Culinary teams from both brands visited an international location to get a feel for the concept before rationalizing the menu and creating exclusive offerings
Dine Brands’ new dual-branded IHOP/Applebee’s restaurant in Seguin, Texas, has a lot of features that excite the company’s executives. Think labor efficiencies, complementary not competing dayparts, and the opportunity for franchisees to diversify their portfolios.
Chief executive officer John Peyton also likes the restaurant’s unique and exclusive menu items – labeled clearly on the menu as “only available here” – that may just nudge someone to check it out.
Those items include a Loaded Buffalo Chicken Omelette, with crispy breaded chicken tenders, a four-cheese blend, ranch and buffalo sauce, all topped with more chicken tender pieces, ranch and buffalo sauce. There’s also a Sirloin Steak & Eggs Combo, Berry Balsamic Grilled Chicken Salad, the Ultimate Breakfast Burger, brunch cocktails such as the Good Morning Mimosa, Espresso Martini, Irish Coffee, and more.
Bringing the dual-branded prototype to life required input across every department at Dine Brands, from design to legal. Perhaps the most fun, however, came from the Applebee’s and IHOP culinary teams creating these exclusive menu items within their test kitchens, which are located down the hall from one another at the company’s Pasadena, Calif., headquarters. The brands have similar consumer profiles, so they were tasked with creating items that fit the uniquely collaborative nature of the new restaurant while also delivering a strong value proposition and not slowing down an already busy kitchen.
“One of my favorite things about this is we have menu items that are a mashup of the two brands. I am sure you have been wondering for years ‘when will I be able to have a Buffalo Chicken Omelette? Now you can have it, but only here,” Peyton said. “That’s an exciting opportunity for people to eat here.”
The culinary teams were able to pull learnings from Dine Brands International, where there were 18 such dual-branded restaurants opened at the end of 2024. To get started, the teams visited a location in Mexico so they could experience the concept in person.
“We have pictures, but it’s not the same thing as understanding the space and the relation between the two branded areas and to sample the menu,” Peyton said.
Once they returned from that “field trip,” the teams started on their culinary journey, comparing every common menu item from both brands and making sure there were no overlaps, like two fried shrimp entrees or two similar burgers.
“They rationalized the menu, so we have 100 SKUs, which is the same amount of SKUs that both an Applebee’s and an IHOP have,” Peyton said. “We made sure we did not complicate the kitchen by doubling the SKUs.”
Once the menu was rationalized, the team was able to create the mashups. The dual-branded restaurant is a work in progress; Peyton said location number 20 may look a bit different than the Seguin restaurant, and that includes the menu.
Dine Brands is targeting 12 to 15 dual-branded restaurants this year and Peyton said the concept has the potential to reach into the hundreds. That bullishness comes from a combination of the model’s strong international performance as well as significant domestic franchisee interest. Peyton adds the dual-branded concept’s diverse and unique menu also creates a strong consumer proposition that will create an additional tailwind once more people are able to give it a try. In the overseas locations, for instance, 50% of tickets include items from both sides of the menu.
“That tells us we’re way beyond the veto vote and that we’re attracting incremental visits,” Peyton said. “We’ve done focus groups, but what we fundamentally believe is that for a guest to give us feedback about this concept, they have to experience it. That’s why we’re doing this. We need 10 or 12 of them to truly refine the concept and prove it out.
“We wouldn’t be doing this if we didn’t think it was a good idea.”
Contact Alicia Kelso at [email protected]
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