Are San Franciscans Eating Out More Than New Yorkers?

A new study indicates that, in two of the last three years, overall restaurant sales growth in San Francisco has outpaced growth in New York.
Are San Franciscans Eating Out More Than New Yorkers?

Photo by: Ida Jarosova ©Ida Jarosova

Ida Jarosova, Ida Jarosova

For many New Yorkers and San Franciscans, eating out is a way of life, and the plethora of high- and low-end, trendily chic and authentically ethnic restaurants from which to choose, with new hot spots opening up all the time, is a point of pride.

But one of those two fabulous food cities can now claim to have bested the other in terms of overall restaurant sales growth over the last three years. And that city is ... San Francisco. (NYC? Fuhgeddaboudit.)

According to a recent analysis conducted by the commerce data processing company First Data, in two out of the past three years — 2013 and 2015 — overall restaurant sales growth in San Francisco outpaced growth in New York. While in 2014 New York sales growth was slightly greater (5.6 percent in NYC, versus 5.4 percent in San Francisco), in 2015 restaurant sales in San Francisco grew at a dramatically higher rate (6.6 percent in San Francisco, versus only 3.5 percent in NYC).

“With a higher average growth rate over the three-year period in San Francisco, and a general upward trend from the first through the third year of our study,” the research concluded, “San Francisco appears to have a more rapidly growing restaurant industry.”

Driving San Francisco’s restaurant growth was a surge in sales at Mexican, fast-food and Asian eateries, and dessert shops also saw a big boost, First Data maintained. At the same time, Indian food, French fare, bagel and doughnut joints, cafes, and vegan and vegetarian restaurants don’t seem to be currently in vogue in the City by the Bay; those sectors all showed either slow or minimal growth, or declines.

Meanwhile, in New York City, sales at bagel and doughnut outlets, delis, and coffee and tea shops and cafes climbed steadily over the three years measured. However, during the same time period in the Big Apple, sales declined at French restaurants, steakhouses and bakeries.

Photo courtesy of iStock

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