Chili’s Takes the Fight Beyond Burgers: Why the Restaurant Industry Needs to Stop Thinking in Silos

 

There is an important lesson emerging from Chili’s that reaches far beyond burgers, chicken sandwiches, tacos or even casual dining according to Steven Johnson Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions®.

Consumers do not live in restaurant industry silos—and neither should restaurant marketers.

For decades, the restaurant industry has divided itself into categories: quick-service restaurants, fast casual, casual dining, pizza, Mexican, chicken, burgers and convenience stores. But consumers do not wake up in the morning thinking, “Today I am going to purchase from the casual-dining segment.”

They think:

“What do I want to eat, how much do I want to spend, how quickly do I want it, and what am I going to get for my money?”

That distinction is becoming increasingly important.

And Chili’s appears to understand it.

At Brinker International’s September 17, 2026 Investor Day, Chili’s executives Kevin Hochman, president and CEO of Brinker International, and George Felix, EVP and CMO, described a strategy that began by attacking the perceived value gap between casual dining and fast food—and is now looking toward Mexican QSR as another category where Chili’s believes it can compete.

From the perspective of the Grocerant Guru®, this isn't simply a story about Chili’s going after Taco Bell.

It is a story about the continuing collapse of restaurant industry silos.

The Consumer Doesn't Care About Your Industry Category

In 2024, Chili’s made its intentions very clear.

The brand introduced its Big Smasher burger as part of its $10.99 3 For Me platform, explicitly positioning the offer against fast-food burgers. Chili’s said the Big Smasher contained twice the beef of a Big Mac, while the $10.99 meal included the burger, fries, bottomless chips and salsa, and a bottomless non-alcoholic beverage.

The important marketing idea wasn't simply “we have a burger.”

The message was:

“Compare what you get for your money.”

That is a fundamentally different way to market food.

Chili’s subsequently extended the strategy into lunch. Its 2024 3 For Lunch platform offered 11 combinations beginning at $10.99, including burgers, chicken sandwiches, chicken tenders and other familiar lunch choices.

Then came 2025.

Chili’s introduced the Big QP burger with 85% more beef than a Quarter Pounder with Cheese, again putting the comparison squarely into the consumer's frame of reference. The $10.99 3 For Me included the burger, fries, bottomless chips and salsa, and a bottomless drink.

And the results suggest that consumers were paying attention.

For fiscal 2025, Chili’s comparable restaurant sales increased 25.3%, with traffic up 16.0%. In the fourth quarter alone, comparable sales increased 23.7%, including a 16.3% increase in traffic.

Those numbers matter because they demonstrate something more important than a successful advertising campaign:

Consumers were willing to change where they spent their restaurant dollars.

Then Came Chicken

In April 2026, Chili’s moved beyond burgers.

The company introduced the Big Crispy chicken sandwich to its $10.99 3 For Me platform and explicitly compared it with fast-food chicken sandwiches. Chili’s said its average Big Crispy filet was more than 80% larger than the average McCrispy breaded filet in its local study.

Again, the strategy wasn't:

“We are a casual-dining restaurant selling chicken.”

It was:

“Here is what you get for your money. Now compare.”

That is Price Value Service Equilibrium in action.

Price alone isn't value.

Value is the relationship between:

Price + Quality + Service + Experience + Portability = Consumer Value

A $9 meal isn't automatically a better value than a $12 meal.

If the $12 meal provides substantially more food, better ingredients, table service, a comfortable environment and an experience consumers enjoy, the consumer may perceive the $12 purchase as the better value.

That is exactly the battleground Chili's has entered.

Chili's Says Mexican QSR Is Next

At the 2026 Investor Day, Brinker executives discussed Mexican QSR as a potential future growth category.

Importantly, this is not being positioned as an immediate rollout. George Felix described Mexican QSR as a future opportunity, potentially about two years out, while pointing to existing Chili's capabilities in quesadillas and fajitas. Executives discussed potential extensions such as Chicken Crisper tacos, upgraded steak quesadillas and other Mexican-inspired menu applications.

That is strategically significant.

Chili's isn't starting from zero.

It already has:

·       Chicken Crispers

·       Fajitas

·       Quesadillas

·       Mexican-inspired menu items

·       Familiar proteins

·       Sauces and flavor profiles

·       A strong restaurant experience

·       A value platform

·       A marketing system built around comparison

The opportunity is therefore less about entering Mexican food and more about recombining existing assets into new consumer occasions.

That is something the Grocerant Guru® has been calling Mix-and-Match Meal Component Bundling for years.

