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Chili’s Parent Company Launches New Virtual Delivery-Only Chicken Chain
Various restaurants are trying out new concepts in order to survive the COVID-19 pandemic. One of which is a “virtual restaurant that delivers food from its own menu cooked in other restaurants’ kitchens,” Fox Business reported.
Restaurant Business Online reported that Brinker International, the parent company of Chili’s and Maggiano’s, is developing a portfolio of virtual concepts, “with its first venture generating sales at an annual rate exceeding $150 million and additional brands already in test, according to CEO Wyman Roberts.”
Roberts declined to say what those launches will be. However, he revealed that It’s Just Wings, the first venture, was the second virtual brand underway. He also said they experimented with “sort of a Mexican” virtual concept.
“We tested a couple of ideas, and we pretty quickly decided that It’s Just Wings is the brand we should go with first,” Roberts also revealed.
Market Watch explained that It’s Just Wings is delivery-only and exists across Brinker’s 1,050 Chili’s and Maggiano’s restaurants. It uses those facilities and the company’s partnership with DoorDash to sell chicken wings, curly fries, and fried Oreos.
“We get to leverage all of the expertise we have in our restaurants, in terms of culinary ability,” Roberts then explained.
“We get to leverage the equipment we already have. And things like our combi, which is a great piece of equipment that allows us to smoke our ribs, now also allows us to smoke wings and offer a differentiated product from a lot of people in the category,” he added.
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