Can Gen Z's Nostalgia Save Chain Restaurants?

New York Times

01-06-2025

When you walk into a chain restaurant, time stands still. For some young people, that's the whole point.
Ana Babic Rosario, a professor of marketing at the University of Denver, calls this 'emotional time travel.'
With the country in an unstable economic time, potentially edging toward recession, those memories become more potent, Dr. Babic Rosario said. 'We tend to crave some of those nostalgic moments because we think they're more stable,' she said. 'That's how our mind tends to remember the past — more rosy than it really was.'
That's true for Bea Benares, 27, who said she looked forward to meals at Outback Steakhouse and 'eating the bread and sitting down with my family.'
'Now with fast causal, you may not sit down and you go your separate ways afterward,' Ms. Benares said, referring to eateries catering to office workers, like Sweetgreen and Cava. 'It sounds kind of funny, but you lose a sense of community. It's kind of sad.'
That missing sense of community may be why 10,000 people, mostly in their 20s, traveled to Randall's Island in New York last fall to attend Chain Fest, a food festival started by the 'Office' actor B.J. Novak that served 'exclusive gourmet versions' of classic chain restaurant dishes from Red Robin, Cracker Barrel and others. The festival's Los Angeles version had a 25,000-person wait list.
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