After a soft 2024 with negative traffic and sales, First Watch returned to positivity in 2025, and CEO Chris Tomasso knows exactly what triggered the jump.
Marketing and a whole lot of data.
Here’s a look at the numbers: In 2024, same-restaurant sales fell 0.5 percent and traffic dropped 4 percent. A year later, however, comps increased 3.6 percent and customer visits rose 0.5 percent.
Year-over-year Q4 figures improved too. First Watch went from a 0.3 percent decline in Q4 2024 to a 3.1 percent rise in Q4 2025; quarterly traffic improved from negative 3 percent to negative 1.9 percent.
“We were positive in the same-restaurant sales each month of the quarter, so we enter the year with a little bit more momentum than I understand some of my peers may be facing,” said CFO Mel Hope during this year’s ICR Conference.
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As CEO Chris Tomasso explained, First Watch took a “crawl, walk, run” strategy to deploying more marketing than it had in the past. For years, leading up to going public in 2021, the brand achieved positive same-store sales and traffic despite “very low” brand awareness, according to the executive. And that’s because the brand benefited from massive word of mouth.
But in the past 18 months, First Watch added a marketing engine to its arsenal, built on a base of data it didn’t have before.
“We know much more about our customers than we ever have. We can be so efficient in what we’re doing,” Tomasso said. “And we spent much of 2025 testing a number of different approaches to that, and we’re able to do it now in a way that is so much more efficient than say 10 years ago. There used to be the question about media efficiency, and it would be impossible for a concept like ours to get to media efficiency years ago, but now I mean we’re targeting households in what we’re doing whether it’s through connected TV, digital, social, those type of things.”
First Watch has learned more about the timing of messaging and who needs to receive it. The chain’s menu innovation responds to what consumers are looking for at a particular time of year. Tomasso gave the example of New Year’s resolution time, with First Watch positioning itself as “a perfect place for somebody to come and start the year off with a jumpstart, as we call it, and eat healthy at First Watch.”
Where is First Watch sourcing its data? Some of it comes from a waiting list. Fifty percent of customers are seated through a waitlist on weekends, and each of those guests is submitting their phone number to get on the list. There’s also data from credit cards, customers downloading the app, a growing email database, and the use of in-store WiFi.
Through these tools, First Watch is able to track customers’ checks, understand what they’re ordering, and build profiles. Tomasso said the brand has seven million records “that we feel really good about.”
Beforehand, the chain leveraged broad-scale messaging that wasn’t specific to the consumer in how they used the brand. Now, engagement and personalization is a priority.
“We’re just able to do that better now, and we’ll continue,” Tomasso said. “I mean this process for us has been iterative, the whole thing. I mean we’re constantly updating it and refining it and it’s exciting. We keep getting better and better.”
First Watch continues to build its marketing push as more customers enter new restaurants systemwide. During Q4, the brunch chain debuted 13 stores, including 12 company-owned units and one franchise. In 2025 overall, the brand opened 64 outlets (55 corporate and nine franchises) and closed three locations.
As of December 28, First Watch had 633 restaurants in 32 states. That’s inclusive of 560 company-owned units and 73 franchises.
Looking ahead, Tomasso still believes the company is capable of reaching 2,200 locations. The CEO understands that with the returns First Watch is currently seeing on new restaurants, there could be a consideration to be more aggressive on openings.
However, he emphasized the mantra of “methodical and thoughtful.”
“For us, it’s really important to keep that balance of the core system still delivering that positive same-restaurant sales and traffic and bringing in the new restaurants at the way they’re performing,” Tomasso said. “[New restaurants], they’re meeting or exceeding our underwriting targets. They’re meeting or exceeding our average unit volumes. And their ceilings are higher.”
Another focus is keeping First Watch’s real estate and people pipelines in lockstep.
On the people side of things, the chain uses veteran managers to open new stores. The Las Vegas restaurant last year was supported by leaders from Ohio, Texas, and Arizona.
“It’s because they want to be part of that next big market for us and see the opportunities,” Tomasso said. “So our teams do a great job of staying in contact and being aligned along this growth platform. And that’s why we’ve been achieving what we have on those restaurants.”
As for finding real estate, First Watch has taken advantage of second-generation sites.
“I think that we’re on the call sheet for developers now when they’re looking to replace a tenant in those kind of sites. And we are very nimble,” Hope said. “Our development team is gifted at going in and conforming our image and our operational back and front of house choreography, staging for it in those restaurants in a variety of situations. So that has actually been more prominent for us.”
First Watch is “very selective” about how it chooses sites. For every one it approves and develops, it’s likely looking at eight to 12 options in the market.
“So when we land a restaurant, our success rate is very, very high because we are very disciplined about only going to those sites where they fit all of our characteristics,” Hope said.
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