First Watch is a daytime-only restaurant chain serving breakfast, brunch, and lunch across 633 locations in 32 states, with 560 company-owned and 73 franchise-owned restaurants. The concept is built around fresh, made-to-order food — no microwaves, heat lamps, or deep fryers — with a menu that rotates seasonally four to five times per year. First Watch operates a single daytime shift, roughly 7:00 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., which simplifies staffing and is a key employee retention tool. Revenue comes almost entirely from company-owned restaurant sales, with a small royalty stream from franchisees. Third-party delivery accounts for roughly 19% of restaurant sales. First Watch's core financial drivers are restaurant-level margins (targeting 18%–20% long-term), average unit volumes (roughly $2.3M system-wide), and unit count growth, which the company targets at low double-digit percentages annually. New unit economics target roughly 35% cash-on-cash returns. The company has been actively acquiring franchise locations and converting them to company-owned, adding roughly 40 locations in 2024–2025. First Watch believes its total addressable market is 2,200+ U.S. locations versus roughly 633 today. A newer growth lever is targeted digital marketing, which First Watch is scaling across its markets, supported by a first-party customer database of roughly 7.6M opted-in profiles.