Trends · data through September 2026

Family Restaurants & Diners in North Carolina

Iceflower tracks 603 stores from 241 family restaurants & diners in North Carolina. Waffle House grew fastest over the last year, ahead of Coffee House Diner and Carolina's Diner.

Rankings come from real card and bank transactions across a panel of 130M+ US and EU consumers. We publish relative growth and rankings, never revenue figures. About the data

Tracked chains
241
Tracked stores
603
Consumer panel
130M+

Growth ranking

Fastest-growing tracked family restaurants & diners

Ranked by year-over-year growth of share of tracked local spend. Arrows show movement in the rankings since last year. Each dot in the chart is one tracked chain: bigger market position to the right, faster growth higher up, more tracked stores in a bigger dot. Colors match the store map below. Waffle House and Coffee House Diner sit in the high-growth half.

# Chain YoY growth
RankChainRank movementYoY growth
1 W Waffle House logo Waffle House - +4.5%
2 C Coffee House Diner - +2.8%
3 C Carolina's Diner - +1.0%
4 K Kountry Kitchen ▲1 +0.5%
5 I IHOP logo IHOP - -0.9%
6 C Cracker Barrel Old Country Store logo Cracker Barrel Old Country Store - -1.9%
7 B Bob Evans logo Bob Evans - -2.3%
8 S Shoney's - -4.2%
9 G Granny's Country Kitchen - -5.6%
10 M Metro Diner logo Metro Diner - -8.7%
11 D Denny's logo Denny's - -10.1%
12 H Huddle House logo Huddle House - -27.7%
13 C Country Kitchen logo Country Kitchen ▼1 -31.1%
14 F Friendly's logo Friendly's - -39.9%
  • Waffle House
  • Cracker Barrel Old Country Store
  • IHOP
  • Metro Diner
  • Denny's
  • Mike's Farm
  • Midnight Diner
  • Other tracked chains

Store footprint

Store map

603 tracked store locations in North Carolina. The 7 largest tracked chains are highlighted.

  • Waffle House (198)
  • Cracker Barrel Old Country Store (41)
  • IHOP (53)
  • Metro Diner (6)
  • Denny's (17)
  • Mike's Farm (1)
  • Midnight Diner (1)
  • Other tracked chains

Top tracked chains by store count

  • 1 W Waffle House logo Waffle House 198
  • 2 I IHOP logo IHOP 53
  • 3 C Cracker Barrel Old Country Store logo Cracker Barrel Old Country Store 41
  • 4 D Denny's logo Denny's 17
  • 5 C Cagney's Kitchen logo Cagney's Kitchen 9
  • 6 H Huddle House logo Huddle House 7
  • 7 B Bob Evans logo Bob Evans 7
  • 8 M Metro Diner logo Metro Diner 6
  • 9 C Coffee House Diner 6
  • 10 C Carolina's Diner 5
  • 11 G Granny's Country Kitchen 4
  • 12 S Southern Star 3
  • 13 C Country Kitchen logo Country Kitchen 3
  • 14 F Friendly's logo Friendly's 3
  • 15 K Kountry Kitchen 3
  • 16 V Village Inn logo Village Inn 3
  • 17 S Shoney's 3
  • 18 P Paul's Place 2
  • 19 H Home Plate Restaurant 2
  • 20 P Pop's Diner 2
  • 21 N New York Diner 2
  • 22 L Lucky 32 Southern Kitchen 2
  • 23 F Flavor Hills logo Flavor Hills 2
  • 24 R Rockys Hot Chicken Shack 2
  • 25 G George's Restaurant 2
  • 26 Q Queen's Soul Food 1
  • 27 K Kat's Lil Community Café 1
  • 28 S Shirley's Diner 1
  • 29 H Heather Rae's Comfort Cookin' Restaurant 1
  • 30 J Jesse Bells Soul Food 1
  • 31 T The Dinner Bell 1
  • 32 W Wiggs Family Restaurant 1
  • 33 M Mustang Charlie's Diner 1
  • 34 D Daniel & the Dog 1
  • 35 O O’Dears Country Diner 1
  • 36 S Sly's Famous Diner 1
  • 37 C Crossroads Diner 1
  • 38 E Elmo's Diner logo Elmo's Diner 1
  • 39 S Simple Twist 1
  • 40 F Farm House Diner 1
  • 41 R Rolesville Diner 1
  • 42 M Mom's Grill 1
  • 43 S Shirley's 1
  • 44 F Ferguson Supply and Cafe 1
  • 45 V Village Diner 1
  • 46 M Mike's Farm 1
  • 47 M Mama's Place 1
  • 48 P Plaza Restaurant 1
  • 49 W Wallburg Diner 1
  • 50 F Fixins OKI 1

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