Food & Beverage

Breakfast bright spot for restaurants in August

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October 5, 2022

Breakfast was the top meal of the day for the U.S. restaurant industry in August as traffic grew by 4% compared to August 2021, according to a report from The NPD Group.

The traffic growth is now within 1% of recovering pre-pandemic levels. Quick service restaurant breakfast represented 87% of all breakfast traffic and visits increased by 5% in August – 1% above the pre-pandemic level of August 2019, according to a press release.

Total QSR traffic was flat in August, lunch visits were down 2%, and dinner traffic was up 1% in the month compared to August 2021.

QSR gourmet coffee and tea and QSR hamburger restaurants drove much of the daypart's growth. Breakfast visits to gourmet coffee and tea outlets increased by 20% in August compared to a year ago and were 15% above the August 2019 traffic level. QSR hamburger breakfast visits grew by 4% in the month compared to a year ago, with traffic down 2% compared to three years ago.

When it comes to breakfast fare, breakfast sandwiches were top choice and coffee was the top beverage.

"Breakfast at restaurants was adversely affected in the early stages of the pandemic, and it's recovering now that more consumers have returned to more out-of-the-home routines," David Portalatin, NPD food industry advisor and author of Eating Patterns in America, said in the release. "Breakfast is an important daypart for the U.S. restaurant industry, and it's encouraging that consumers have found new reasons and ways to get breakfast away from home."