Aggregated from 5,200+ independent US locations. Updated weekly. Published quarterly. Our customers see their own comparison live inside the app.
| Cuisine | Food cost | Labor cost | Net margin | Top quartile margin |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Italian | 27.8% | 30.2% | 5.1% | 9.8% |
| Mexican | 26.4% | 29.1% | 6.0% | 11.2% |
| American / bistro | 30.1% | 32.0% | 3.8% | 8.2% |
| BBQ / smokehouse | 33.6% | 27.8% | 4.4% | 9.1% |
| Pizza | 24.9% | 28.4% | 7.5% | 13.6% |
| Sushi / Japanese | 34.2% | 29.6% | 4.0% | 8.7% |
| Vegan / plant-based | 25.8% | 32.3% | 3.3% | 7.4% |
| Coffee & café | 22.1% | 34.0% | 5.9% | 12.0% |
5.8%
Median net margin. Volume game; labor is the swing factor.
4.1%
Squeezed by both food and labor inflation.
3.6%
Staffing ratios and wine margins are the levers.
6.2%
Better pricing power; depends entirely on rent & occupancy.
| Region | Food | Labor | Rent | Margin |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Northeast | 30.4% | 32.8% | 10.1% | 2.9% |
| Southeast | 28.7% | 28.9% | 6.2% | 5.8% |
| Midwest | 28.2% | 29.4% | 6.5% | 5.1% |
| Southwest / TX | 28.9% | 29.1% | 6.9% | 5.6% |
| Mountain | 30.2% | 31.0% | 7.4% | 4.0% |
| West Coast | 29.8% | 34.1% | 9.8% | 2.2% |
Tight supply; drought impact in Texas/Oklahoma.
HPAI flock losses in Midwest facilities.
Spanish harvest 2025 below forecast.
Supply caught up post-Q1 restocking.
California volumes normalized.
Regional minimum wage increases in CA, NY, WA.
Our data shows that for full-service Italian, Saturday brunch has a 38% higher contribution margin than Friday dinner — if labor is right-sized. Most operators are over-staffed for brunch.
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Real ledgers, not survey data. We normalize POS revenue, reconcile it to QuickBooks, and apply consistent category mapping before any aggregation.
5,241 locations · 2.9B line items · 48 states · 142 cuisine tags · refreshed weekly
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