Chili’s wildly popular Triple Dipper appetizer has landed itself a starring role in the chain’s turnaround plans.
Sales of the starter—which allows customers to mix and match three apps and three dipping sauces—have surged 70% over the past year after the dish went viral on TikTok.
It played a key part in Chili’s 14.1% same-store sales growth for the quarter ended Sept. 25, which included a 6% traffic increase.
The Triple Dipper now makes up 11% of Chili’s total sales, CEO Kevin Hochman told analysts on Wednesday. It has resonated with younger customers, who like the variety of flavors and dips, and who are visiting the brand for the first time because of it. The app also offers an opportunity for Chili’s to boost its average check.
That performance has earned the Triple Dipper a spot among the “Core Four”—Chili’s bedrock menu items that have been central to its comeback under Hochman. With the addition of the Triple Dipper, the Core Four—burgers, margaritas, fajitas and Chicken Crispers—will now be called the 5 to Drive.
Together, those items account for 58% of Chili’s sales. And they have helped power the 1,116-unit casual-dining chain to a spectacular run over the past two years. Since the start of 2023, the chain has reeled off quarterly same-store sales growth of 9.6%, 6.3%, 6.1%, 5%, 3.5%, 14.8% and now 14.1%.
That performance is even more impressive given that it came during a tough time for casual-dining chains as consumers shifted their spending habits in response to inflation.
[Read more: How a summer of bold marketing fueled a comeback at Chili's.]
It has been driven by operational simplifications that have improved service along with a marketing engine that has churned out a string of hits, including the $10.99 “3 for Me” value meal, the Big Smasher burger and now the Triple Dipper.
The latter two items played the biggest role in the chain’s 6% traffic increase in the third quarter, executives said.
The chain has promoted the Big Smasher with an aggressive TV ad campaign that called out fast-food prices. That message has connected with consumers who are fed up with rising prices and view the $10.99 burger (plus chips and salsa, fries and a drink) as a better value.
The Triple Dipper, meanwhile, has spread on social media, both organically and with a push from the chain’s digital marketing team. That effort dovetailed with the popularity of Chili’s Fried Mozzarella, which has had its own string of viral moments in recent months. Fried Mozz, and the recently launched Nashville Hot Mozz, are both options for the Triple Dipper.
The traffic surge driven by these items prompted Chili’s to up its labor investments over the summer to ensure its restaurants could keep up. Now the chain is considering purchasing more or bigger fryers to meet demand for Triple Dippers and Chicken Crispers in high-volume locations.
If Chili’s can sustain this recent success, it could have even larger implications for the future of the brand, including the possibility of opening new restaurants. That would be big news indeed for a chain that has been shrinking in size over the past decade.
Hochman said the company is having conversations about how it might allocate capital differently, including speeding up new builds or renovating existing stores.
For now, “there’s no change to the guidance that we’ve given you on net new units,” he noted. But, “the success that we’ve had in the business has certainly opened up additional opportunities to deploy capital.”
The chain did, however, raise its revenue forecast for this year. It's now expecting total revenues of $4.7 billion to $4.75 billion, up from its earlier estimate of $4.55 billion to $4.62 billion.
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