Take a proven protein.

Take a proven sauce.

Take a familiar format.

Take a recognized brand.

Bundle the components.

Create a new occasion.

Then give the consumer a reason to choose it.

This Is Where the Silos Begin to Break

The restaurant industry has traditionally organized itself around categories.

Burger restaurants compete with burger restaurants.

Chicken restaurants compete with chicken restaurants.

Mexican restaurants compete with Mexican restaurants.

Casual dining competes with casual dining.

But the consumer sees none of those walls.

The consumer sees one wallet.

And that wallet may be deciding between:

·       a burger at McDonald's,

·       tacos at Taco Bell,

·       chicken at Chick-fil-A,

·       a meal at Chili's,

·       pizza for the family,

·       a prepared meal from a supermarket,

·       food from a convenience store,

·       or something delivered to the home.

That's the real competitive landscape.

The consumer's stomach is the marketplace.

The Chili's Numbers Tell an Interesting Story

Chili's fiscal 2024 performance already showed the beginning of the shift.

In fiscal 2024, Chili's comparable restaurant sales increased 7.4%, while traffic declined only 0.6%, with the company specifically citing the Big Smasher launch and value-oriented advertising as traffic drivers in the fourth quarter.

Then fiscal 2025 accelerated dramatically.

Chili's comparable sales increased 25.3%, with traffic increasing 16.0%.

By fiscal 2026, Brinker reported that Chili's had delivered five consecutive years of same-store sales growth, with cumulative growth of 71% over that period. Fiscal 2026 fourth-quarter comparable sales increased 5.6% at Chili's.

Those results help explain why Brinker is now talking about expanding the concept rather than simply defending it.

At Investor Day, Brinker established longer-term targets calling for 4% to 6% annual revenue growth and 2% to 3% annual unit growth, with a goal of reaching approximately 30 new restaurants annually by fiscal 2029.

Value Is Becoming More Than a Discount

This is perhaps the most important lesson.

Chili's executives are not describing value as simply having the lowest price.

They describe an everyday low-price strategy based on price certainty, more food for the money and the overall experience.

The company's executives said the Chili's entry price points can be available without requiring consumers to find a coupon, visit at a specific hour or use a special promotion. They also described the average Chili's check for comparable occasions as roughly $3 to $4 below competitors in casual dining.

That is a very different proposition from traditional promotional marketing.

“Come in today because the coupon expires tonight” creates urgency.

“You know what you're going to get for your money every day” creates trust.

For today's consumer, that distinction matters.

And This Is Where Taco Bell Enters the Conversation

The question isn't really whether Chili's can become Taco Bell.

It doesn't need to.

Nor does Taco Bell need to become Chili's.

The more interesting question is whether consumers will increasingly compare them on the same occasion.

If a consumer wants tacos, the consumer can evaluate Taco Bell.

But that same consumer can now ask:

What does Chili's offer me for the same money?

That is the competitive disruption.

Chili's executives have already indicated that the company intends to make comparisons visible by showing consumers the difference in portion size, ingredients and experience.

And that is exactly how category boundaries begin to disappear.

The Bigger Opportunity Is the Occasion

The restaurant industry should stop asking:

“Who is our competitor?”

It should start asking:

“What other food occasions can steal our customer's dollar?”

That is a much larger question.

A burger chain isn't only competing against burger chains.

A Mexican QSR isn't only competing against Mexican QSRs.

A casual-dining restaurant isn't only competing against casual dining.

They are all competing for share of stomach, share of wallet and share of occasion.

Brinker executives made essentially this point at Investor Day, noting that Chili's can source guests from across the restaurant landscape rather than from one specific category.

That is the future of foodservice marketing.

The Grocerant Guru® Perspective

I have long argued that there are no silos in the consumer's mind.

Consumers don't care whether the food industry calls something QSR, fast casual, casual dining, convenience retail, grocery prepared foods or a restaurant.

They care about what's for dinner.

They care about what's for lunch.

They care about how much it costs.

They care about how much food they receive.

They care about quality.

They care about speed.

They care about service.

And increasingly, they care about whether the experience is worth leaving home for.

Chili's is demonstrating what happens when a restaurant stops defining its competition by industry classification and starts defining competition by consumer value perception.

The next phase may be Mexican QSR.

But the larger opportunity is much bigger.

It is the consumer.

And the consumer has never recognized the silos in the first place.

