No matter what you think about trends, being on top of them can be a game changer. However, picking the right trends to incorporate into your business is even more important. Implementing the ones in step with your customers can ensure a decades-old neighborhood fixture remains relevant and excites new customers. A new concept devised to shake things up on the dining scene can be made failure-proof if the trends you implement align with the customers you want to attract. Your bar or restaurant can have excellent food, buzzy drinks, an ironclad reputation, and several flashy bells and whistles. However, if the customers are tuning all that out, it may be time to look closely at what they're tuned into.
Several organizations, including Datassential, Carbonate, and Monin Americas, are dedicated to doing this on a large scale. While doing the work and research yourself will always benefit your establishment and reputation, some of the reports’ insights into what is hot, cool, or just plain good business will help streamline your efforts.
“People are more careful now in choosing how they spend their discretionary income,” explains Candace MacDonald, co-founder & managing director of Carbonate. She points to savvy operators who recently adapted to the uptick appreciation for global flavors and embrace of international ingredients and flavors, even outside their traditional context. Changing attitudes towards alcohol and increased acceptance of THC, meanwhile, are dramatically changing alcohol-driven environments.
“There's pressure for operators to deliver more for customers, even as costs are higher than ever,” MacDonald continues. “[This is why] operators who take a creative approach to addressing this have an advantage. We're seeing a pendulum swing back from flashy, over-the-top maximalism to more simplicity.”
Melissa Nasits, beverage innovation director at Monin, advises operators to incorporate new and exciting menu items that draw inspiration from viral trends, local/sustainable ingredients, regional comfort foods, and indulgent flavors that appeal to customers’ desire to treat themselves.
“Not every trend will fit into bar, café, or restaurant menus, but there is ample opportunity to reel in customers by featuring show-stopping full-, low-, and zero-proof cocktails as well as desserts and beverages featuring unique textures and sensory experiences,” she says. “From smoked cocktails and creamy dirty sodas to crackling lattes, operators can offer their own twist on popular viral trends to entice patrons to try a flavor experience they can't get at home.”
We've rounded up some of the major highlights of these reports. From there, the rest is up to you.
Datassential: Plugging Into New Realities
On the surface, iPads, kiosks, QR code menus, and other ordering technology sparkle with graphics, color, and add-ons. They held a lot of promise for a more efficient on-premise experience for operators and excitement for customers when first introduced. However, according to Datassential’s findings, that promise has not quite panned out into progress.
The 2025 report shows that although Gen Z, minority customers, and other groups regard themselves as technically savvy, there is also a learning curve and ease of use to consider with older customers. It further explains that the extras programmed into some technologies—including games, satisfaction surveys, fundraising appeals, and facial recognition software—clutter up the menu without making the ordering process easier. Restauranteurs, likewise, found “bells and whistles” detract from the diner experience by making the ordering process more complicated and glitchy rather than efficient.
“Nearly three-quarters of operators say that automation/technology should be focused on improving their existing problems,” according to the report’s authors. “Core ordering and payment capabilities within apps, kiosks, and tablets are the most important features to both consumers and operators.” Operators want to be sure that automation works, but in many cases, QR codes and digital menus don’t address everyday problems or efficiency issues. In other words, if they can’t understand how to use it or navigate the interface, efficiency problems and customer satisfaction issues will persist.
Capabilities that elevate the restaurant experience are also available from staff, such as customizing orders, syncing with a loyalty program, customization of orders, and details like allergens and calories are desired from apps, kiosks, and tablets. However, removing the human element from the ordering experience may backfire. While 84% of U.S. consumers have encountered some form of ordering technology, nearly 90% of them worry about technology replacing workers that add the valuable human element to dining out.
Carbonate: Tastemakers, Redefined
According to the 17th af&co./Carbonate Hospitality Trends Report, Gen Z is driving changes in consumer behavior and expanding societal norms. Although customers in all age groups are open to change to some extent, the younger generations are credited for the recent uptick in popularity of no- and low-alcohol beverages and mainstreaming of cannabis. Many trend-specific menu items are executed with the same creativity as traditional cocktails a decade ago.
The report also points to the younger generations as drivers of social media exposure, which has condensed trend cycles. Influencers and content creators have replaced traditional food journalism, and this may be underscored by the recent departure of New York Times food critic Pete Wells, who pointed to health reasons. Wells’ departure may also reflect that the last decade’s “peak maximalism” with complex “Instagrammable” dishes and drinks will give way to a return to more straight-forward dishes.
Generation Z and Millennials continue to open the rest of the population up to a broadening spectrum of international cuisines and corresponding dining environments. Asian dessert cafes are emerging as the new hip hangouts, Turkish cuisine is rising to prominence in the Middle Eastern genre, and sesame is making headway as a food and cocktail ingredient (an alternative fat wash to bacon, for example) given its heavy rotation in both Middle Eastern and Asian cuisines. Pistachio, another star ingredient in Middle Eastern fare, is the ingredient of the year. The flaky croissant has also emerged as a trend, showing that it’s not just for breakfast anymore. Restaurateurs from casual European bakery owners to upscale steakhouses, Asian, Middle Eastern establishments have found it lends itself to many innovative uses.
