The LTO Lineup
Ford's Garage is deploying a limited-time menu across all 36 of its vintage auto-themed casual-dining units beginning November 3, leaning into comfort-food dayparts and beverage attachment to drive check averages through the holiday stretch. The "Savor the Season" rollout adds four food items and three beverages, with a parallel gift card promotion designed to pull traffic into the new year.
The food additions anchor on indulgence and shareability — both reliable traffic levers during Q4. Headline items include a reformulated Mama Ford's Homemade Meatloaf built on Certified Angus Beef, seared and finished with red wine gravy and crispy onion straws; a Double Clutch Burger stacking two quarter-pound Certified Angus Beef patties with caramelized onions and the chain's proprietary Deluxe Sauce; Sweet and Sticky Wings in six- or ten-count formats; and a Bourbon Toffee Pecan Pie topped with vanilla ice cream and housemade bourbon toffee sauce. On the beverage side, the chain is adding a Frosted Cranberry Margarita built with Patrón Silver, a zero-proof Cranberry Ginger Fizz using Fever-Tree Ginger Beer, and a featured Blue Moon Belgian White.
Gift Card Mechanics
The accompanying gift card offer runs November 3 through December 31, issuing a $10 Bonus Card for every $50 in gift cards purchased — a 20% bonus value structure that is a proven tool for pulling January traffic during the seasonally slower post-holiday period. Bonus Cards are redeemable in-restaurant only from January 1 through February 28, 2027, a channel restriction that protects dine-in covers during a traditionally soft daypart window. Gift cards are available both in-unit and online.
"The holidays are all about bringing people together over great food and memorable experiences," said Billy Downs, President of Ford's Garage. "Our Savor the Season menu celebrates the comfort foods people know and love, with creative twists and bold flavors that make them feel special for the season."
Competitive Context
Ford's Garage, founded in 2012 in Fort Myers, Fla., and an Official Licensee of the Ford Motor Company, operates 36 locations across nine states in the better-burger and elevated-casual segment. The chain sits in a competitive band with concepts like Duffy's Sports Grill and walk-up regional burger operators, all of which are intensifying LTO cadence heading into Q4 as casual dining broadly works to close the traffic gap versus fast-casual peers. Craft beer and full-bar differentiation remains a margin lever for the segment, and the beverage-forward holiday menu reflects that strategy — attaching premium cocktails and featured drafts to seasonal food occasions to lift per-person average.
For regional casual-dining operators, holiday LTO execution and gift card programs represent one of the clearest near-term opportunities to build check and lock in future visits simultaneously. The Bonus Card redemption window — strictly January and February — also gives Ford's Garage a structured mechanism to defend covers during what is typically the weakest traffic period on the casual-dining calendar.
Written by Michael Politz, Author of Guide to Restaurant Success: The Proven Process for Starting Any Restaurant Business From Scratch to Success (ISBN: 978-1-119-66896-1), Founder of Food & Beverage Magazine, the leading online magazine and resource in the industry. Designer of the Bluetooth logo and recognized in Entrepreneur Magazine's "Top 40 Under 40" for founding American Wholesale Floral, Politz is also the Co-founder of the Proof Awards and the CPG Awards and a partner in numerous consumer brands across the food and beverage sector.