Three Insights from the Grocerant Guru®

1. Stop defining competition by category.

The restaurant industry needs to stop asking, “Who operates in our category?” and start asking, “Who is competing for this consumer's next meal?” That includes restaurants, grocery prepared foods, convenience stores, delivery, takeout and increasingly every retailer capable of selling Ready-2-Eat or Heat-N-Eat food.

2. Price gets attention—but value wins the occasion.

Chili's lesson is not simply that $10.99 is powerful. The lesson is that what the consumer receives for $10.99 creates the value proposition. Food quantity, food quality, service, atmosphere, convenience and price must work together. That is the Price Value Service Equilibrium.

3. The future belongs to Mix-and-Match.

Chili's potential move into Mexican QSR demonstrates the power of using existing foodservice components in new ways. Chicken Crispers can become tacos. Fajita steak can become quesadillas. Sauces can create new flavor platforms. Existing ingredients can create new occasions.

That's Mix-and-Match Meal Component Bundling—and it is one of the most powerful ways to grow food sales without rebuilding the entire business from scratch.

The biggest lesson from Chili's isn't that casual dining is going after Mexican QSR.

The biggest lesson is that the consumer has already eliminated the silos. The smartest food marketers are simply catching up.

Tap into the Foodservice Solutions® team for greater understanding of New Electricity or for a Grocerant Program Assessment, Grocerant ScoreCard, or for product positioning or placement assistance, or call our Grocerant Guru®.  Since 1991 www.FoodserviceSolutions.us  of Tacoma, WA has been the global leader in the Grocerant niche. Contact: Steve@FoodserviceSolutions.us or 253-759-7869

 

Round Table Pizza and Dr. Pepper Put a New Spin on the Grocerant Game

 

Football season has always been about food, friends, family and gathering around the table. But in 2026, gathering around the table means something different than it did a generation ago.

Consumers increasingly think about the meal occasion, not the traditional restaurant category according to Steven Johnson, Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions®.

Pizza, wings, sides, beverages and snacks can come from different places, different channels and different brands. The consumer doesn't care about the industry's organizational chart. They simply want to answer one question:

“What's for dinner—and what are we going to share?”

That is precisely why Round Table Pizza's new collaboration with Dr Pepper and The Dairy Alliance deserves attention from foodservice marketers.

Round Table Pizza is introducing what it describes as its first nationwide Dr Pepper-inspired pizza, along with a limited-time lineup built around the distinctive flavor of Dr Pepper. The promotion includes a Dr Pepper BBQ Pizza, Dr Pepper BBQ Classic and Boneless Wings, Bacon & Cheese Tots with Dr Pepper BBQ Dipping Sauce, and a Margherita Pizza.

The promotion is available through Jan. 3 and is designed squarely around football-season sharing.

From my perspective as the Grocerant Guru®, this isn't simply another limited-time offer. It is a lesson in Mix-and-Match Meal Component Bundling, brand collaboration and trial generation.

The Grocerant Consumer Doesn't Buy Categories—They Build Meals

For years, foodservice companies organized themselves around categories:

Pizza.

Wings.

Sides.

Beverages.

Desserts.

Grocery.

Convenience stores.

Restaurants.

Consumers don't think that way.

They build meals from components.

That consumer behavior is becoming increasingly important as restaurants compete not merely with other restaurants, but with every food retailer capable of supplying a Ready-2-Eat or Heat-N-Eat component.

The National Restaurant Association's 2024 research specifically identified meal blending as an important consumer behavior, noting that restaurant food increasingly supplements food prepared at home.

That is the foundation of what I call Grocerant Mix-and-Match Meal Component Bundling.

A consumer might purchase:

Pizza + wings + tots + beverage

or

Pizza + salad + beverage

or

Wings + sides + beverage

The consumer is assembling an occasion rather than ordering from a predetermined restaurant-category box.

Round Table's Dr Pepper promotion understands that dynamic.

The Pizza Is the Platform. The Beverage Is Part of the Experience.

The Dr Pepper BBQ Pizza is particularly interesting because the beverage brand isn't simply sitting beside the pizza on the menu.

Dr Pepper becomes an ingredient and flavor cue.

Round Table's signature crust is paired with creamy garlic sauce, Dr Pepper BBQ sauce, three cheeses, bacon, mini pepperoni and green onions.

That changes the marketing proposition.

Instead of:

“Buy a pizza and a Dr Pepper.”

the proposition becomes:

“Experience Dr Pepper in a completely new way.”

That is a much more powerful reason to try something.

Dr Pepper brings decades of brand recognition and a distinctive 23-flavor identity to the collaboration. KDP describes Dr Pepper as having built a passionate consumer following around its unique flavor profile.

