Question 1

Is Black Bear Diner or Giordano’s® Restaurants cheaper to open?

Accepted Answer

Black Bear Diner costs $1,495,700–$2,238,600 and Giordano’s® Restaurants costs $1,565,000–$2,056,000 to open (FDD Item 7). Black Bear Diner has the lower entry cost.

Question 2

Which earns more, Black Bear Diner or Giordano’s® Restaurants?

Accepted Answer

Black Bear Diner reports $2,820,694 average annual unit revenue vs $1,846,407 for Giordano’s® Restaurants (FDD Item 19). Black Bear Diner is higher. For Giordano’s® Restaurants: Item 19 of this FDD reports outlet performance by restaurant format and location, and separately for franchised and company-owned restaurants, and states no single system-wide average. The figure shown here is not one the filing publishes; the cohorts it does disclose are listed with it.; Reported for a subset of outlets rather than the whole system.

Question 3

Which is the better franchise, Black Bear Diner or Giordano’s® Restaurants?

Accepted Answer

FranchiseVerdict grades Black Bear Diner A and Giordano’s® Restaurants B, from FDD Items 5–7, 19–21 and SBA loan performance. See the full side-by-side above.

Metric	Black Bear Diner	Giordano’s® Restaurants
Verdict Grade	AStrongest tier	BAbove average
Investment Range	$1.5M – $2.2M	$1.6M – $2.1M
Franchise Fee	$55K	$40K
Royalty Rate	4.5%	6.0%
Average Revenue (Item 19)	$2.8M	$1.8MCohort-only Item 19 · Outlet subset
SBA Charge-Off Rate	Limited data	Limited data
Total Units	169	60
Unit Growth (YoY)	+5 units	-1 units
Year Began Franchising	2002	1980
FDD Year	2026	2025

Black Bear Diner vs Giordano’s® Restaurants