Taiwanese restaurant chain Din Tai Fung is not seeking to go fast and furious, even as it continues to blitz past competitors and rack up long lines of diners hungry for its globally renowned xiao long bao soup dumplings.
Instead, Aaron and Albert Yang, co-chief executives of the company’s North America business, are adamant on where their focus should lie: staying disciplined.
It’s been the guiding principle of each decision made since the Yangs – brothers only a year and half apart in age and grandsons of the brand’s founder – in August took over as the third generation of the family to run the Arcadia-based operation.
Din Tai Fung is already dominating. This month, it made headlines for generating the highest revenue per location of United States restaurant chains, blowing its peers out of the water.
The company has reported a whopping $27.4 million in average unit volumes (AUVs), a measure of sales for each location. That would be nearly double that of the next closest chain, steakhouse group Mastro’s Restaurants, and almost triple that of Japanese fine dining chain Nobu, according to market research firm Technomic Inc.