And the brand's recent innovation strategy reinforces the importance of flavor exploration.

In 2025, KDP said Dr Pepper Creamy Coconut had become its most successful limited-time carbonated soft-drink offering to that point. The company also reported that its 2025 beverage research showed consumers were highly interested in flavor innovation.

In 2026, KDP continued that strategy, reporting that 44% of Americans—and 72% of Gen Z—try new beverages each month.

That creates an important marketing opportunity.

Dr Pepper isn't merely supplying a beverage. It is supplying curiosity.

Brand Equity Can Lower the Cost of Trial

Trial is one of the hardest things for a restaurant brand to generate.

A consumer may have no particular reason to visit a restaurant they've never considered.

But introduce a familiar brand into an unfamiliar product and the consumer has a reason to investigate.

That is the power of borrowed brand equity.

Round Table Pizza supplies the pizza credibility, food preparation expertise and restaurant experience.

Dr Pepper supplies recognition, flavor identity and consumer familiarity.

The Dairy Alliance adds another dimension around dairy and cheese.

Three organizations therefore bring different forms of brand equity into one food occasion.

The consumer doesn't have to understand the partnership structure.

They simply see something they recognize—and something they've never tried.

That combination can be a powerful trial mechanism.

2024, 2025 and 2026 Tell the Same Story: Value Is Bigger Than Price

The timing is particularly important.

In 2024, the National Restaurant Association reported that 7 in 10 adults often looked for a daily special or discount, while 85% said they were flexible about when they dined if a deal was offered.

But value has continued to evolve.

In 2025, the National Restaurant Association reported that consumers increasingly define restaurant value through a combination of experience, hospitality and affordability, rather than price alone.

And in its 2025 off-premises research, the Association found that value deals—including limited-time offers, BOGO promotions and other value mechanisms—resonated with about 8 in 10 off-premises customers.

Now look at 2026.

The National Restaurant Association's latest consumer research reports that 40% of consumers are using more discounts or value promotions than they usually do, up from 35% in the prior quarter.

That tells us something important:

Value isn't disappearing. It is becoming more sophisticated.

Consumers want a compelling reason to spend.

That reason can be price.

But it can also be novelty, convenience, social connection, portion flexibility, flavor discovery and perceived experience.

Round Table's Dr Pepper promotion brings several of those elements together.

This Is Where Mix-and-Match Meal Component Bundling Gets Interesting

The real opportunity isn't just selling the Dr Pepper BBQ Pizza.

It is selling the occasion.

Think about the menu architecture:

Pizza — the meal anchor.

Wings — a highly shareable protein component.

Tots — a snackable side.

Dr Pepper BBQ sauce — the flavor bridge.

Dr Pepper — the beverage component.

Margherita Pizza — a familiar alternative for consumers who don't want the experimental flavor.

This is a textbook example of giving consumers multiple components from which to construct their own meal.

And that matters because consumers don't all want the same thing.

One person wants the Dr Pepper BBQ Pizza.

Another wants wings.

Another wants a traditional Margherita.

Another wants tots.

Someone else wants the beverage.

The group can still eat together.

That's Mix-and-Match Meal Component Bundling at work.

The Consumer Doesn't Have to Choose Between Familiar and New

This may be one of the smartest aspects of the promotion.

The Dr Pepper BBQ Pizza is the discovery vehicle.

But the Margherita Pizza provides a familiar choice.

That creates a menu architecture of:

New + Familiar + Shareable.

It lowers the perceived risk of experimentation.

A family or football gathering doesn't have to commit the entire order to something new.

One new pizza can be the trial item.

Wings can satisfy another preference.

Tots can become the snack.

The traditional pizza can satisfy the consumer who doesn't want to experiment.

And Dr Pepper can tie the entire occasion together.

This is how brands can introduce innovation without requiring every member of the party to become an adventurous eater.

The Real Test Is What Happens After the Promotion

Here is where the promotion gets particularly interesting.

A limited-time offer creates trial.

But trial isn't the final objective.

The objective is migration.

A consumer who normally orders from another pizza chain tries Round Table because of Dr Pepper.

The consumer likes the food.

The food arrives on time.

The order is accurate.

The price feels reasonable.

The service experience is positive.

Now the consumer has a new restaurant consideration.

That is customer migration.

But there is an important condition:

The service and price have to be right.

The National Restaurant Association's 2025 off-premises research identified speedy service, good customer service, easy ordering and payment, value offers and loyalty programs as critical attributes for repeat business.

The Association also reported that 94% of consumers consider speed critical and more than 9 in 10 identify customer service as a priority.

