With an economic turnaround taking its time to materialize, consumers are slowly returning to the nation's restaurants.
The National Restaurant Association (NRA) predicts 2014 will see the fifth consecutive year of restaurant industry sales growth, projecting sales to exceed $683 billion -- up 3.6% from the 2013 total of $659.3 billion.
"As the industry enters its fifth straight year of real sales growth,” explains Hudson Riehle, senior vice president, Research & Knowledge for the NRA, “operators are feeding consumer appetites with new technology, customer loyalty efforts, and evolving menu options.”