This story was originally published on Restaurant Dive. To receive daily news and insights, subscribe to our free daily Restaurant Dive newsletter. After years of underperforming, casual dining seems to have hit its stride this year. Chili’s is posting record-breaking same-store sales and traffic growth, while others, like Applebee’s, switched from negative to positive sales growth this year. Value moves by casual chains have put the segment in direct price competition with fast food and fast casual — to ...