Chipotle and Olive Garden make updates to their menus, while a renowned gastronomy brand lands in New York City. CookUnity acquires a video platform. A lazy Susan gets busy bringing people together. Plus, Electro Freeze is on the move. These stories and more, This Week in Foodservice.

Editor’s note: This Week in Foodservice will take a holiday hiatus and return the week of January 5, 2026. 

With the year about to end, I decided to look at the FE&S 2025 forecast article to see what was projected and how it stacked up to what’s actually happened to date. The story encouraged readers to prepare for a certain sense of déjà vu as the industry in 2025 would take another small step forward due to operating conditions and consumers’ ability to spend being eerily similar to 2024.

That’s not exactly how things played out, to put it mildly. 2025 has been a year marked by economic uncertainty due to a variety of factors, which have made business conditions challenging for operators and their supply chain partners. And, as outlined in the FE&S 2026 forecast article, households with annual incomes of more than $150,000 have continued to spend at foodservice, while many Americans earning less than that have struggled to use eating and drinking places as often as they would like.

Looking ahead, however, several reasons for optimism exist. For starters, consumers still see value in restaurants and foodservice operations. And they continue to provide operators with a clear message on what’s important to them. (Looking at you, value meals!) The biggest factor the industry has in its favor is its own resilience. Operators and their supply chain partners have dealt with countless challenges over the past five years – trade war, supply chain challenges, inflation and more – yet their ability to remain flexible and embrace change has them still standing. This year has tested that mettle, and the industry has held its own. That resilience and grit will continue to serve this industry well in 2026.

Foodservice News

• Chipotle will add a grab-and-go option to its menu. As part of the fast-casual chain’s inaugural “High Protein Menu,” Chipotle will offer four-ounce cups filled with adobo chicken or steak, per multiple published reports, including this one from CNBC. The move appears to be a nod to a pair of fundamental shifts in the way Americans eat by emphasizing smaller portion sizes and protein.
• Olive Garden is using smaller portion sizes to its advantage. The casual dining chain plans to accelerate the rollout of a lower-priced menu, which features seven existing items in reduced sizes, per a Restaurant Dive story. Olive Garden had tested this approach in some of its restaurants and was encouraged by the results, hence the acceleration of the rollout. The casual dining chain also reports continuing success from its delivery sales. As FSR Magazine reports, Olive Garden has seen its delivery efforts attract younger, higher-income customers who are paying more than guests who choose to dine on-premises.
• CookUnity has taken another step in its efforts to connect consumers to celebrity chefs. The “chef-to-you” service that provides meals from high-profile culinarians has acquired flavrs, a “shoppable-video platform dedicated to immersive food discovery,” per a release announcing the deal. Acquiring flavrs will allow CookUnity to provide guests with a video-first discovery experience, the release added.
• Renowned French gastronomy brand FAUCHON opened a location in New York City. Created in partnership with Restaurant Associates, the facility includes a bakery, retail boutique, barista bar, full-service café and a private dining room.
• Can a lazy Susan help a restaurant build community? That’s the case at The Dinner Bell in McComb, Miss. The restaurant consists of four large circular tables that each seat in upward of 15 people. And in the center of each table sits a lazy Susan loaded with heaping platters of food spinning back and forth as customers load their plates, per an Associated Press story. For restaurant goers, this approach gives them a chance to meet new people and more, the story adds. “We’ve had people sitting together that had nothing in common but the table they were sitting at,” the owner told the AP.
• Electro Freeze is on the move. The Welbilt brand, which manufactures equipment used in making frozen treats, will move to a facility in Davenport, Iowa, from its current home in Moline, Ill. The relocation will more than double Electro Freeze’s production capacity, per a company release. The relocation will also support the expansion of customer service, technical service and engineering facilities. Electro Freeze anticipates completing the move during the second half of 2026, per a company spokesperson.
• Polar King added J&B Pavelka, Inc. to its dealer network. J&B Pavelka serves the Texas markets of Houston, Burnet, and the greater Corpus Christi area. Polar King manufactures refrigerated and freezer trailers.

Economic News

• Real gross domestic product increased at an annual rate of 4.3% in the third quarter of 2025, per the initial estimate released by the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis. This was 0.5% more than the second quarter’s increase and more than the 3.2% to 3.3% increase many economists had projected. The BEA attributes the third quarter increase to growth in consumer spending, exports, and government spending that were partly offset by a decrease in investment. Imports, which are a subtraction in the calculation of GDP, decreased.
• Could 2026 be a good year for the economy? Data from the ISM Supply Chain Planning Forecast sees things pointing in that direction. The study projects revenues will increase in 16 of the 18 manufacturing industries and 16 of 18 service sectors. Capital expenditures are expected to increase 3% in the manufacturing sector and 2.5% in the services sector.
• Care to put a wager on how the Supreme Court will rule on the tariffs imposed by the Trump Administration? Well, you’re in luck. Two companies in the emerging predictive markets field will allow users to bet on which way the tariff saga will unfold, per a story from IFMA: The Food Away from Home Association. Users of one service can place 16 different bets on variables relating to tariffs.
• Consumers are closing out 2025 in a sour mood. The Conference Board Consumer Confidence Index declined 3.8 points in December for a reading of 89.1 The Present Situation Index declined 9.5 points for a reading of 116.8. The Expectations Index held steady at 70.7. For 11 consecutive months the Expectations Index has tracked at less than 80, the mark which indicates a recession ahead. Not to be outdone, the University of Michigan Index of Consumer Sentiment closed December at 52.9, which is 28.5% lower than it was a year ago, per a Yahoo! Finance report. Driving the decline is the fact that Americans feel worse about jobs and inflation than they did one year ago, the story added.
• Sales of existing homes increased 0.5% in November compared to the previous month, per the National Association of Realtors. This represents the third consecutive month where sales of existing homes increased. On a year-over-year basis, however, sales of existing homes declined 1.0%.