Smokey Bones Bar & Fire Grill is planning to open a drive-thru service model for their casual dining business. Considered to be the first pure-play drive-thru in casual dining this could be the birth of something very exciting for the restaurant business.

The drive-thru is being added to a restaurant in Bowling Green, Ky., and is expected to be up and running this summer. The big question is how will drive-thru impact pricing and speed of service for the chain and will they be able to compete with the rising stars of fast-casual and the stalwarts of QSR?

Bigger questions about dining out will depend on the consumer. Credit card balances rose year over year, reaching $841 billion in the first three months of 2022, according to data released Tuesday from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

“There’s a good chance that Americans’ total credit card balances will soon reach a new record high, marking a sharp reversal from the precipitous drop that occurred in 2020 and early 2021,” said Ted Rossman, a senior industry analyst at CreditCards.com.

This will impact the restaurant business in a big way and survival may depend completely on strategies like casual dining drive-thru and new technology innovations that will position some brands to take a new market share position.

Listen in on the full episode as we break down a variety of technology and consumer demand topics.

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