Habit Burger & Grill
| Habit Burger & Grill[1] | |
| Formerly | The Habit Burger Grill[2] |
| Company type | Subsidiary |
| Nasdaq: HABT | |
| Industry | Fast casual restaurant |
| Founded | November 15, 1969 Santa Barbara, California, U.S. |
| Headquarters | Irvine, California, U.S. |
Number of locations | 372[3] |
Area served | United States, Cambodia,[4] China, United Arab Emirates |
Key people | Shannon Hennessy (CEO) Tiffany Furman (CFO) |
| Products |
|
| Revenue | US$402 million (2021) |
Number of employees | 6,093 (2021) |
| Parent | Yum! Brands |
| Website | habitburger |
The Habit Restaurants, LLC doing business as Habit Burger & Grill,[1] is a fast casual restaurant chain based in Irvine, California specializing in chargrilled hamburgers. The company sells typical fast-casual fare.[5]
In March 2020, Yum! Brands, the parent company of KFC, Pizza Hut, and Taco Bell, acquired The Habit Burger Grill.[6][7][8]
History
The Habit Burger Grill was founded on November 15, 1969, in Santa Barbara, California, as a family-owned business.[5][9] It originally operated under the name The Hamburger Habit.[10] In 1980, Brent and Bruce Reichard purchased the original location in Goleta. A second location opened in Ventura in 1997.[11] They gradually expanded the chain to 17 units in Southern California.[11]
In 2007, KarpReilly, a private equity firm, acquired a majority ownership in the company and began to rapidly expand the chain, including franchising.[12] Not included in the sale were eight locations in Santa Barbara County, California, which remained under the ownership of the Reichard brothers.[10]
In 2014, Habit had 109 locations either operating or under construction, including an expansion location in Seattle.[13] At the time, the company was one of the fastest-growing fast food chains in the United States, with a 40% sales increase from 2012 to 2013.[14] In November 2014, the company raised $83.7 million in an initial public offering.[15][16][17] The share price immediately doubled.[18] By 2016, growth had slowed significantly, in line with the burger business.[19] In 2017, the company announced plans to expand into the United Kingdom with 30 restaurants.[20]
In March 2020, Yum! Brands, the parent company of KFC, Pizza Hut, Taco Bell, and WingStreet, acquired Habit.[21] The brothers decided to retire and sell their remaining restaurants to Yum! Brands in 2021.[22] The operations shifted in March 2022.[23]
In July 2024, the restaurants switched soft drinks, as a result of Yum! Brands' acquisition, from Coca-Cola to Pepsi. On August 28, 2024, the company renamed its restaurant chain to Habit Burger & Grill.[24]
Reception
In mid-2014, The Habit's "Charburger" was named the best burger in America by Consumer Reports, a nonprofit organization dedicated to independent product testing, scoring an 8.1 out of 10 among 53,745 participants.[25][26][27]
Animal Welfare
In 2021, Yum! Brands, with close to 50,000 locations globally across its KFC, Pizza Hut, Taco Bell, and The Habit Burger Grill brands, released a global policy to transition to 100% cage-free eggs in the majority of its locations by 2026, and globally by 2030.[28]
See also
References
- ^ a b "HABIT BURGER & GRILL - Trademark Details". Justia Trademarks. Retrieved March 2, 2026.
- ^ "THE HABIT BURGER GRILL - Trademark Details". Justia Trademarks. Retrieved March 2, 2026.
- ^ "Locations". Habit Burger Grill.
- ^ "The Habit Burger Grill opens in Cambodia". B2B Cambodia. 22 October 2020. Retrieved 31 October 2025.
- ^ a b Hile, K. (2016). The Handy California Answer Book. The Everest Files. Visible Ink Press. p. 335. ISBN 978-1-57859-623-2.
- ^ "Yum Brands". Insider. Retrieved 9 November 2023.
- ^ Ewen, Beth (29 March 2021). "Yum Brands Purchases The Habit Burger for $375M". FT. Retrieved 9 November 2023.
- ^ "Yum! Brands high on The Habit". Food business news. Retrieved 9 November 2023.
- ^ "About us". The Habit Burger Grill.
- ^ a b Kettmann, Matt; Yamamura, Jean (January 7, 2020). "Habit Burger Deal Doesn't Include Santa Barbara County". Santa Barbara Independent. Retrieved May 26, 2020.
- ^ a b Hayden, Tyler (2017-06-29). "The Habit's Secret Sauce". The Santa Barbara Independent. Retrieved 2024-09-24.
- ^ "The Habit Hires Bendel as CEO". KarpReilly (Press release). June 3, 2008.
- ^ Ho, Vanessa (July 11, 2014). "America's 'best burger' coming to Seattle". Seattle Post-Intelligencer.
- ^ "Burger chain Habit Restaurants prices IPO at $18 a share". reuters.com. November 20, 2014. Retrieved October 16, 2025.
- ^ "SEC Form 424B4, 333-199394 IPO Prospectus". U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. November 19, 2014.
- ^ Gayathri, Amrutha; Sachin, Sai (November 19, 2014). "Burger chain Habit Restaurants prices IPO at $18 a share". Reuters.
- ^ Huddleston, Tom Jr. (November 20, 2014). "Burger chain Habit's IPO sizzles in debut". Fortune.
- ^ Dimri, Neha; Ramakrishnan, Sruthi (November 20, 2014). "As diners line up, another fast casual chain sizzles on debut". Reuters.
- ^ Taylor, Kate (July 14, 2016). "Shares of the restaurant chain that serves the best burger in America are in a tailspin". Business Insider.
- ^ Scott, Ellen (November 9, 2017). "Habit burgers are coming to London". Metro.
- ^ "Yum! Brands Completes Acquisition of The Habit Restaurants, Inc" (Press release). PR Newswire. March 18, 2020.
- ^ "Original Habit Grill Founder Sells Remaining Local Restaurants". Edhat. 2021-12-14. Retrieved 2021-12-15.
- ^ Kettmann, Matt (2021-12-14). "Habit Burger Founders Sell Santa Barbara Restaurants". The Santa Barbara Independent. Retrieved 2021-12-15.
- ^ Buck, Fielding (28 August 2024). "The Habit Burger Grill changes its name". East Bay Times. Retrieved 28 August 2024.
- ^ Spiegel, Alison (July 24, 2014). "The Country's Best Burger Comes From A Chain You've Probably Never Heard Of". HuffPost.
- ^ Comoletti, Jill (July 10, 2014). "A Burger Chain You've Probably Never Heard Of Was Just Named Best In America". Business Insider.
- ^ "Best and worst fast-food restaurants in America". Consumer Reports. July 2014.
- ^ Magazine, Q. S. R. (2021-09-03). "Yum! Brands to Transition to 100 Percent Cage-Free Eggs". QSR Magazine. Retrieved 2025-07-18.