Recent hikes in fast food prices have left many diners cold, but the average American still goes out to eat between five and six times a week. Where they’re choosing to go, though, amid economic uncertainty, high gas and grocery prices, might surprise you. WMRA's Christine Kueter reports.
Breakfast cook Brian Spitzer is making pancakes and eggs to order at Thomas House restaurant in Dayton as customers lumber in before the sun comes up.
BRIAN SPITZER: They say the first one that you make is always the ugliest. Pancakes always get better the more you cook ‘em.
Thomas House has served diners for nearly 80 years. Brenda and Jack Kearney, its third owners, bought the Shenandoah Valley property in 2019 and rehabbed part of the 200-year-old brick building into Airbnb rentals. They also added their own menu twists to the popular restaurant: daily fried chicken, in-house-made spice-rubbed smoked turkey and pork, meals to go, and, for the first time in the eatery’s history, the ability to pay by credit card.
The Kearneys winnowed their menu - no more sides of less popular items like raspberry fluff, for example - and source much of their food locally, like eggs, which keeps prices low. It’s why diners such as Jay Holsinger, a machinist at Shickel Corporation in Bridgewater, can get a plate of eggs, bacon, toast, and coffee for about $8. Turkey farmer Ralph Rohrer of Clover Hill and L. B. Hottel of Mount Solon, a newly retired auto body worker, typically get breakfast for under $10.
L.B. HOTTEL: Good food, reasonable prices, friendly people …
Says Hottel, who usually orders a pancake smothered in country gravy and a coffee.
HOTTEL: McDonald’s, you can’t eat for $7 at McDonald’s.
Even with gas north of $4 a gallon, and higher grocery, electricity, and child care bills, Americans still eat out about five to six times a week. And while fast food chains are trying to claw their way back to profitability, some value-seeking diners have changed their habits.
CHUCK HOWARD: So, the winners are winning because they’re providing great value for money.
Chuck Howard is an associate professor at Darden School of Business.
HOWARD: Going to a restaurant to sit down and eat a meal with your spouse or your family, it’s a different experience than going to McDonald’s or Wendy’s . . . but the price point isn’t that different, even though the quality is substantially higher. And so, that’s going a long way towards winning customers’ favor, and increasing interest in the product.
In the fourth quarter of 2025, sit-down chain restaurants, such as Chili’s, reported strong sales and foot traffic, unlike fast food establishments, which saw them decline. Full-service restaurants actually led transaction growth in 2025, according to a McKinsey report, which found value and price concerned diners most.
With rising meat, paper, and labor costs, the average price of a McDonalds menu item has increased by 40% between 2019 and 2024. A medium order of its French fries is up 44%. The spike, felt industry wide, fried both foot traffic and profits. To lure cost-conscious diners back, chains like McDonald’s and Taco Bell launched new value menus this year.
At Thomas House, a pulled pork barbecue lunch with two sides and a corn muffin costs $10.99. The Tuesday turkey lunch special costs $9.49. An order of six homemade corn muffins to go costs about $3, according to owner Brenda Kearney.
BRENDA KEARNEY: You get more food, and better quality . . . I don’t think you’re gonna beat it, really.
Two counties over, in Monterey, waiter Paul Morgan is serving lunch to a dozen diners at High’s Restaurant. People occasionally gripe about High’s $16 burger, he says –
PAUL MORGAN: But if you go to Burger King right now and try to get one meal as a grown man, you’ll spend at least $14 and that’s probably the low end. … And so I think that people are starting to realize that the extra couple of dollars are worth it at a sit-down restaurant, where it’s a higher quality and amount of food. We have a $16 burger, it’s a half-pound burger. When you go to McDonald’s or Burger King, I think it’s like an eighth, or something like that. So, there’s much more bang for your buck here at High’s or at other sit-down places as well.
Darden professor Howard, who spent a decade managing restaurants, says bot- and AI-weary patrons are also increasingly seeking fellowship.
HOWARD: Particularly in smaller communities where a diner or a cafe has likely been a third space for people to meet at. . . . That carries a lot of weight with consumers, so, ultimately, when their budget shrinks, that’ll be the last place that they’ll continue to go. People will crave the human connection that you can only find in places like restaurants, cafes, and bars, and so on, so, to me I think that will lead to pretty steady demand for some type of in-person interaction in the food and beverage industry, at least for so long as the economy remains healthy.
The average American household spends about $4,000 a year on eating out, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, which accounts for more than half of American households’ annual food and beverage purchases.
McDonald’s released its first-quarter report today, which beat analysts’ expectations. Still, its stock price today is about 12% less than it was on the same day last year.
