Chili's Traffic Rose 6.4%. Its Texas Bar Revenue Fell $500,063.

The October 28 print

Brinker International reported $1.476 billion in fiscal first-quarter FY2027 revenue, up 9.4% year over year, and raised full-year revenue guidance to $6.23 billion to $6.33 billion. Adjusted diluted EPS reached $2.77. The Chili's comp was 10.1%, made up of 6.4% traffic growth and 3.7% pricing, with essentially flat mix. Maggiano's comps fell 3.4% on 5.1% lower traffic, partly offset by 2.0% pricing.

Before the report, UBS projected 8.5% to 9.5% domestic Chili's system comps against 7.8% consensus. The reported domestic system result came in at 10.4%. Those figures are distinct from the 10.1% company-operated result.

The company is drawing guests with the Big Crispy Chicken Sandwich and the 3 For Me menu, whose entry price is $10.99. Management said 3 For Me represented just over 21% of activity. It also called out July's margarita campaign.

“a really good July Margarita of the Month”

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Kevin Hochman, Brinker CEO, October 28 earnings call

The timing matters. Brinker's fiscal quarter ended September 23, while the Texas comparison below covers calendar July through September. The national and Texas numbers measure different parts of the business on slightly different clocks.

The same-location Texas scorecard

We matched locations with positive beverage revenue in all three months of July to September both years, combining historical permits at the same address and excluding estimated reports.

| Brand | Comparable locations | Jul–Sep 2025 | Jul–Sep 2026 | YoY | Locations down | |---|---:|---:|---:|---:|---:| | Chili's | 215 | $24.07M | $23.57M | −2.1% | 139 | | Maggiano's | 9 | $2.48M | $2.12M | −14.5% | 9 | | Applebee's | 83 | $7.48M | $7.37M | −1.5% | 45 | | Olive Garden | 116 | $5.88M | $5.80M | −1.3% | 63 | | Texas Roadhouse | 79 | $16.82M | $16.09M | −4.3% | 63 |

Across 15,563 Texas venues continuously reporting over the same six months, beverage revenue grew 0.4%. Chili's fell 2.5 percentage points below that benchmark. Maggiano's fell 14.9 points below it. The brand cohorts use stitched physical locations; the statewide benchmark uses continuously reporting venue records.

Chili's Texas comparable beverage revenue was down $500,063. For scale, that amount equals about 3.4 basis points of Brinker's $1.476 billion quarterly revenue. This is a size comparison, not a consolidated revenue bridge: the periods differ and the Texas sample can include franchised restaurants. Texas accounts for 221 September reporting Chili's locations, roughly 18.3% of Brinker's 1,210 domestic restaurants. The comparable group of 215 is a narrower, fully reported cohort.

What happened at the bar

Chili's Texas liquor revenue fell $335,421 to $15.31 million. Beer fell $184,567 to $7.67 million. Wine rose $19,925 to $595,079. Its latest mix was 64.9% liquor, 32.5% beer and 2.5% wine.

The quarter improved as it progressed. Chili's comparable beverage revenue fell 3.5% in July, then 2.9% in August, before rising 0.7% in September. September filings were still provisional when this analysis was prepared.

The call offered an unusually direct explanation of the guest-check pressure, though management was discussing October, after the fiscal quarter, when it described guests doing:

“check management in alcohol and desserts”

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Mika Ware, Brinker CFO, October 28 earnings call

Ware said Chili's traffic growth more than offset a slightly negative October mix. That supports a cautious reading of the Texas numbers: the food and value proposition is attracting visits, and the drink attachment may be more selective. Neither the Texas filings nor the earnings call establishes margarita unit volumes for July to September.

Maggiano's: nine locations, nine declines

Maggiano's Texas beverage revenue fell $360,234 year over year. Its largest category, wine, declined $167,861 to $970,719. Liquor declined $152,055 to $889,330; beer fell $40,318 to $259,724. Wine remained 45.8% of the beverage mix.

The geographic pattern is broad. DFW Airport fell 20.6%, Plano 20.4% and Austin Domain 19.9%. Even the least negative location, Dallas Love Field, was down 4.1%. In our May Maggiano's investigation, DFW Airport had been the sole positive Texas location in the January-to-March comparison. Its latest quarter is a particularly useful checkpoint.

There's progress inside the company despite that Texas beverage result. Hochman discussed restored banquet staffing, clearer ownership of events and kitchen throughput work. He reported:

“Banquet sales were up 11% for the quarter”

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Kevin Hochman, Brinker CEO, October 28 earnings call

Banquets account for approximately 15% of Maggiano's business. The company reported 3.1% Maggiano's restaurant operating margin versus 18.7% at Chili's. The banquet improvement deserves attention. It hasn't yet appeared as a recovery in the Texas beverage figures.

Menu prices: the actual offers

We checked the advertised offers against Chili's own menu and location pages, and reviewed the dated local menu observations. As of October 30, 2026, Chili's advertised the Big Crispy 3 For Me meal at $10.99, including a nonalcoholic drink and starter. Pricing can vary by restaurant. October's Witches Brew Margarita of the Month was advertised at $6, an October offer. The Prosper, Texas restaurant at 1081 S. Preston Road separately listed, as of October 30, the Margarita of the Month for $6 and its Tequila Classic Marg for $7 on the location's happy-hour menu.

These are different offers, with different inclusions and eligibility. A September 29 local menu observation recorded the $6 Margarita of the Month in Prosper; the restaurant's published location page still listed the offer on October 30. A separate October 12 menu observation at Chili's Dove Creek restaurant in San Antonio listed the $10.99 Big Crispy 3 For Me offer, which the chain's published 3 For Me menu independently confirms. Our observations do not establish a matched same-location price change, so none is claimed.

The price architecture is still relevant: an advertised $10.99 meal can pull in dinner traffic without automatically increasing guests' spending on alcohol.

A dated cost backdrop

Brinker reported 3.3% commodity inflation in its fiscal first quarter. A separate weekly public wholesale series shows Roma tomatoes at the Los Angeles terminal market moving from $18.25 per 25-pound carton on July 7, 2026 to $29.00 on September 22, a 58.9% rise between those observations. Prices moved unevenly throughout the summer. This is a market reference, not Brinker's contracted ingredient cost or a proxy for its full purchasing basket.

Earlier stories, one evolving scorecard

A useful additional comparison comes from our September Darden earnings analysis. Olive Garden was down 7.2% for June through August across 116 matched Texas locations. The newer July-through-September window here is down 1.3%, also across 116. The distinct windows explain the change in the scorecard; they are not competing estimates of the same quarter.

Our March report on 218 Chili's restaurants documented the remarkable revenue spread between Texas locations. That 218-location snapshot differs from September's 221 active reporting locations and this quarter's 215 fully comparable locations.

Our August Brinker scorecard found Chili's Texas beverage revenue up 0.9% across 212 comparable locations in April through June. The next calendar-quarter comparison is down 2.1%. Meanwhile, our Maggiano's cocktail-and-wine investigation found that the drink-program relaunch initially lifted liquor but couldn't sustain a full beverage recovery. This quarter, all three categories fell.

Chili's traffic turnaround is delivering on the national income statement. Texas shows why bar operators have to read the separate beverage line. More guests can be great for the business while still leaving work to do on the beverage occasion.

Read more in The Well, Pourcast's continuing scorecard on restaurant performance.

Sources: Brinker's October 28, 2026 earnings release and call; public Texas venue revenue reports for July–September 2025 and 2026; Chili's official menu and Prosper location page as viewed October 30, 2026; dated wholesale market observations. Six positive reporting months required for same-location comparisons. September 2026 remains provisional.