DALLAS \u2014\u00a0New data shows Valentine\u2019s Day weekend was a big financial boon for Texas restaurants this year as compared to 2025.\u00a0<\/p>\n
OpenTable online reservations were up 75% last week, and the cost of those holiday plans increased nearly 10% for those who dined out \u2014 according to data from \u201cSunday,\u201d a restaurant payment platform.<\/p>\n
But just because there was a Valentine\u2019s spike, restaurant experts say it doesn\u2019t mean the rest of the year will be worth celebrating.<\/p>\n
Throwing wood into the fire and rolling up the paper towels to perfection are just some of the finishing touches before Jeff Bergus and his staff serve up a savory slice of Texas.<\/p>\n
He and his wife, Jill, are the co-owners of Lockhart Smokehouse in Dallas.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe own two. You know it\u2019s not just cause you can make a good brisket in your backyard. Anybody can do barbecue. It\u2019s a lot more than that,\u201d said Jeff.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a lot more pivoting when patrons are pushing for that Texas Smoked Trinity of brisket, ribs and sausage.<\/p>\n
\u201cWith beef prices where they are, and also with incoming issues like the screwworm that\u2019s coming up from Mexico, and that\u2019s gonna be a challenge for our farmers and ranchers. We\u2019re focusing on how we can be a little bit more creative,\u201d said Jill.<\/p>\n
With 15 years of experience in the restaurant industry under their belt,\u00a0they\u2019ve seen it all\u2014from shortages in serving supplies post-COVID to price increases in rent and insurance and bumping up employees\u2019 pay.\u00a0<\/p>\n
New data from the Texas Restaurant Association (TRA) paints a grim picture for 2026.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd so, while we thought we might have a little bit of improvement. We\u2019re now seeing things like beef and the commodities section. We may not get any relief until 2028. And so, while there was a lot of consistency between the two quarters, unfortunately, some of that consistencies are the numbers that we don\u2019t want to see for restaurants,\u201d said Emily Williams Knight, president and CEO of Texas Restaurant Association.<\/p>\n
This month, TRA released its fourth-quarter economics report for 2025, comparing it to the previous quarter. It showed a slight increase in restaurant profit, but the report still reveals it was noticeably slower than in previous years.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat we\u2019re really going to monitor is that check average, right? So, our consumers are coming out, but are they actually spending less? Not buying a drink, not buying dessert,\u201d said Williams Knight.<\/p>\n
Beef is also on the brain of state officials. This month, Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller issued an urgent call to action to protect Texas barbecue.<\/p>\n
Citing a troubling wave of restaurant closures and operational challenges driven by record-high prices, the national cattle herd is at its lowest point in 75 years.<\/p>\n
\u201cI would say definitely last year we saw sales dip below previous thresholds for us. So, we\u2019re getting by. You know we\u2019re not throwing money out of the ATM machine or anything like that. But we\u2019re trying to manage the things we can control,\u201d said Jeff.<\/p>\n
And for them, that\u2019s serving up that Central Texas flavor in North Texas for decades to come.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"DALLAS \u2014\u00a0New data shows Valentine\u2019s Day weekend was a big financial boon for Texas restaurants this year as…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":172949,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[4998,2160,132,134,133,8455,910,1570,102,138,223,82,1569,2053,17547,835],"class_list":{"0":"post-172948","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-austin","8":"tag-app-local-business","9":"tag-app-top-stories","10":"tag-austin","11":"tag-austin-headlines","12":"tag-austin-news","13":"tag-blessing-iwuchukwu","14":"tag-business","15":"tag-ctv","16":"tag-dallas","17":"tag-el-paso","18":"tag-news","19":"tag-san-antonio","20":"tag-texas-what-you-need-to-know","21":"tag-top-stories","22":"tag-topic-latest-local-business-stories","23":"tag-vod"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/172948","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=172948"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/172948\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/172949"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=172948"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=172948"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=172948"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}