Here’s an interesting list of the 100 top-grossing independent restaurants in the United States.
I’ve been to two of these: Top of the World, and Aureole. I’ve been past the Harley Davidson Cafe, repeatedly; it looks like an enormous tourist trap, and I have no desire ever to eat there.
Lawrence and I both wondered about some Austin area restaurants. It would seem that both the Oasis and the Salt Lick could make this list, but maybe they don’t cooperate with R&I, or maybe we have an exaggerated perception of the volume at both.
It is also somewhat interesting that there’s a controversy about the Republican Party holding fund raising events at Tao, the top-grossing independent in the U.S.
(By way of Althouse: the comments section on this post is worth reading.)
“Top grossing” does not necessarily imply “busiest”.
A few years back, someone told me that Austin’s top-grossing “restaurant” was Sugar’s Uptown Cabaret. Not sure how true it was at the time, but if it was, I doubt it was based solely on food income.
I think I’ve been to three of those, most notably Old Ebbitt Grill in DC on numerous occasions (the other two were Phillips Harborplace in Baltimore and Tower Lodge in Rockville). I may have been to one or two in NYC, but nothing was memorable enough for the name itself to trigger a recall.