Diner Demographics: Feeding Suburbia

Suburban-style dining, as well as suburban living, continues to rise.

By Scott Hume, Editor-in-Chief -- Restaurants & Institutions, 11/1/2007

When Au Bon Pain opened its first The Bistro, Au Bon Pain, suburban-market prototype last year in Woburn, Mass., the Boston-based chain acknowledged what many other fast-casual chains knew: Dining patterns and expectations can differ between urban and suburban locations.

While most Au Bon Pain units—primarily in center-city locations but also in airport, healthcare and college venues—focus on service speed and grab-and-go foods, suburban locations need seating for more-leisurely breakfasts and lunches and to function as all-day gathering places. Unlike downtown sites, suburban locations need dinner menus to attract couples and families as well as more salad options to meet the demands of a customer base that skews more heavily female.

The Bistro concept responds to suburban needs with home-style décor that invites lingering; a hot-breakfast menu that includes a variety of omelets; a children’s menu; dinner choices that include butternut squash ravioli, shrimp linguine with tomato-caper sauce and a spinach-and-artichoke pizzetta; afternoon-break options such as Pumpkin Lattes and Wild Berry Smoothies; and longer hours (closing at 9 p.m. Monday through Thursday and at 11 p.m. on Friday and Saturday). The changes are designed to help Au Bon Pain better compete with Richmond Heights, Mo.-based Panera Bread, the fast-casual leader that focuses on suburban locations and that also has expanded its evening menu.

Deerfield, Ill.-based Così recognized the urban-suburban difference early on and expanded its concept with separate Così (with a dinner daypart) and Così Downtown (with early-evening closing) unit designs. Chicago-based Potbelly Sandwich Works, which initially opened in urban locations, has expanded to suburban in-line retail sites.

Dave Wolfgram, CEO of San Francisco-based Forklift Brands—parent of the Go Roma Italian Kitchen and Boudin SF fast-casual concepts—says weekday/weekend sales differences also separate suburban and urban locations. Forklift’s fifth Boudin SF location, which recently opened in suburban Lombard, Ill., likely will begin with stronger weekend customer traffic—drawing on shoppers from an adjacent mall—from which it will build weekday business. Center-city operations, other than those near tourist attractions, more often build from weekday strength to weekends.