It’s been a tough year for restaurants. Now we know how tough.

According to a report from the NPD Group, a leading market research company, there are 4,000 fewer restaurants in the United States than a year ago.

Fine dining was the segment hit hardest, and almost all the category’s losses were among independent fine-dining restaurants.You could see it play out locally with the closings of such indies as Tapino, Sea Saw, Fine’s Cellar and, most recently, Canal.

Fine-dining chains, on the other hand, actually saw fairly nice increases.

The other big category loser over the past year was family restaurants, especially small (50-99 restaurants) and mid-size (100-499 restaurants) chains.

The number of diners with children, a demo that makes up a third of the restaurant industry’s traffic, has dropped for three consecutive quarters.

Posted in: Valleywide |

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