The Habit Burger Grill


The Habit Burger Grill is an American fast casual restaurant chain that specializes in charbroiled hamburgers. The company also sells other typical fast-casual fare. Its headquarters are in Irvine, California.
In March 2020, Yum! Brands, the parent company of Taco Bell and KFC, acquired Habit.

History

The Habit Burger Grill was founded on November 15, 1969 in Santa Barbara, California as a family-owned business.
From 1969 to 2007, the chain slowly expanded around the Los Angeles metropolitan area to 23 restaurants. In 1980, Brent and Bruce Reichard purchased the original location in Goleta.
In 2007, KarpReilly, a private equity firm, acquired a majority ownership in the company and began to rapidly expand the chain, including franchising.
In 2014, Habit had 109 locations either open for business or under construction, including an expansion into Seattle. At that 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. In November 2014, the company raised $83.7 million in an initial public offering. The share price immediately doubled. By 2016, growth had slowed significantly, in line with the burger business.
In 2017, the company announced plans to expand into the United Kingdom with 30 restaurants.
In March 2020, Yum! Brands, the parent company of Taco Bell and KFC, acquired Habit. Not included in the sale were the eight locations in Santa Barbara County, California, which remain under the ownership of the Reichard brothers.

Locations

The Habit Burger Grill currently has over 250 locations, mostly in California, as follows:
Location# of locations
Arizona13
California174
Florida10
Idaho3
Maryland4
Nevada7
New Jersey9
North Carolina1
Pennsylvania1
Utah11
Virginia3
Washington State8
China2
United Arab Emirates2

The company also has a fleet of nine food trucks.

Reception

In mid-2014, The Habit's "Charburger" was named the best burger in America by Consumer Reports, a nonprofit organization dedicated to unbiased product testing, scoring an 8.1 out of 10 among 53,745 participants.