How Cava, Chipotle, Sweetgreen are trying to lure diners back to bowls

At 12:30 p.m. in midtown Manhattan on mid-week office days, long lines still form outside Chipotle , Cava , and Sweetgreen . Fast-casual bowls remain the defining lunch of the hybrid-work era, something quick to carry, simple to eat at a desk , and familiar enough to order without thinking. But this visible popularity now sits beside a more difficult financial reality inside the chain restaurant companies that boomed with the bowl.

Chipotle, Cava, and Sweetgreen have all reported softer traffic , and in particular less visits from younger consumers cutting back in a more tense economic environment highlighted by food inflation and job insecurity. Nearly two-fifths of consumers feel fast-casual is now too expensive , according to Datassential, a finding