Dive Brief:
- Carrabba’s Italian Grill to has expanded its lunch menu with bistro sandwich combo meals, the company said Wednesday.
- The six sandwich combos, which start at $13.99, are available from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday through Friday and were previously only sold through its catering brand, Carrabba’s Sandwich Bistro. Guests can also order endless soup, salad and bread for $9.99 at lunch.
- Carrabba’s posted strong 2023 results, outperforming industry sales by 90 basis points and industry traffic growth by 300 basis points, according to the chain’s Q4 earnings call. Bloomin’ Brands CEO David Deno attributed this performance to strong off-premise performance and catering growth.
Dive Insight:
Carrabba’s launched its catering channel in 2023, and the extension of the bistro sandwich combos to its dine-in restaurant offerings showcases the success of these menu items.
“Bistro continues to outperform expectations,” Deno said on the Q4 call, adding that catering growth is still significant at the chain. During the company’s Q3, off-premise and catering represented over 30% of sales.
Carrabba’s had the strongest comparable sales of Bloomin’s restaurant brands in the US. last year. It increased same-store sales by 3.9% compared to 3.4% during 2022, and was the only chain to report positive traffic growth. Traffic was up 0.3% last year compared to a decrease of 4.3% in 2022.
Earlier this year, Bloomin’s announcement that it would close 41 underperforming restaurants across its system — a bulk of which were older assets with leases from the ‘90s and 2000s. These closures included a handful of Carrabba’s restaurants, such as those in Reston and Richmond, Virginia, two locations on Long Island and one in Latham, New York.
