Fourteen of the Top 20 revenue-generating restaurant chains and prepared-food sellers in the U.S. do business in Hawaii.
The range of companies in the top 100 restaurants, ranked annually by industry publication Nation’s Restaurant News, is rather broad and includes quick-service restaurants, casual and white-tablecloth restaurants, plus convenience stores, even Costco.
Listed companies are slinging burgers, deep-frying chicken, adding toppings to sandwiches or pizzas and selling Spam musubi and hot dogs out of heated cases — or their servers are bringing food to your table or your car.
The No. 1 restaurant by far is McDonald’s (which cited annual revenue of $36.4 billion), followed by Starbucks Coffee ($17.9 billion), Subway ($11.3 billion), Taco Bell ($9.4 billion), Burger King ($9.3 billion) and, at No. 6, Wendy’s ($9.1 billion).
In order, the rest of the Top 20 operating in Hawaii now are Pizza Hut, Domino’s, KFC, Applebee’s Neighborhood Grill & Bar, Buffalo Wild Wings, Arby’s, Little Caesar’s Pizza and Dairy Queen.
More on the list are coming. Seventh-ranked Dunkin’ Donuts will open a Paiea Street location around the end of July; Sonic Drive-In (No. 12) plans to open its first Hawaii outpost next year; and No. 100, Dickey’s Barbecue Pit, has named two franchisees for the islands.
Of the Top 20, the only ones that don’t do business in Hawaii and have no plans to start are Chick-fil-A (No. 8), Panera Bread (No. 11), Olive Garden Italian Restaurant (No. 15) and Chipotle Mexican Grill (No. 16).
An Olive Garden had been set for Kapolei in 2015, but those plans were scrapped amid financial turmoil.
Any glimmer of hope that the Hawaii Olive Garden expansion was back on track was extinguished by spokeswoman Jessica Dinon’s email reply Thursday. “We have no plans to open an Olive Garden in Hawaii at this time.”
Sigh.
Chipotle also has no plans to enter the Hawaii market. “We only discuss our plans for specific locations or markets based on what we have under lease and where construction is scheduled,” spokesman Chris Arnold said. “At this time we don’t have anything in Hawaii that meets those criteria.”
You also won’t see a fried or grilled Chick-fil-A sandwich in Hawaii anytime soon. A spokeswoman for the Georgia-based, family-run business confirmed its expansion plans for Nevada, New York, Oregon and Washington, not Hawaii or Alaska.
Panera told TheBuzz in 2012 that it was not planning Hawaii expansion, though it has been registered to do business in the state since 2004. A query seeking an update last week got no response.
In the bottom 50, Hawaii has 19 of the listed restaurants and food service operations.
They include long-timers such as Baskin-Robbins (No. 82), California Pizza Kitchen (No. 74) and Ruth’s Chris Steak House (No. 76) but also relative newcomers Jersey Mike’s Subs (No. 60), Papa Murphy’s Take ‘N’ Bake Pizza (No. 57) and Wingstop (No. 53).
Hawaii units of national chains can be among the top revenue-generators for their brands.
Send restaurant news and notes to erika@staradvertiser.com or call 529-4303. Follow Erika Engle on Twitter @eriKaengle.