Casual dining was supposed to be in trouble, and Chili's did not get the memo.
The chain just posted its 20th quarter in a row of comparable sales growth - meaning sales at restaurants open at least a year. That run is happening while rivals like Applebee's and Red Robin are flat or down.
Kevin Hochman has been running parent company Brinker International for four years, and his pitch on the turnaround is short. "Marketing brings them in, and ops brings them back."
The marketing side is loud and viral. Cheese-pulling mozzarella sticks, plus the Triple Dipper appetizer combo that accounted for 14% of total sales in early 2025, do a lot of the work for free thanks to microinfluencer videos.
The ops side is unglamorous, which is the point. Bigger holes in the seasoning shaker so fries get seasoned faster, a simpler menu for consistency, and iPads at the table to get orders right - the kind of fixes nobody talks about that show up in the comp number.
Sales rose 4% in the most recent quarter, on top of a 31% jump a year earlier. Hochman's competitors have leaned on heavy discounts and gimmick deals to keep traffic up.
Applebee's same-store sales fell 0.4% in Q4 but rose 1.3% for the year. Red Robin's revenue slipped 0.3% in 2025, though its adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization - a rough proxy for cash profit - jumped 53%.
Red Lobster, which went bankrupt in 2024, is now running 10% ahead of last year under CEO Damola Adamolekun. So the sector is healing - Chili's is just further along the curve.
The chain has also gone after fast-food customers directly with its $10.99 3-For-Me meal. It is being marketed as a better-looking version of a similar-priced McDonald's combo.
Brinker also owns Maggiano's, the Italian casual chain. The next read on Chili's is whether the 4% comp can keep stretching against tougher year-over-year comparisons.
The CEO's bet is that fundamentals do that work.
