Contents
- Barbecue restaurant business counts statistics: classification and measurement limits
- Barbecue restaurant business counts statistics: chain locations and annual performance
- What the reported chain figures measure
- Barbecue restaurant business counts statistics: operator expectations for menu sales
- Barbecue restaurant business counts statistics: restaurant-prepared food at summer gatherings
- Sources
Barbecue restaurant business counts statistics: classification and measurement limits
A count of barbecue restaurants sounds straightforward, but the available evidence does not establish a national total. The 2022 North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) Manual lists full-service restaurants as industry 722511 and limited-service restaurants as industry 722513. Those labels describe service formats; they do not identify barbecue cuisine as a separate industry. A restaurant serving barbecue could therefore fall under a format-based classification rather than a barbecue-only category.
That distinction matters when interpreting business-count statistics. A figure for all restaurants in a service category would not, by itself, tell readers how many serve barbecue. The supplied evidence contains no verified official barbecue-only business count, so the chain examples below should be read as reported company-level snapshots, not as a census of the U.S. barbecue restaurant sector. 2022 NAICS Manual
Barbecue restaurant business counts statistics: chain locations and annual performance
Reporting on mainstream barbecue restaurants in the Technomic Top 500 put their combined sales at $18.39 billion in 2024, down from $18.76 billion in 2023. The comparison covers the Top 500 grouping of mainstream barbecue restaurants and excludes Asian and Hawaiian concepts. It is not total sales for every barbecue business in the country, and the figures measure sales rather than the number of businesses.
The reported chain results varied substantially. Dickey’s Barbecue Pit ended 2024 with 386 units after 17.7% of its restaurants closed during the year. Its sales fell 18.1%, while reported average unit volume (AUV) declined from $675,000 to $620,000, an 8% decrease. AUV is a per-unit performance measure, not a count of operating locations.
Famous Dave’s ended the year with 109 restaurants after a net loss of three locations. Its sales fell 6%, while AUV edged up from $2.65 million to $2.66 million. The figures show why chain sales changes and location changes should be considered separately: sales can fall even when a reported per-unit average holds steady or increases.
Other chains reported expansion. City Barbeque grew from 68 to 75 units during 2024, a reported 10.3% increase, while sales rose 10.2%. Mission BBQ opened a net 12 restaurants and reached 144 units that year. A May 2025 report also said Mission BBQ operated in 22 states; that footprint statement is reported as of the article, not as a separately dated year-end 2024 measure.
Jim ’N Nick’s opened a net six locations in 2024 and reached 53 units, compared with 40 in 2020. Its reported sales grew 14.6%, and its AUV reached $2.68 million, up from just under $2.6 million in the prior year. In contrast, Sonny’s BBQ sales fell 4.2% in 2024, it closed a net two restaurants, and its AUV dipped 1.5% to just under $2 million.
These examples describe the named chains only. They illustrate variation in unit counts, sales and per-unit averages, but they cannot establish the direction or scale of change among independent barbecue restaurants or the whole market. Nation’s Restaurant News, “Large barbecue chains struggled in 2024”
What the reported chain figures measure
| Measure | What it can show | What it does not establish |
|---|---|---|
| Year-end units or net openings | A named chain’s reported footprint at a point in time or its net change | The number of all barbecue restaurants nationally |
| Chain sales change | Direction and reported size of sales movement for that chain or grouping | Store openings or closures by itself |
| Average unit volume | Reported sales performance per unit on the source’s terms | Total restaurant count or independent-restaurant performance |
| Survey expectations | What surveyed decision-makers anticipate for a stated period | Actual later sales or a national forecast |
A net change also does not reveal every opening and closure: the supplied chain figures report net openings or closures where specified, while Dickey’s closure statistic is a share of its restaurants. Those measures should not be treated as interchangeable. The reporting provides useful examples, but it does not supply enough evidence here to calculate a complete sector-wide location total or closure rate.
Barbecue restaurant business counts statistics: operator expectations for menu sales
An August 2024 NRN Intelligence survey of 300 foodservice decision-makers asked how they expected sales of barbecued items to perform over the next 12 months. Twelve percent expected sales to increase significantly, 36% expected a slight increase and 49% expected sales to stay flat. Two percent expected a slight decrease and another 2% expected a significant decrease.
The response shares total 101%, which can occur when rounded percentages are reported. The main pattern is that a much larger share anticipated flat or growing sales than declining sales: 97% selected flat or one of the increase categories, based on the displayed rounded figures. These are expectations recorded in August 2024 for the following 12 months, not measured results for that later period.
The survey included decision-makers across foodservice businesses using barbecue across menus and those exploring the category. It is therefore not a survey of barbecue restaurant owners alone, and its results do not count businesses. It offers a limited indicator of menu-level sentiment among respondents. NRN Intelligence, “The State of Barbecue”
Barbecue restaurant business counts statistics: restaurant-prepared food at summer gatherings
A National Restaurant Association report on consumer plans for summer 2026 provides broader restaurant-demand context. Seventy-nine percent of consumers said they planned to include at least one restaurant-prepared item at an at-home summer gathering, including cookouts, barbecues and holiday celebrations. Among consumers planning restaurant purchases for those events, 61% were most likely to purchase side dishes from restaurants, 57% main dishes and 56% appetizers.
These figures concern stated plans for restaurant-prepared food at summer gatherings. They do not indicate that consumers planned to buy barbecue specifically, identify which restaurant formats would supply the food, or measure restaurant sales after the gatherings. The results may help describe a context in which restaurants can serve gathering occasions, but they cannot be converted into a count of barbecue businesses or a forecast for barbecue-chain revenue. National Restaurant Association, “Report: Summer travel could boost restaurant sales”