Seafood is predicted to be hitting its prime as a protein thanks to its adaptability for use in regional American cuisine (Southern, Caribbean-influenced, Cal-Asian), global cuisines (particularly Korean and Japanese, still going strong) and comfort food-focused restaurant genres such as steakhouses, raw bars, and casual seafood shacks. While seafood had its place in showy maximalist food trends aimed at “Instagram”-ability in the past decade, the clean flavors of fresh-caught morsels work just as well with simple and straightforward favorites.
The beverage scene, meanwhile, is washing up on dry land. Carbonate points to a July 2024 Gallup poll, where 45% of U.S. adults surveyed believe drinking one or two glasses of wine per day is bad for one’s health, and 55% of them said the best health advice one could give is to reduce liquor consumption. This, in turn, dovetails into Goldman Sachs’ finding that millennial and Gen Z consumers lean away from tangible products and toward experiences such as tastings, educational food experiences, and other events where alcohol is not the central focus. The push toward aromatically complex teas, kombucha, beers, and other non-alcoholic drinks suitable for flight experiences and pairable with food continues gaining momentum.
At the bar, “Bright, crisp, grassy, piney” sotol is poised to be the trending Mexican spirit now that mezcal is mainstream. Bananas are finding their way into more cocktail recipes for their texture and versatility. New Zealand’s white wine exports grew 20% in 2023, while Napa’s Sauvignon Blanc plantings have increased 40% since 2000. Hard seltzers are still popular while THC (cannabis) seltzers are broadening the emergent Low-ABV category.
Monin Americas: Flavor of the Next 12 Months
While the af&co./Carbonate report examines specific food and beverage trends, Monin America’s report deep-dives into what flavor profiles are instrumental in shaping those trends. Monin’s findings are divided into five “macro” categories, each with specific “micro” details explaining their influence on operators and consumers. Its team of internal and consumer insights experts, meanwhile, has been on a roll in accurately identifying and tracking trends that influence flavor preferences. In the 2024 report, for example, the “Spice Heist” macro anticipated an uptick of Asian and Central American flavors influencing operators to add new ingredients to their shopping lists.
“While implementing flavor trends will interest consumers, restaurants that make trends their own and cater to their clientele will build lasting connections with customers,” says Nasits, referencing The Hidden Gem section of the report. “By offering fresh twists on comfort food flavors, operators can craft exciting, yet authentic menu offerings that fulfill the need to try what consumers are seeing all over social media and on television. Keeping an eye on flavor trends is important in this day and age, and finding ways to creatively integrate them into your business can win over new fans and delight existing customers.”
Moving into 2025, the “Reel World” category concentrates on foods’ visual appeal getting conveyed through social media. With consumers constantly on the lookout for taste experiences, not readily accessible at home or grocery stores, social media usage by operators drives viral flavor trends, with algorithms sparked by the proliferation of images of menu items. An uptick in operators posting images, according to the report, is poised to shape menu offerings in 2015.
While dressed-up coffee drinks have captured customers’ imagination in the past decade, “Wild & Wired” predicts a paradigm shift as operators promote alternatives with energy or functional benefits. Although matcha, mushroom coffee, protein coffee, and energy refreshers have been around for a while, their population with younger consumers promises to drive interest among other age groups.
Likewise, “From Seed to Sip,” reflects the continued popularity of thinking global, but gravitating to locally sourced and sustainable options. Just as mixology trends involved through backstories of menu items in the past decade, consumers seeking non-alcoholic options want to learn more about the journey that the beverage’s ingredients make from garden to glass. Storytelling in both cases helps stir conversation and connection with customers. Nasits points to the “dirty soda phenomenon” as an example.
“What was once a regional sensation has now gone mainstream,” says Nasits, "and over the last year, we’ve seen an explosion of bars and restaurants adding their own versions of dirty sodas to menus. We’ve even seen twists on the soda + flavor + creamer format, with dirty cocktails and dirty coffees showing up on menus this year.”
Consumers are increasingly interested in restaurants that focus more on the food than a manufactured image, and “The Hidden Gem” category gets its name from eateries that steer away from flash and back toward regional specialties, signature classics, or inventive twists on beloved comfort foods. With more attention paid to the menu rather than deliberate trendiness by the owners, the customers experience moments of food-related nostalgia as well as an easier ambiance where they can enjoy connection and emotional resonance in these spaces.
However, Monin’s overview is not all about operators toning everything down. The “Treat Yourself” trend, focused on flavor, texture, and luxury—especially with desserts, permits customers to stray from constantly eating healthy or the concerns of daily life with something splurge-worthy that can be shared with a group.
“In 2025, consumers will invest in experiences and themselves,” elaborates Nasits. “Customers want to celebrate good things, and when times are tough, they also like to treat themselves to feel better. While many people will be more mindful of their spending this year, we can often justify spending a little more on an indulgent drink or dessert if it will brighten our day. Offering decadent add-ons for beverages, bite-size desserts, and customizable flights allows even the most frugal of customers to indulge and treat themselves.”
Leith Steel, Senior Strategist & Head of Insights at Carbonate sums things up by pointing out that as not every trend is relevant to every business, it is important to consider your concept and your target audience and adapt those specific trends in a way that works for you. “Owners should ask themselves how integrating something new can help them tell their story or create a memorable moment for their guests,” Steel says.
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