So the Dr Pepper promotion can get the customer through the door—or onto the app.

Round Table then has to earn the second order.

That's the difference between a promotion and a customer-acquisition strategy.

The Beverage Is No Longer Just the Beverage

This is another important lesson.

For decades, restaurant beverages were frequently treated as an attachment sale.

Today, that thinking is changing.

KDP's 2026 foodservice beverage analysis describes beverages as increasingly capable of influencing where consumers go, what they order and how they experience an occasion, with younger consumers particularly interested in variety, flexibility and novelty.

That makes the Dr Pepper partnership strategically interesting.

Dr Pepper provides:

Recognition.

Flavor equity.

Novelty.

Consumer conversation.

Cross-brand discovery.

A reason to try something new.

And potentially, a reason to order again.

That is considerably more valuable than simply putting a fountain drink next to a pizza.

Football Makes the Marketing Even More Powerful

Football is fundamentally a group eating occasion.

That makes the menu architecture particularly relevant.

Pizza is shareable.

Wings are shareable.

Tots are shareable.

Beverages are shareable in the sense that everyone has a personal choice.

The promotion therefore fits the occasion rather than trying to force the occasion to fit the menu.

That is good food marketing.

The restaurant isn't simply saying:

“Here is our new pizza.”

It is saying:

“Here is something interesting to bring to the football gathering.”

That is a much larger marketing proposition.

The Price-Value-Service Equilibrium

I've long argued that consumers evaluate foodservice through a Price Value Service Equilibrium.

Price matters.

Quality matters.

Service matters.

Convenience matters.

Experience matters.

And increasingly, the ability to customize the meal occasion matters.

A promotion can have a spectacular flavor concept and still fail if the customer believes the price is too high.

A low price won't rescue poor service.

Great service won't necessarily overcome a disappointing product.

And a great product won't guarantee repeat business if the ordering experience is frustrating.

The equation has to work together.

Price + Quality + Service + Convenience + Experience = Consumer Value.

That's why Round Table's Dr Pepper promotion should be viewed as more than a seasonal menu.

It is a test of whether brand collaboration can create trial and whether restaurant execution can convert trial into migration.

The Grocerant Lesson: Don't Sell the Product. Sell the Meal Occasion.

This is the larger lesson for restaurants, grocery retailers, convenience stores and every other food retailer competing for the consumer's next meal.

Consumers increasingly want food that is:

Ready-2-Eat.

Heat-N-Eat.

Portable.

Shareable.

Customizable.

Affordable.

Interesting.

And increasingly, they want to assemble the meal themselves.

The National Restaurant Association's research reinforces this movement toward expanded off-premises choices, including snack items and bundled meals.

That is the Grocerant opportunity.

The winning food retailer doesn't necessarily have to own every component.

It needs to understand how consumers want to combine the components.

Round Table Pizza, Dr Pepper and The Dairy Alliance have created a particularly interesting example.

Pizza brings the platform.

Dr Pepper brings the flavor equity.

Cheese brings the indulgence and culinary credibility.

Wings and tots create shareability.

Football creates the occasion.

The limited-time offer creates urgency.

And the restaurant experience determines whether trial becomes migration.

That is modern food marketing.

Three Insights from the Grocerant Guru®

1. Mix-and-Match Meal Component Bundling is the future of the meal occasion.
Consumers don't think in restaurant categories. They think in meals, snacks and occasions. Pizza, wings, sides and beverages become components consumers can combine to build the meal they want.

2. Brand collaboration can manufacture trial—but execution creates migration.
Dr Pepper brings enormous flavor recognition and consumer curiosity to Round Table Pizza. That can motivate a customer to try something new. But price, product quality, speed and service determine whether that customer considers Round Table again.

3. The beverage can be the marketing engine, not merely the meal attachment.
Dr Pepper demonstrates how a beverage brand can become an ingredient, an innovation platform, a flavor cue and a consumer acquisition vehicle. When the right brands are combined around the right food occasion, the beverage can help sell the entire meal—not just the drink.

The Grocerant Guru® bottom line:
The consumer doesn't care whether the pizza company, beverage company or dairy industry created the promotion. The consumer cares whether the price, value, flavor, convenience and experience come together at the moment they are deciding what to eat.

And that's why this Round Table Pizza–Dr Pepper collaboration is worth watching.

It isn't just about a Dr Pepper BBQ Pizza.

It's about getting consumers to try something new, giving them a reason to gather, and creating enough value and satisfaction that the first order isn't the last.

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