Afast casual restaurant, found primarily in theUnited States, is arestaurant that does not offer fulltable service, but advertiseshigher quality food thanfast-food restaurants, with fewer frozen or processed ingredients. It is an intermediate concept betweenfast food andcasual dining.
The concept originated in the United States in the early 1990s, but did not become mainstream until the end of the 2000s and the beginning of the 2010s.[1] During theeconomic recession that began in 2007, the category of fast casual dining saw increased sales to the 18–34-year-olddemographic.[2] Customers with limiteddiscretionary spending for meals tend to choose fast casual for dining which they perceive as healthier.[2][3]
The founder and publisher of FastCasual.com, Paul Barron, is credited with coining the term "fast-casual" in the late 1990s.[4] Horatio Lonsdale-Hands, former chairman and CEO of ZuZu Inc., is also credited with coining the term. ZuZu, a handmade Mexican food concept co-founded by Lonsdale-Hands and Espartaco Borga in 1989, filed a U.S. Federal trademark registration for the term "fast-casual" in November 1995,[5][6] leading Michael DeLuca to call Lonsdale-Hands a "progressive pioneer in the burgeoning 'fast-casual' market segment" in the July 1996 edition ofRestaurant Hospitality.[7]
The company Technomic Information Services defined "fast-casual restaurants" as meeting the following criteria:[8]
The B2B restaurant management software company,Toast, Inc. affirmed these criteria and added that fast casual diners stand in line to order and pay at the end of that process.[9]
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