Chili's Is Suddenly Popular Again

This year has been an extremely tough one for some of America's most iconic restaurant chains. Since the start of 2024, Wendy's and Denny's have shuttered over 100 underperforming restaurants apiece, while fast-food giants Starbucks and KFC have faced major sales declines. Some struggling chains, including Red Lobster and TGI Fridays, even resorted to bankruptcy to stay afloat while reorganizing their finances.

But as many restaurant brands faced dwindling popularity and other financial obstacles this year, customers flocked to a decades-old family dining chain in droves: Chili's.

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For years, the dine-in chain had trouble getting customers into restaurants due to competition from popular, modernized casual dining rivals such as Olive Garden and Texas Roadhouse, CNN reported. Chili's also heavily fixated on discounts in its advertising. This ate into its profits, leading to staffing issues and preventing it from upgrading its menu and keeping its restaurants up-to-date—all of which took away from the customer experience.

Kevin Hochman, Chili's president and CEO of its parent company Brinker International, told CNN that they "were very much on a strategy of just trying to be the lowest price out there."

"That made it very difficult for us to make the needed investments in labor and in the restaurants."

Chili's Chicken Crispers Combo — Photo: Chili's

But after Hochman took on the role in 2022, Chili's finally began to make some key improvements. It has invested heavily in restaurant renovations, added more staff, introduced enticing value options, and eliminated about 25% of its menu to refocus on its signature offerings of burgers, Chicken Crispers, fajitas, and margaritas. Chili's also tried to improve each remaining menu item and make them easier for its cooks to assemble.

For example, it stopped using the original tempura-style breading for its Chicken Crispers in favor of a newer, crispier coating recipe and added more dipping sauce options. The change—which took effect in 2023—led to a more than 50% surge in crisper sales, CNN reported.

Another major contributor to Chili's recent surge in popularity is a longstanding, fan-favorite appetizer that has ascended to viral TikTok status: the Triple Dipper. This option allows customers to create their own platter for less than $20 by choosing three appetizers from a selection of starters, which includes wings, sliders Chicken Crispers, Southwestern Eggrolls, and Fried Mozzarella with a wildly impressive cheese pull.

Chili's Triple Dipper platter — Photo: Chili's

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TikTokers have been racking up millions of views on Triple Dipper review videos throughout 2024, and Chili's has benefitted heavily from the trend. Triple Dipper sales have skyrocketed 70% over the last year and now make up a whopping 11% of Chili's business, per CNN.

All of these factors—improved staffing, restaurant renovations, menu enhancements, and TikTok fame—helped Chili's grow its overall same-store sales by more than 14% in both of the last two quarters. Chili's popularity has also boosted Brinker's stock by over 200% over the past year.

"It's sort of unheard of for a mature brand with more than 1,000 restaurants to put up these types of numbers," Brian Vaccaro, an industry analyst at Raymond James, told CNN. "The trends are just getting stronger and stronger."