The miraculous turnaround of Chili’s under Brinker International CEO Kevin Hochman may have begun with a piece of fake news.
Shortly after Hochman took the job in June 2022, he got up at the chain’s annual conference and showed off a mock cover of Inc. Magazine dated August 2025. The headline: “Chili’s is back baby!”
He told the audience of Chili’s managers about the stories this hypothetical edition would contain. They were about Chili’s tighter menu, better service, cleaner restaurants and advertising that cemented the brand as a value leader and made it cool again with consumers.
Less than three years later, all of those stories have actually been written (some of them in this publication). They were all part of a stunning revival at Chili’s that culminated in a 31% same-store sales increase to finish 2024. And they earned Hochman the Restaurant Business Restaurant Leader of the Year Award for 2025.
Hochman accepted the award Tuesday during the Restaurant Leadership Conference in Scottsdale. And during a sit-down interview with RB Editor-in-Chief Jonathan Maze, he shared some of what he has learned along the way.
Here are five of those lessons.
Have a vision
The point of the fake magazine anecdote is that to overcome a challenge, you must first envision the resolution and then demonstrate how to get there, Hochman said.
“People have their different sources of truth sometimes,” he said. “Until you show them where they’re going, and show them what they can do, it’s very hard to unsnap that.”
Hochman viewed this as one of his central roles when he arrived at Brinker. He’s not an expert in sourcing ground beef or making advertisements, he said, but he can create a vision and then get the team to rally around it. And that’s exactly what happened.
Hochman employed a similar tactic when he became CMO of KFC U.S. while the brand was struggling. That time, he asked employees to imagine that KFC had made the cover of Ad Age as the No. 1 marketer of the year.
“Everyone was like, ‘OK, let’s go do it,’” he said. “They saw the stair steps of how to get there.”
Bad habits are hard to break
When restaurants struggle, they often do things for short-term gain that end up hurting them down the road, Hochman said.
They may add new menu items to boost sales, for instance, in turn making operations more complex and dragging down service. This becomes a hard thing to unravel because removing items hurts sales.
It’s better to face the problem head-on, Hochman said. When he took over, Chili’s cut 25% of its menu and doubled down on core items like burgers, chicken and margaritas. There were some unhappy customers at first. But the move has paid off overall.
“Those bad habits, they feel real good when you do them, but they don’t feel good over time,” Hochman said. “Be honest about taking short-term pain for long-term gain.”
Listen to your employees
Hochman routinely visits with general managers and rank-and-file staffers to get their thoughts on the business. He always asks them two questions: What are you excited about, and what’s one thing you would change tomorrow if you were CEO?
Not only does Hochman listen to their feedback, but he also often puts it into practice. This has led to operational changes such as the elimination of pre-portioned shrimp, which Hochman estimated is saving the chain 47 years of labor annually.
It has made employees’ jobs easier, and also makes them feel valued.
“Now they feel like they have a say in the future of the company,” Hochman said. “I would encourage any operator to do that.”
Show the benefits of your product
One of the hallmarks of Chili’s approach under Hochman has been marketing that pits Chili’s prices against those of fast food. It has argued that its $10.99 value meals are a better deal than quick service, a message that has proven effective.
Hochman said that Chili’s is not “going after” fast food, but rather using it as a comparison to highlight the value of its own products.
“At the end of the day, everybody talks about big juicy burgers,” he said, “but what does that mean?”
To show that, Chili’s has given customers the numbers: Its new Big QP burger—a riff on McDonald’s Quarter Pounder—contains 85% more beef than the rival product, for instance.
These “quantitative claims,” along with the $10.99 price point, have been very powerful for Chili’s, he said.
Not everyone wants $6 margs
Chili’s has also had success with a barbell pricing strategy. It drives customers in by promoting $10.99 value meals, but offers a spectrum of price points on its menu to encourage trade-up or satisfy customers who want to indulge.
It has applied the same principle to its margarita selection, which ranges from the $6 margarita of the month to the $15 and $16 range for more premium options. The wider array has helped it double its sales of margaritas over $10, Hochman said.
“The lesson for operators would be, just meet the consumer where they are,” he said. “Not every consumer wants a $6 margarita.”
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