Faced with significantly higher food costs, restaurant leaders are more likely to turn to their menus than to their labor models or marketing programs to increase profitability. A bare majority will look to be additive, developing new menu items they’ve engineered to deliver better margins, while sizeable minorities plan to remove low-margin offerings and raise menu prices.
Nation’s Restaurant News surveyed more than 350 operators, including about 250 who serve breakfast and brunch, to study their menu development challenges and the strategies they think will help them grow business in the morning dayparts.
Countering Cost Pressures with Profitable Innovation
The State of
Breakfast and Brunch
An industry study of more than 350 menu makers.
6%
Decreased
Significantly
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June 2025
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20%
Increased Significantly
A slight majority of operators who menu breakfast said their traffic grew in the past year, including one in five with “significant” guest count increases.
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In 1969, Jimmy Dean, country singer, TV host and actor started America’s favorite sausage company—and we’ve been making mornings shine brighter ever since. The Jimmy Dean® brand’s tried, true and trusted product portfolio, filled with classics to innovations, including plant-based, complements every kind of operator menu. Check us out!
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Report
Survey respondents were asked to consider their menu innovation process from a blank slate and decide which part of a potential build would appeal the most in the morning. Breakfast proteins like bacon and sausage were favored most often by all operators, perhaps unsurprisingly given the versatility of those ingredients. But limited-service operators stood out for prioritizing different breads (bagels, biscuits, and the like) or preparations of eggs for their next breakfast item.
Powered by Protein
Key Findings
Nearly 1 in 3
35%
Increased slightly
29%
Remained Flat
Get Better at Breakfast
operators agree that they’d build a new breakfast menu item around proteins like bacon and sausage to maximize the appeal of their morning menu.
Rising to the Occasion at Breakfast
55%
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10%
Decreased Slightly
The Brand Behind Breakfast
“Sausage is a great deal like life.
You get out of it what you put into it.”
