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Young People Head To Local Hangouts
The coolest place in town
Gen Z is discovering they don’t need to get into the most exclusive clubs or impossible-to-book restaurants… it’s pretty satisfying to just become a regular at your local café or bar.
Why It Hits: Some call it a “normcore lifestyle”; others call it “regularmaxxing.” Whatever label social media wants to prescribe, it shows that young people are craving what Insider calls “their own version of Central Perk or Cheers.” Why? After years of trying to capture the internet’s attention, people just want to feel connected to their neighborhood.
Between The Lines: Young people want to trade viral likes for friendly waves.
Data from OpenTable found that half of Americans consider themselves a regular at a local restaurant or bar.
Per Insider, that means “they go there three or four times a month, and the staff might know their name or their order.”
Unsurprisingly, Gen Z is the least likely generation to report having such a spot… but they want one.
So, many are going out of their way to make it happen, including scheduling visits to the same eateries at the same time and even choosing the same seat.
Last Call: Of course, if there’s a trend taking off, Silicon Valley isn’t far behind. Several platforms are hoping to capitalize on young people’s desire to be known somewhere, including Blackbird (which is testing a new feature that sends restaurants a summary of patrons so they can know them better) and Bilt (which provides rewards for eating at the same restaurants). A 2025 report from the National Restaurant Association found that a majority of restaurants — from quick-service to fine dining — said having a rewards program led to higher foot traffic. For a sector notorious for operating on razor-thin margins, that loyalty could be the deciding factor between success and failure.
There’s big business in getting people to become regulars.
Next Weekend: Between Gen Z’s new trends of going analog and becoming a regular, the next dating trend could be connecting with someone reading the same book as you at the local coffee shop or joining a team at your neighborhood bar’s trivia night. What’s old is new again.
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Today’s email was written by David Vendrell.
Edited, Polled, and Copy-edited by Kait Cunniff.
Published by Darline Salazar.