Hemet’s national restaurant roster will soon include Red Robin, Buffalo Wild Wings Grill & Bar, and one of southern California’s very first SONIC drive-ins. The three new eateries join recent high profile arrivals including Applebee's, Chili’s, and Mimi’s Cafe.

The restaurant influx is fueled by Hemet’s growth and shifting demographics. Hemet’s 2008 15-mile trade area population is almost 355,000 and is increasingly characterized by younger families—the median age is a high-wage 35.36 years old.

“Hemet is a natural,” said Tim O’Kane, Red Robin’s regional vice-president of real estate. “We track demographics and growth. Hemet has a very, very strong growth curve. And Hemet used to be known as a retirement community, but our demographics show it’s increasingly becoming young families. We pay attention. We track the trends. That’s why we’re coming to Hemet.”

Red Robin is the nationwide casual dining restaurant that offers twenty-two gourmet burgers and a dizzying array of toppings. The new 55,000 square-foot, 200-seat Red Robin will be on Florida Avenue immediately west of another new area restaurant, Mimi’s Cafe. O’Kane cites another reason for Red Robin’s move into Hemet. “Another major factor is that we know how our competitors are doing. Restaurants are a small world. Word gets around about other restaurants. We even have numbers. And when you see that kind of volume... Well, when you see that kind of volume, you know you should be in Hemet.”

In the meantime, construction is underway on SONIC Drive-in and Buffalo Wild Wings. Both will front on busy Sanderson and Stetson Avenues.

SONIC is a 3,000-store, Oklahoma-based burger phenomenon. The new Hemet store is in the vanguard of the legendary drive-in’s move into Southern California. In fact, it will be only the second SONIC in the region, the first being located near Disneyland.

“We chose southwest Hemet because it is a dynamic growing area,” said SONIC owner Brian Pye, “And we feel the Sanderson and Stetson corner will be the center of that activity for the next 10 to 15 years. It was a location that met our demographics. We probably chose it for exactly the same reason WalMart did.”

Buffalo Wild Wings is a 26-year-old, NASDAQ-listed chicken wing empire, boasting more than 430 locations across 37 states. It is regarded as one of the fastest-growing chains in the country. The restaurant is best-known for their buffalo-style chicken wings and fourteen, sometimes scorching sauces ranging from honey BBQ to Parmesan garlic, Asian zing to mango habanero.