Habit Burger & Grill
Irvine-based fast-casual restaurant chain founded in Santa Barbara in 1969 that serves flame-grilled burgers, chicken, tuna, salads and shakes. Yum! Brands bought it in 2020 for about $375 million.
Industry: Fast-casual restaurants | Location: Irvine, United States | Founded: 1969
About Habit Burger & Grill
Habit Burger & Grill is a fast-casual restaurant chain headquartered in Irvine, California. Its menu centres on flame-grilled burgers, chicken and tuna sandwiches, salads and hand-spun shakes, cooked to order. It is a subsidiary of Yum! Brands, the owner of KFC, Taco Bell and Pizza Hut.
The company says it was founded in 1969 in Santa Barbara, California, and the 2014 prospectus for its stock offering states that the first restaurant opened there that year. Wikipedia reports that it began as The Hamburger Habit. Russ Bendel was president and chief executive at the 2014 listing and the 2020 sale. The Orange County Business Journal reported in March 2023 that Shannon Hennessy, who moved to Habit from KFC's finance team in July 2022, would succeed him in June 2023.
The company runs a mobile app and a loyalty programme called Habit Char Club, and offers online ordering, catering, gift cards and franchising. Its website shows a Newsweek logo for America's Favorite Restaurant Chains 2023.
The prospectus counted 99 restaurants in four states in October 2014. Habit sold shares on the Nasdaq under the symbol HABT from November 2014, with the offering priced at $18 a share. Its international franchising page says it opened in Shanghai in 2017 and in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, in 2020. Fast Casual reported about 300 company-owned and franchised restaurants in the United States and China in January 2020.
Yum announced on 6 January 2020 that it would buy Habit for $375 million, or $14 a share in cash. Franchise Times reported that the deal closed on 18 March 2020 and gave Yum its first fast-casual and first burger brand. Wikipedia reports that the company dropped The from its name on 28 August 2024.
Habit is not reported separately in the pages read, so no revenue figure is given. A TechScoop article of 18 June 2026 on Yum's sale of Pizza Hut said Yum would concentrate on KFC, Taco Bell and Habit Burger & Grill.
Leadership
- Shannon Hennessy, Chief Executive Officer