---
title: "Restaurant Hospitality: Top Chefs Discuss Casual Dining"
url: https://burnaze.com/article/fb21afc7-ff4c-4bf0-ab72-5863d2f4909c
source: "1851 Franchise"
original_url: https://1851franchise.com/restaurant-hospitality-top-chefs-discuss-casual-dining-2060
category: "Restaurants"
industry: "Restaurants"
published: 2015-07-13T20:15:00.000Z
modified: 2026-11-01T22:34:28.920Z
image: https://newimage.1851franchise.com/cdn-cgi/image/quality=85,format=webp,width=1280,height=720/story/featureImage/8d777f385d3dfec8815d20f7496026dc7053.png
---

# Restaurant Hospitality: Top Chefs Discuss Casual Dining

**TL;DR:** Top chefs, including Rick Bayless, discuss the perception of fast-casual restaurants, with Bayless arguing that people want high-quality food to be convenient and accessible. Fast-casual franchises and chains are successful due to their quality menu items and good customer service.

*originally published in 1851 Franchise on 2015-07-13. [Read the original](https://1851franchise.com/restaurant-hospitality-top-chefs-discuss-casual-dining-2060).*

## Story

Fast-casual restaurant menus are often criticized for a perceived lack of the high quality and taste associated with an upscale restaurant. But Rick Bayless, one of the chefs at Zimmern’s round table, couldn’t disagree more strongly. Bayless explained that people want high-quality food to be convenient and accessible.

People who are on the go want amazing food, but they can’t always flock to an upscale restaurant to get it. That’s why he opened a restaurant in the O’Hare airport.“Everybody wants good food at an airport.

But nobody is willing to do it,” Bayless said. Bayless asserts that the fans that he meets on the street don’t laud his upscale restaurants; they remember him for the fast-casual option he opened in an airport. Fast-casual franchises and chains are successful for a reason; they have quality menu items that people like and they provide good customer service.

And at the the end of the day, that’s what matters. Check out the full article from Restaurant Hospitality for a full rundown of the round table.

## Entities

- 1851 Franchise (publication)
- Restaurants (sector)
- fast casual (topic)
- customer service (topic)
- menu quality (topic)

---
Originally reported by 1851 Franchise (https://1851franchise.com/restaurant-hospitality-top-chefs-discuss-casual-dining-2060). Summarized by Burnaze (https://burnaze.com/article/fb21afc7-ff4c-4bf0-ab72-5863d2f4909c).