Takeout Services on the Rise

Time-pressed Americans' push for more food to go is reshaping the way restaurants do business, USA Today's Bruce Horovitz usatoday.com reports. Well over half of the meals purchased at the nation's estimated 935,000 restaurants are eaten at home, back at the office or in the car. Twenty five years ago, far more people ate restaurant food in eatries than took it out. By 2006, the typical American ate 81 meals inside restaurants but ordered 127 to go, reports researcher NPD group. The paper cites increased takeout services at a number of national chains, including Cheesecake Factory, Outback Steakhouse and P.F. Chang's, as well as Washington, D.C.'s historic Old Ebbitt Grill.

IN THE NEWS: City Weekly's Ted Scheffler reviews Pho Hoa (3460 S. Redwood Road). slweekly.com ... Deseret News' Stacey Kratz gives two and a half stars to Su Casa (516 E. 300 South). deseretnews.com

Compiled by Pat Embry, WhereTheLocalsEat.com