MRM Research Roundup: Holiday Spend, Drinksgiving Data, and Smarter Dining

This edition of Modern Restaurant Management (MRM) magazine's Research Roundup features holiday dining and spending, foot traffic trends at Starbucks, culinary trends and forecasts, AI integration, and views on gene-edited food.The Cost of Thanksgiving at RestaurantsChef’s Pencil released a national analysis of Thanksgiving restaurant prices and the data tells a surprisingly wide-ranging story about how much Americans are paying to skip the cooking this year.

They reviewed 500+ restaurant menus across 29 major U.S. cities, from casual chains to Michelin-starred dining rooms, to calculate the true cost of a Thanksgiving prix-fixe meal in 2025.

Key findings include:

National median price: $75 per person (excluding drinks/tips).

Most Expensive Cities: Los Angeles ($105 median) is the only city where the median price broke the triple-digit mark, followed by San Francisco and New York City (both $95).

Best-value cities: Cincinnati & Columbus (both ~$41)

Price extremes…