Red Robin Gourmet Burgers (NASDAQ: RRGB) is now pouring Garage Beer systemwide, making the casual-dining chain the first national restaurant operator to carry the Kelce brother-owned light lager across its full portfolio. Both Garage Beer Classic Light and Classic Lime went on tap and on-menu at all U.S. Red Robin locations on July 21, coinciding with a summer wing menu expansion.

The Beverage Play

Garage Beer — a 4% ABV lager positioned at 95 calories and 3 grams of carbs — is self-described as America's fastest-growing light beer and is currently distributed in all 50 states. The brand is co-owned by NFL veterans Jason and Travis Kelce, giving Red Robin a celebrity-adjacent marketing hook at a moment when casual dining chains are leaning hard into beverage programs to lift check averages and drive incremental traffic. For Red Robin, securing exclusivity as the first national restaurant chain to pour the brand system-wide represents a differentiated on-premise advantage that competitors in the casual-dining segment cannot immediately replicate.

"Garage Beer is the perfect match for our craveable wings and gourmet burgers," said Dave Pace, CEO and President of Red Robin. "If you haven't tried our wings lately, this is your sign — we think they're some of the best in casual dining, and Garage Beer makes them even better."

Wing Menu Expansion

The Garage Beer rollout is timed alongside a meaningful menu extension: Red Robin expanded its bone-in chicken wing lineup during Summer 2026 with new 8-count, 12-count, and 16-count order formats, available across a range of sauces and dry rubs. The move signals a deliberate effort to grow the wing daypart, a high-margin, high-frequency category that has drawn significant operator attention since the pandemic reshaped off-premise and dine-in mix across casual dining. Bundling a shareable wing SKU with a branded beer pour is a textbook alcohol-attach strategy aimed at boosting per-party check.

For the National Chicken Wing Day promotion on July 29, Red Robin and Garage Beer launched a limited-edition Jason Kelce collaboration T-shirt available exclusively through GarageBeer.com. Purchasers receive a Red Robin gift card redeemable for a complimentary 8-count bone-in wing order, while supplies last — a gifting mechanic that drives both merchandise revenue for the beer brand and incremental covers for the restaurant chain.

"We're proud to be pouring beer-flavored beer at Red Robin locations across the country," said Garage Beer CEO Andy Sauer.

Operator Context

Casual dining has faced persistent traffic headwinds heading into 2026, with value-conscious consumers trading down or shifting spend to fast-casual alternatives. Beverage-forward strategies — including branded beer partnerships, cocktail LTOs, and premium non-alcoholic options — have emerged as a key lever for operators seeking to protect revenue per table without discounting entrees. Red Robin's decision to anchor a summer marketing cycle around a high-profile beer brand and a wing-count expansion reflects the broader casual-dining push to recapture social-occasion visits that migrated away during the post-pandemic value reset.

The chain operates nearly 500 locations across the United States and Canada, including franchised units. Aligning a national beverage partner launch with a marquee food holiday and a merchandise drop gives the brand multiple earned-media windows across a single campaign — a cost-efficient approach to seasonal LTO activation that larger QSR peers have executed with celebrity-affiliated products to measurable traffic effect.

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.