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The reasons for opening a restaurant vary widely—some people love food, others love cooking or baking, and still others have restaurant experience from generations of their families running restaurants before them. There’s one concept that can encompass all these reasons with the potential to be a great investment: breakfast restaurant franchises!
Why are Breakfast Restaurant Franchises Great Opportunities?
Initially, investors may not consider restaurant breakfast franchises for sale as a viable option for their business. It’s a niche and may seem oversaturated, with several major brands already in the market. However, there are reasons restaurant breakfast franchises make hot business opportunities.
High Potential Profit Margins
Even with high-quality ingredients, breakfast menu items are inexpensive to make. Even with keeping menu prices affordable, restaurateurs can generate strong potential sales on the breakfast portion of their business. Add in bakery items and make it easy for customers to place to-go orders through third-party app ordering, and owning a breakfast restaurant franchise gets even sunnier!
Breakfast is a Popular Meal Any Time
No matter the time of day, people love breakfast food items. When many fast-food chains started serving breakfast all day, it was a hit! It’s unfortunate the COVID pandemic and its lockdowns prompted many restaurant brands to minimize their breakfast-all-day offerings or stop serving all-day breakfast entirely.
However, breakfast is still a beloved comfort food, and in a study commissioned by General Mills, 79% of Americans will sometimes eat breakfast outside of normal breakfast hours.
Breakfast Brings Variety But Not Inventory Costs
There are a lot of ways breakfast foods can be served, with combination platters, omelets, pancakes and waffles, bowls and wraps, fruits, baked goods, and more. With plenty to choose from, breakfast restaurant franchise guests can eat at their favorite restaurant every day and not order the same thing all week.
For the restaurant owner, many of these items share the same ingredients—pancakes and waffles share the batter, and eggs and meats in the omelets are the same for the combination platters, bowls, and wraps. Ingredients in baked goods are common across muffins, pies, and cinnamon rolls. What creates variety on the menu doesn’t have to increase inventory costs. Bulk ordering can even be less expensive per unit.
Serving Breakfast is a Quick Affair
Many people make breakfast a routine whether they eat at home or stop at their favorite breakfast restaurant franchise. Breakfast takes little time to make and consume. It’s also one of the meals many people grab on their way to work, so if it’s not already to-go, guests don’t tend to linger over their coffee.
The result is fast table turnover for restaurant owners, which means serving more customers during breakfast hours than is typical during lunch and dinner.
Which Are the Best Breakfast Restaurant Franchises to Operate?
In truth, only you can answer that question because the criteria for what makes the best franchise breakfast restaurants are highly personal.
We’ll list some of the top breakfast restaurant franchises in the United States so you can begin researching which may be right for your investment dollars.
Perkins® Restaurant & Bakery
Perkins® began in 1957 in Ohio as a pancake house, and in the 60+ years they’ve been in operation, they’ve become much more than a breakfast restaurant franchise. With a menu that includes iconic classics like country-fried steak, pork chops, and meatloaf, as well as delicious favorites with innovative twists, such as the California avocado benedict or the prime rib griller, there’s incredible food everyone can enjoy. And yes, Perkins® serves breakfast all day.
Add in legendary Perkins® pies and other bakery items like the Mammoth Muffins® and the Bakery by Perkins® app gives franchise owners access to modern-day customer demand that keeps revenues rising.
With a reputation as one of the most welcoming atmospheres in the restaurant industry, a breakfast restaurant franchise with Perkins® Restaurant & Bakery is certainly a top choice. Franchise owners receive extensive support from the franchise leadership, and it shows with nearly 300 locations across the U.S.
Huddle House
Another legacy brand with 60 years in the breakfast restaurant franchise business, Huddle House began as a way for customers to “huddle” after hometown football games when all other restaurants were closed. They thrive in small towns, rural markets, and non-traditional franchise locations where other restaurant brands aren’t planning to go. The result is operating in territories where they’re often the only restaurant around, and their customers develop almost a cult-like following.
It helps that Huddle House’s breakfast (and lunch and dinner) foods are delicious, plentiful, and affordably priced, and the atmosphere is comfortable where guests feel like family, and so do the franchise owners.
Flying Biscuit Café
For 30+ years, the Flying Biscuit Café has been dishing up Southern-style hospitality and bold breakfasts with comfort foods and fresh ingredients. Famous for grits and biscuits, they serve lunch and dinner, too. Franchise owners are attracted by their neighborhood vibe and broad audience appeal.
The Original Pancake House
The Original Pancake House franchise has been serving up pancakes in a cozy, cabin-style restaurant in Portland, Oregon since 1953. Since then, they’ve opened more than 100 locations across the country using a mix of ethnic and regional recipe knowledge and high-quality ingredients.
This breakfast restaurant franchise keeps it simple, sticking to breakfast foods and honoring its family-first atmosphere. It’s attractive to franchise investors because it does have one of the lowest royalty shares in the industry at just 2% of gross monthly sales. However, potential investors should thoroughly read the most recent Franchise Disclosure Document to ensure they have the most current information.
Lumberjacks Restaurant
An up-and-coming breakfast restaurant franchise, Lumberjacks puts large in nearly everything they do—large portions, large numbers of patrons served, and large smiles…. The only things not overly large are the prices of their food.
Their log-cabin-style restaurants aren’t spread across the country from their West Coast origins, but the owners are expanding with intention as they carefully work with franchise owners and vet new investors. Their franchise model has been carefully designed with all processes in mind to maximize success and help each restaurant location perform to the best outcome available.
Part of that process is being careful in their awarding of franchises, so if this is your breakfast restaurant franchise choice, you’ll have some criteria to meet during the initial introductory and discovery meetings.
Operating a breakfast restaurant franchise can be one of the most rewarding careers in the industry, so if you’re interested in the benefits of an experienced brand with a quality track record and multiple revenue streams, contact Perkins® Restaurant & Bakery to get started!