The Fastest-Growing Restaurant Concepts in America Range from Hawaiian to Ethiopian

What restaurants are consumers looking for? It takes some analysis. Italian cuisine is America’s favorite cuisine, with over 80% of consumers saying they love or like it. To satisfy that amore, there are nearly 17,600 Italian restaurants in America, according to our Firefly operator database. That number doesn’t include all of the other types of restaurants that have an Italian dish or two on the menu.

But Italian restaurants aren’t opening as often...