Chris Tomasso has held the CEO role at First Watch for more than eight years. By this time in 2027—he elevated to the spot that June—he’ll have been a lead executive as long as he was a chief marketing officer (nine years, from 2006–2015). And before, his served as VP of marketing at Cracker Barrel and clocked over a decade with Hard Rock, rising to VP of worldwide marketing to become the youngest VP in company history.
In plain terms, Tomasso understands the value of keeping tabs on the consumer landscape. From where First Watch sits today, as the fastest-growing full-service chain in America, it’s a dynamic the company is building strategies around as unit count balloons. Thankfully, Tomasso said Tuesday during First Watch’s earnings, the chain’s offerings and selection fit today’s digital platforms “where more and more consumers are turning for exploration and connection.”
First Watch’s seasonal DNA and quality approach, he explained, lend to storytelling across emerging platforms.
Against that backdrop, First Watch in Q4 will start testing online-to-offline services with TikTok GO in the U.S. aimed at encouraging local discovery. Tomasso said First Watch was one of the first restaurants TikTok invited in its opening batch. TikTok GO, announced in May, is an in-app feature that surfaces lodgings and things to do (like eat) across the threads people already use to browse TikTok content (videos, search, location pages, etc). When users find something of interest, they view details, availability, and can complete a booking.
“This new relationship will introduce First Watch and our differentiated menu to a highly engaged audience,” Tomasso said, adding TikTok attracts some 200 million active monthly users.
While First Watch was light on further details, Tomasso said it speaks to a larger theme for the brand. The company views the relationship as a progressive way to reach fresh audiences and complements prior investments made across paid social, online video, connected TV, and influencer marketing. It’s going to create an additional opportunity to flip awareness and engagement into traffic and transactions, Tomasso said.
Getting the word out about First Watch is an ever-evolving point of discussion these days for the brand. It opened 16 locations across 11 states in Q3 to reach 681 stores (601 company owned and 80 franchised). It plans to open a net of 60 new restaurants for 2026 and will taper a bit in 2027 at 55 in light of interest rates and cost of capital.
Although First Watch has not seen any related changes in developer activity, said CFO Ashlee Weisser, who was promoted in June from her role as SVP, financial planning and analysis, and previously served as CFO of Maple Street Biscuit Company (since sold to Biscuit Belly in July from Cracker Barrel), First Watch feels it’s best to remain flexible going forward.
The chain posted Q3 same-store sales growth of 1 percent (8.1 percent on a two-year stack lapping its most difficult comparison from 2026). Traffic was negative 1.9 percent (plus 0.7 percent two year). Revenues lifted 10.7 percent to $349.9 million, and systemwide sales bumped 10.9 percent to $391.2 million. First Watch carried pricing of 3.6 percent in the quarter. Mix was slightly negative due to comps and promos being higher than last year, driven by a stronger response to the brand’s annual email campaign.
Weisser said there were no signs of check management from customers. Instead, the aforementioned annual email offer touted higher redemptions than normal following a clean up of First Watch’s database and improved marketing.
Additionally, one of its LTOs (the Godfather Breakfast Bowl, with Italian pork sausage, two eggs, and grits, topped with lemon-dressed arugula, herbs, and Parmesan) hit the market at a lower price point, pulling down mix somewhat, year-over-year.
Returning to marketing, Tomasso said First Watch was encouraged by the early performance of an additional demand generation tactic targeting a distinct group. As part of its 2026 media testing, the chain added local linear TV in one of its largest markets where building awareness was historically difficult. Tomasso said the channel’s broad reach and efficient CPM “made it an attractive complement to our targeted digital investments.”
Following those results, First Watch expanded to a second market where reactions, thus far, have been similar. “We believe linear television could provide another efficient way to build awareness and support traffic in select markets,” he said.
Regarding growth, as Tomasso has mentioned in past calls, even moderating to 55 openings, First Watch is essentially opening the equivalent of a regional-sized brand each year—and doing so in a category not exactly rife with development. He was asked on the call if the brand feels less pressure to ramp given its competitors haven’t accelerated.
First Watch was on a race to key markets and led with a fortressing strategy designed around securing A sites, often through second-gen builds. And if you go back to when it went public in fall 2021, Tomasso said, there was a lot of chatter within the breakfast/brunch segment about hyper growth. “And we just haven’t seen that,” he said. “In fact, we’ve actually seen contraction. So, from our perspective, we have a very significant lead in our category. We’re the undisputed leader in it. And we can still continue to be an aggressively growing concept and widen our lead, but while also focusing on some other aspects of the business that will drive shareholder value.”
First Watch’s negative traffic of 1.9 percent, he explained, largely reflected planned strategic sales transfer from the broadening of its reach and servicing a growing customer base in more convenient channels.
Phrased differently, First Watch is in more places today, showing up in a host of ways.
Tomasso said the slimmed unit could would reduce some headwinds associated with sales transfer long-term.
Still, though, it’s relative. First Watch has opened 53 locations across 22 states year-to-date and is already developing sites to debut in the back half of 2028.
Tomasso said the sales volumes of 2025 and 2026 stores, as has been the case all calendar, continue to outperform First Watch’s comp base and its financial underwriting targets. That’s true across geographies and markets and provides agility for future planning.
Two of the brand’s top three new-restaurant opening first-week performances this year took place in Q3—one in Attleboro, Massachusetts, and another in Jackson, Tennessee.
The goal remains 2,200-plus stores across the continental U.S.
First Watch will unpack more of what’s ahead next week at its first investor day in Boston.
