The future looks bright in Colorado, especially for restaurants. According to the National Restaurant Association, restaurant sales are expected to increase 2.9 percent in 2010, which is the best in the nation.

David Fried, senior vice president of Denver-based Fuller Real Estate, says a stable economy and growing population make Colorado an attractive spot for quick serves—if the market is right.

"Colorado is a great market for real estate, at least opportunities within highly populated areas," Fried says. "There are certainly many opportunities all over Denver metro with so much growth we've experienced over so many years."

A lot of markets within Colorado are overcrowded, Fried says, because "there was too much development against the rooftops that were projected."

Aside from the Denver metro area, Fried says Boulder is another market in Colorado that is proving to be successful.

"If you want really good quality locations, you're going to expect to pay between $25–$35 a foot, triple net," he says.

Everything's bigger in Texas, but before the recession, retail development was threatening to become too big.

"We've been historically adding 3 million square feet a year," says Vaughn Miller, president of the Retail Division at Henry S. Miller Brokerage LLC, of the Dallas-Ft. Worth metroplex. "The good news is I think that's going to dwindle down to next to nothing. That will give us an opportunity to lease the space we have."

Real estate sales volume in Texas dropped 45 percent in the third quarter of 2009 over the same period in 2008. Availability of commercial real estate is expected to increase 15 percent between the third quarters of 2009 and 2010.

With so much space available and the economy finally turning around in Texas, Miller says now is the best time for quick serves to buy real estate.

"To purchase a property, we're seeing premium lots go for anywhere from $400,000 a lot to $800,000," he says. "And that same lot, three years ago, would have been $600,000–$1 million."