First Watch
Culinary Strategy & Menu Optimization • Innovation Pipeline Development • Recipe & Product Development • Seasonal LTO Strategy • Brand & Guest Experience Evolution • Operational & Menu Simplification
Fourteen years, one daypart: How a regional breakfast chain became a national category leader.
14 yrs.
OF CONTINUOUS
PARTNERSHIP WITH TCE
6x
UNIT GROWTH SINCE
PARTNERSHIP BEGAN
+77%
UNIT VOLUME GROWTH
$1.3M to $2.3M
2x
MENUMASTERS
AWARD WINNER
When TCE and First Watch’s partnership began in 2012, the brand was a growing ~100-unit regional breakfast chain in the Southeast. Today, it is a 665-restaurant, $1.3 billion national brand, and the leader in Daytime Dining. Through explosive growth, ownership changes, a pandemic, and a 2021 IPO, The Culinary Edge has been a constant partner on the strategy & culinary sides — guiding a redevelopment of the core menu, establishing new platforms & menu categories, creating an entirely new beverage strategy, and building a best in class seasonal innovation engine that still drives the business today.
What were the aims of TCE’s partnership with First Watch?
First Watch came to us with real strengths: a loyal guest base, a differentiated daytime-only position, and a heritage rooted in hospitality and freshness. At the time, it was a regional brand with national ambitions, and the menu needed to keep pace. The opportunity was never to reinvent First Watch — it was to sharpen what already made it special and translate that into a system that could scale. We set out to:
• Modernize the offering while protecting the brand’s core DNA.
• Build a culinary strategy that could support sustained unit growth.
• Create a steady pipeline of innovation to drive traffic and relevance.
• Help establish a leadership position in the daytime dining segment.
“The TCE team is very much an extension of our culinary team - their exceptional insights, creative and thorough approach to presentations and unique perspective on all things industry-related provide us with the tools needed to continue leading the pack on many fronts.”
How did the partnership evolve over 14 years?
What started as foundational culinary support grew into a multi-workstream partnership. One idea has guided every era: anchor and translate trends — take what is emerging in the marketplace and bring it into formats First Watch guests already trust, so discovery feels inviting rather than risky.
2012–2014 · Building a premium product story
Our earliest work helped sharpen how First Watch told the story of its food. The strategic direction was never to become a “better for you” brand — it was to use ingredients, sourcing, and a commitment to freshness, as proof of a genuinely premium product. Our recipe and product development brought forward ancient grain platforms, chef-driven garnishes, and produce-forward seasonal promotions that made those quality cues legible on the plate, at a moment when few full-service competitors were making the same claim.
The approach earned First Watch its first MenuMasters Award in 2014, for a quinoa-based Pesto Chicken Power Bowl that launched as a seasonal promotion, before earning a permanent place on the core menu. Reflecting on why guests embraced an unfamiliar ingredient, Chris Tomasso noted that customers “trust us not to put something on the menu that they wouldn’t like” — trial built on that trust, he said, turned into frequency.
That trust is the foundation every era of this work has been built on since. During this time, the brand also began a run of comparable sales growth that would reach 28 consecutive quarters.
2015–2018 · Expanding the daypart
With those credentials established, menu optimization turned to daypart versatility — artisan carriers, open-faced tartines, and texture-rich griddle concepts. Guests responded, ordering savory, lunch-adjacent formats during morning hours, which broadened the brand’s appeal to younger and urban audiences. Over this stretch the system grew from 277 restaurants to more than 400, with average unit volumes climbing from $1.3 million toward $1.6 million.
2017–2020 · Building the beverage platform
Our beverage program work formalized a permanent fresh juice platform alongside functional superfood bowls, while premium features elevated weekend brunch. The proof point was as much operational as culinary: fresh-pressed beverages and high-value proteins had to run consistently at scale without slowing the line — and they did. The brand was later named “America’s Favorite Restaurant Brand” in Market Force’s national study.
2021–2023 · Winning traffic without discounting
As much of the industry leaned on discounting to win guests back, First Watch chose a different path. We formalized a five-window seasonal LTO architecture and developed premium handhelds, craft brunch beverages, and elevated comfort builds engineered for speed on the line. The brand was not spared by the pandemic — it temporarily closed every company-owned restaurant in 2020 — but it recovered ahead of the category by offering guests new reasons to visit rather than cheaper ones. First Watch posted record system-wide sales in 2021, up 34.4% against pre-pandemic 2019, with no menu price increase all year, and closed with traffic up 6.1% versus 2019. In 2022, comparable sales grew 14.5% on 7.7% traffic growth, in a year the industry posted traffic declines of 3%. The LTO program earned a second MenuMasters Award for the Braised Short Rib Omelet, and the performance record carried the brand through a 2021 IPO at a $1 billion valuation.
2023–2024 · Protecting margin through inflation
As cost pressure mounted, the work shifted toward operational and menu simplification — recipe cost optimization, pantry standardization, and bold, low-labor condiments that added flavor without adding prep. We also repositioned the January promotion from restrictive messaging toward a flavor-forward approach, which produced a menu mix above 2.0% across all test items for the first time in nine years. In 2023, First Watch grew revenue 22.1%, expanded restaurant-level margin to 20.0%, and opened its 500th restaurant.
2025–2026 · Keeping the engine ahead of the curve
Fourteen years in, the seasonal LTO engine remains a meaningful driver of traffic, check, and relevance. The discipline hasn’t changed: read the marketplace early, translate emerging flavor into trusted formats, and build for the realities of the line.
The most recent seasonal program is a strong signal that it still works — the Chimichurri Steak & Eggs Hash became the best-selling LTO in company history. Bold, globally-rooted flavors and seasonal comfort platforms performed well at the same time, across both food and beverage.
The engine shows up in public results, too. First Watch launched its first major core menu update in over a decade in February 2026, and management has credited menu innovation and seasonal features with lifting sales mix and guest engagement — with per-person check growth outpacing carried pricing. Demand for premium features ran high enough to pressure commodity costs, which leadership framed as a signal of product appeal. And when traffic turned positive in June 2026, the company pointed to guests responding to marketing and menu — not to price.
What impact did the work deliver?
Over fourteen years, First Watch grew from a regional chain into the largest and fastest-growing brand in Daytime Dining — and it continues to outpace the category.
The system grew roughly 6x — from ~105 restaurants to 665 across 33 states, en route to a long-term target of 2,200 locations.
28 consecutive quarters of comparable sales growth — with positive annual traffic every year from 2014 through 2019, the record that underwrote a 2021 IPO at a $1 billion valuation.
Revenue more than doubled since the IPO — from $601 million in 2021 to $1.22 billion in 2025, with average unit volumes climbing from $1.3 million to roughly $2.3 million on a single seven-hour shift.
Two MenuMasters Awards, a decade apart — first in 2014 for a core menu platform, again in 2022 for limited-time offers, bookending the evolution from a premium product story to a mature seasonal program.
Margin expanded 100 basis points to 18.5% in Q1 2026 — supported by core menu work and disciplined recipe costing.
The brand outpaced the category again in 2025 — full-year comparable sales grew 3.6% with positive traffic, against an industry running near 1% comps and negative traffic nearly every month. Revenue grew 20.3% to $1.22 billion, and First Watch opened a record 64 restaurants across 23 states.