Powering Restaurant Category Leaders
We pioneered restaurant category leader research. Learn why...
Category leaders often out-earn their largest 7-9 direct competitors combined. The rest share the remaining income crumbs. We: 1) Guide restaurant companies of all sizes to category leadership; 2) Invest Pre-Series A in new and emerging restaurant brands that have the potential to become category leaders; and 3) Wrote the book on restaurant category leaders, which you may download below.
Specifically, we guide...
...both restaurant advisory clients and our investees to adopt the practices that category leaders universally rely on to emerge and remain as revenue & income leaders. Learn how in this video.
Schedule a call to learn about: 1) Our Category Leader Advisory for restaurant companies of all sizes; or 2) How we invest in early-stage brands that are positioned to compete in emergent, still leaderless restaurant categories.
The 3 Ways We Support Restaurant Companies...
What works best to build category leaders.
1) Outpace with our Restaurant Category Leader Framework
2) Reposition for Renewed, Sustained Demand Acceleration
3) Scale with Our Pre-Series A Capital
Our Story Thus Far...
After years of focused execution, DineRock builds a category of one advisory & investor for the industry.

An Epiphany Inspires Research
Peter LeSar, while running a $50M, 1,400-employee hospitality business owned by Agility Capital, begins to research the question: "How do restaurant category leaders often earn as much as their next 7-9 direct competitors combined?"

Founding of Test Restaurants
LeSar co-founds 2 restaurants to test the Restaurant Category Leader Framework based on his ongoing research. With less than $200K invested between them, both restaurants are recognized by The World's 50 BestTM in its Discovery Series.

Restaurant Strong Published
LeSar publishes a decade of research (under the new DineRock brand) showing that all category leaders rely on the same framework to emerge as market share leaders. He translates the research into frameworks that build tangible outcomes with advisory clients.

Merger into Agility Capital
Publicly traded Agility Capital, managed by Salomon Guggenheim and Peter LeSar: 1) Acquires DineRock's advisory service; and 2) Provides capital for DineRock to become the first institutional investor with the mission to accelerate early-stage restaurants into leaders of emergent categories.

Pre-Series A Investors
DineRock invests in multiple entrepreneurial teams with 10 restaurant brands, each which has a route to category leadership in a leaderless, multi-billion-dollar category. Target brands range in size from start-up to $10M in revenue. All are located in major markets and have potential for scale.
Restaurant Strong Helps Your Company To Navigate
Learn the steps all category leaders relied on to outearn and outpace competitors. Restaurant Strong explores 83 enduring category leader insights, but our research has now advanced substantially since its publication.
Our Latest Insights...
Explore insights that support your business in 2025.

RESTAURANT BUSINESS CYCLE CHURNS ON...
Through 2024, most restaurants experienced higher sales due to increased menu prices, but flat to even falling traffic. In 2025, a shift toward both traffic growth and inflation-adjusted revenue growth has begun...for some. The make-or-break question now is: "Will your growth rate flatten, fall or outpace relative to your competitors this year?" Relative performance is the standout phenomenon in 2025 as not all boats are rising. Those outpacing in earnings growth are laying the foundation for higher rates of re-investment in an upswinging 2026 that should further cement gain. Those under-pacing are setting themselves up for a tough 2026. We update investees and clients on the Restaurant Business Cycle. Our goal: To give you the tools to outpace competitors through the full business cycle.

AI IS NOW ADDING TO INCOME
AI is everywhere in the media, but is it lifting revenue & income for restaurants today? The short is yes, though profitable AI is showing up more in operations than in management. Some AI projects are truly big but not performing yet and one needs to be cautious. Others are already enhancing efficiency, productivity and bottom lines. Like with the advent of the Internet, we will roll through winners and losers, and those that lean in where it counts (and not get bogged down in those that don't) will outperform competitors. To help our investees and consulting clients to outpace and outperform, we update them with our ongoing AI in F&B Trend Inflection Report. Our goal: Help restaurant companies to develop ahead of the AI curve where the profits are greatest--and to avoid costly mistakes at the same time.

BIG 2025 MENU INFLECTIONS
Powerful menu trends now are afoot driven by how customer needs are shifting below the visible surface of what most of us are able to see. Evolving customer needs are changing the DNA of performance foods, menu upscaling, approaches to food allergies, new takes on flavor and even radical shifts in value offerings. Let it be clear...earnings soar, flatten and fall based on how far ahead or behind restaurants are on menu trends. If you think you are fine, it's because you haven't yet experienced the higher returns that come from developing ahead of inflecting trends rather than behind in the marginal part of the trend curve. We provide our Menu Trend Inflection Research to our investees and clients. Our goal: To provide you with trend asymmetry so that you can outperform with every shift in consumer preferences.
Reach Out For A Call
Complete the form so that we may best serve you. If you wish to schedule a call, let us know and we will reply with suggested times. We are honored to speak with restaurant companies and prospective industry partners.