Question 1

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

Accepted Answer

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

Question 2

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

Accepted Answer

Giordano’s® Restaurants reports $1,846,407 average annual unit revenue vs $2,820,694 for Black Bear Diner (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, Giordano’s® Restaurants or Black Bear Diner?

Accepted Answer

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

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

Giordano’s® Restaurants vs Black Bear Diner