This August saw strong YOY restaurant sales across the country compared to last August, with a 0.6% increase in gross sales nationwide. The South Central portion of the country saw the greatest improvement with an increase of 7% in gross sales and an increase of 3.1% in restaurant traffic after restaurants suffered from the effects of hurricane Harvey last August.
Across menu categories, side dishes saw the largest increase in gross sales this month with a strong growth of 11.9% and 29.2% increase in quantity of side dishes ordered over last August. On the beverage side, bottle wine saw the greatest sales increase by 9.2%, however, unlike sides, this increase comes from an increase in average price for bottled wine by 7.5%. 
We have more local market breakdowns below. We’re looking to expand our index into benchmarking insights for your specific business. If you are interested in understanding how your restaurant compares to peers in your neighborhood, we’d love to speak with you. Please reach out to igomez@averoinc.com.
San Francisco:
This August, San Francisco saw one of the greatest month-over-month sales increases of Avero Index cities. The Vice President of Operations for Mina Group in San Francisco, Anthony Kim, attributes this strong performance to an increase in average check. He notes that while covers remained about flat, this “great finish to what is typically a slower summer” is driven by an 8-10% increase in average check.
Las Vegas:
Despite a 2.4% increase in dinner and late-night sales, Las Vegas restaurants still had a drop in total gross sales of -1.4% compared to last August. Last year, the Mayweather-McGregor fight in Vegas boosted Las Vegas restaurant business by 28.27% on fight night alone. The loss of such a high grossing event this year led to a 1.4% drop in gross sales for this August.
Updated through August 30, 2018
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