America’s food-and-beverage appetites have returned

Demand is returning to the food and beverage business, even as restaurants battle rising costs and staffing shortages and customers are placing primacy on fun and novel experiences and entertainment when they go dining.

Those are some of the findings in the 2023 food and beverage report produced by JLL. Titled Americans are hungry for restaurants, despite rising costs, the report interviewed food and beverage brokers in 17 major markets in the United States and Canada.

The report found both total sales and table reservations have recovered to pre-pandemic levels and are still growing, and demand from restaurant operators for single-tenant space is strong as they seek these small spaces in a bid to expand drive-through and quick pick-up services. Some markets are performing far better than others, with Sun Belt metros such as Austin, Miami and Phoenix demonstrating particularly strong improvement in reservations compared with 2019, while northern and western ma