Fat Brands opens first co-branded Johnny Rockets, Hurricane Wings restaurant

Dive Brief:

Fat Brands has opened its first co-branded Johnny Rockets and Hurricane Wings restaurant, the company wrote in an email to Restaurant Dive.
The co-branded unit is located at the Holiday Inn Washington-Central/White House in Washington, D.C.
Fat has opened over 100 Fatburger/Buffalo’s Express locations to date as part of its aggressive expansion push. The company has a pipeline of over 900 restaurants for the next five years.

Dive Insight:

Fat’s growth is built on more than just co-branding units. The company has acquired several restaurant chains over the years, bringing its total brand count to 17. Fat is also looking at hotel sites, like the location of the co-branded Johnny Rockets/Hurricane Wings, as an expansion opportunity, the company wrote in an email to Restaurant Dive. In May, Fatburger opened its third hotel location in Las Vegas in the Excalibur Hotel & Casino, and opened a fourth location at The Venetian in the summer.

Fat continues to expand co-branded restaurants via locations in Atlanta; Sacramento, California; Northern Virginia; Kansas; Tampa, Florida; and Puerto Rico, among other domestic locations signed this year. In October, the company also opened its first Fatburger/Buffalo’s Express unit in Mexico City, which will be the first of 50 franchised locations in Mexico.

“We see great value in pairing other similar brands in our portfolio together as a way to drive additional revenue growth,” Fat Brands CEO Andy Wiederhorn said during the company’s Q2 2022 earnings call.

The company has also been co-branding Marble Slab Creamery with Great American Cookies, of which there are over 125 co-branded units, and plans to co-brand Round Table Pizza with Fatburger and Johnny Rockets with Hot Dog on a Stick, Wiederhorn said. No other brands are currently being considered as co-branding opportunities for Johnny Rockets, the company said.

Correction: This article has been updated to reflect the total number of Fat Brands’ co-branded units. It has over 100 co-branded Fatburger/Buffalo’s Express stores and over 125 co-branded Great American Cookies/Marble Slab Creamery locations.