Flickr user @boetter
Recent capital investment by chain restaurants have been a large investment for Beaufort.

Combining the construction of a Buffalo Wild Wings on Robert Smalls Parkway, Red Lobster/Olive Garden at Beaufort Town Center, and the reconstruction of the McDonald's on Boundary Street, The Island Packet has penned a piece looking at the impact of some $5.3 million in capital investment in the City of Beaufort.

You can read their piece here.  

For my two cents, the trio of spots is far more of happenstance than any change in trends, and by far the most notable is the combination Red Lobster-Olive Garden.

It will be the closest chain restaurant in the city to the core of historic downtown Beaufort, and it also does the most to integrate with city's new form-based code. So a successful chain restaurant there could mean far more interest from other chains looking to target more urban and less car-centric customers.