The Strategy for Restaurant Clarity and Brand Resilience

“2026 is not about chasing trends—it’s about designing systems.”
 

Those words from Restaurant and Food Consultant, Futurist, and Founder of The Next Idea Group Robert Ancill are echoed throughout the 2026 Restaurant & Food Trends Report. He developed the report in collaboration with TNI Restaurant Consultants using a combination of global consumer data, category intelligence, operational performance signals, and first-hand national field research conducted by TNI’s Street Team to provide a strategic operating lens for restaurant owners, operators and other hospitality insiders. 

The 180+ report covers a range of industry shifts, including:

•  The rise of reinvented ethnic cuisine and regional specificity
•  Food as Medicine moving from wellness trend to operational imperative
• The mainstreaming of zero-proof and non-alcoholic beverage programs
•  Sustainability evolving from brand narrative to operating system
•  The quiet maturation of restaurant technology and AI, from hype to infrastructure
• Design strategies reshaping restaurants and grocery environments in 2026
•  Category trends in grocery and restaurants

The report introduces a Four-Quadrant Consumer Demand Framework: Quality, Value, Nostalgia, and Adventure model to map situational consumer mindsets that reflect how the same guest makes different purchasing decisions based on their occasion, economy, health, or emotional need. This framework can be used by operators for menu design, brand positioning, pricing strategy, and experience planning,

In this discussion with Modern Restaurant Management (MRM) magazine, Ancill dives deeper into the report’s core philosophies, including the Four-Quadrant framework, the need to master the industry's silent margin killer: complexity management, and how operators can identify key challenges for 2026.

What do you hope restaurant operators take away from this report?

The core takeaway is that 2026 is not about chasing trends, it’s about designing systems. The report reframes trends through the Four-Quadrant Consumer Demand Framework, Quality, Value, Nostalgia, and Adventure, allowing operators to make clearer, more disciplined decisions about menus, technology, brand positioning, and capital allocation. This is a new way of profiling customers, and should not be considered as a replacement for demographics, but instead an enhancement of more traditional consumer behavior thinking.

In other words, operators have a new opportunity to align offerings towards why guests are dining in that moment, not who those guests are demographically. This shift from demographics to mindset is foundational to building resilience and repeatable performance in our presently volatile environment.

I would suggest that the most dangerous assumption in hospitality today is that yesterday’s guest logic still applies.

What results surprised you?

What stood out most was how strongly restraint is outperforming excess. While flavor is becoming louder culturally, execution is becoming quieter operationally. Premium consumers are rewarding simplicity done exceptionally well, elevated staples, fewer hero ingredients, and consistency, over constant novelty. In 2026, confidence looks like fewer ideas executed better.

Equally surprising was how legacy and heritage brands, when refreshed thoughtfully, are outperforming trend-dependent concepts. The data reinforces that trust and familiarity have become growth assets, not liabilities. In context, our research presented that familiarity is no longer boring, it’s bankable. This stands out given our world of technology; almost a step backwards in a modern world! 

What are some practical ways operators can incorporate the Four Quadrant Framework into their menus?

The most effective operators design menus as intentional portfolios, not collections of ideas. Each quadrant plays a distinct role. Quality and Value anchor frequency and margin stability, Nostalgia builds emotional loyalty, and Adventure is deployed selectively through limited-time features, beverages, or guided discovery moments rather than full-menu disruption.

Every item on the menu should have a job, if it doesn’t, it’s costing the operator more than food cost.

Importantly, the same guest may move across quadrants within a single week. The opportunity is clarity, ensuring each menu tier has a defined purpose, price logic, and operational rationale. The question isn’t who your guest is, it’s what they’re seeking right now

What are key opportunities for restaurants to be more profitable while meeting guest needs?

Profitability in 2026 is coming from design, not discounting. Operators will be successful when they engineer value through bundles, portion flexibility, and modular builds rather than price erosion. Functional foods and beverages are driving weekday frequency, while sustainability initiatives, once framed as values, are now measurable margin strategies. 

Every item on the menu should have a job, if it doesn’t, it’s costing the operator more than food cost.

Equally, Value will be paramount to a large percentage of the population. Chronic inflation with pressure on wage levels and jobs, is a central theme in many western countries, especially USA. Therefore, operators need to establish value packages that are attractive and fulfil guest needs at an affordable cost. The opportunity here is to drive volume with Value, which would include well engineered menus that do not erode margins. Where this becomes interesting is the GLP-1, (We call it the Appetite Revolution), opportunity, which essentially is giving a license to restaurants to reduce portion size; see article here.

The other sizeable opportunity is the non-alcoholic movement. Zero-proof beverages, global drinks, and culinary beverage programs are emerging as high-margin growth engines that meet evolving guest expectations without regulatory complexity. Consider the fast casual concepts that have adopted beer and wine licenses, and then consider if these offers were converted to zero proof: Far less costly, no regulatory compliance and a broader market. We will soon reach a scenario where beverage is no longer about alcohol, it’s about occasion.

How should operators be looking toward AI and automation to help them be more efficient?

The report draws a clear distinction between hype and infrastructure. AI in 2026 is no longer experimental; it’s becoming background operating intelligence. The most effective applications are invisible to guests, labor forecasting, demand planning, inventory optimization, and scheduling.

Automation, [robotic solutions], is being adopted selectively, particularly in repetitive back-of-house functions, to stabilize execution and protect hospitality rather than replace it. While we have a long way to go before automation is able to replace humans entirely, over the next few years we will see automation expand throughout the industry. 

What lessons does the report offer about brand resiliency? 

Resilient brands share two traits: clarity of identity and consistency of execution. Brands built solely on trend relevance struggle as consumer expectations mature. In contrast, heritage brands that modernize thoughtfully, improving ingredients, refining design, and simplifying menus, are regaining momentum. Resilient brands don’t reinvent themselves every year, they refine themselves. In 2026, resilience is less about speed and more about discipline.

In what ways are diners and their expectations evolving?

Diners are becoming more intentional, not less adventurous. Eating out is increasingly purposeful, driven by value, emotional payoff, and alignment with personal identity. Guests expect personalization as a baseline, functionality without medical framing, and experiences that feel worth the spend.

Resilient brands don’t reinvent themselves every year, they refine themselves.

They are also more fluid, seeking comfort one day and exploration the next, rewarding brands that can meet multiple mindsets without confusion. 

What do you see as key challenges facing restaurants in 2026?

Naturally the economy is a critical challenge, so there will be winners and losers. Outside of that the defining challenge is complexity management. Operators are balancing higher costs, labor constraints, and rapidly shifting expectations simultaneously. The risk is trying to do too much, too many menu items, too many technologies, too many messages. What this ultimately means is, complexity is the silent margin killer in modern restaurants.

The brands that succeed will be those that simplify intelligently, align to demand mindsets, and build systems that perform consistently across economic cycles. I believe in 2026, clarity will outperform creativity.