One measure of the U.S. restaurant industry’s health showed a sales increase in January, although consumers may be less willing to spend money on restaurant meals in the near future, according to a report published this week by Nation’s Restaurant News.

In a separate measurement, the National Restaurant Association’s most recent snapshot of the industry suggests that restaurant owners and operators are pessimistic about the overall economy.

Black Box Intelligence this week released its Restaurant Industry Snapshot for January, showing same-store sales rose 0.4 percent in January, an improvement over the 1.1 percent drop in December. Black Box Intelligence provides data on sales, customer traffic, revenue and consumer data, and its industry snapshot is published on NRN.com, the web site of Nation’s Restaurant News.

Consumer Edge Research, a partner company to Black Box Intelligence, released its January Restaurant Willingness to Spend Index survey results showing that consumers were less willing to spend money at restaurants than they were in December, according to NRN.com.

The National Restaurant Association’s Restaurant Performance Index (RPI) has not released data for January, but the RPI – a monthly composite index that tracks the health of and outlook for the U.S. restaurant industry – stood at 99.7 in December, down 0.2 percent from November.

Restaurant operators reported softer same-store sales and customer traffic levels in December but are cautiously optimistic about sales growth in the months ahead, said Hudson Riehle, a senior vice president for the restaurant association. “However, operators remain decidedly pessimistic about the overall economy, with only 17 percent saying they expect business conditions to improve in the next six months,” Riehle said.

The restaurant scene in Southwest Ohio has been as mixed as the national industry snapshots. There has been a surge of new-restaurant activity in downtown Dayton in recent months, and six restaurants have signed on to open in the new Austin Landing development in Miami Twp. in southern Montgomery County. But four Dayton-area restaurants that have operated for 25 years or more — Pepito’s on Catalpa, l’Auberge in Kettering, Benham’s in Dayton, and The Grub Steak in West Carrollton — have closed or announced they will close within the past year.