: demand, speed, tech, and unit economics What operators can copy right now (big brands and independents) The biggest risks ahead for both models Whether you’re a restaurant owner, operator, multi-unit leader, or investor, this breakdown will help you spot the trends early — and apply them to your own business.