The growth of corporate food service firms and the resulting competition places increasing pressures on available resources and their efficient usage. This analysis measures efficiencies for U. S. chain restaurants and determines associations between managerial and operational characteristics. Using a ray-homothetic production function, frontiers were estimated for large and small restaurant chains. Technical and scale efficiencies were then derived for the firms. Finally, a Tobit analysis measured associations between technical efficiencies and firm characteristics. Results showed differences based on firm size, but factors such as experience, service format, unit size, and menu were strongly associated with efficiency, perhaps offsetting some firm size effects.