From a business standpoint, offering the complementary appetizer is (perhaps counterintuitively) a profitable tool. Tortilla chips and salsa sit at a uniquely advantageous intersection for restaurants: light enough to avoid dampening patrons' appetites, yet flavorful enough to stoke their palates and prime the taste buds for greater enjoyment of the meal to come. Still, there are roughly 286 calories per two-ounce serving of chips and salsa. Not enough to kill an appetite, but a substantial snack.
Nostalgia, that longing for what was and the happy memories we associate with it, may seem particularly keen when our daily lives - both personally and in the wider world - are less than ideal. Indeed, according to a 2025 study by CivicScience, more than 60% of Americans feel nostalgic for the past. Furthermore, the same study also found that nearly half of adults in the U.S. would spend money on something that conjures up feelings of nostalgia.
Picture this: A 22-year-old scrolls through TikTok, sees a viral "butter board" video, and within hours, they're recreating it at home. By week's end, they're searching for restaurants serving their own take on the trend. This isn't just casual browsing: it's the new reality of how an entire generation discovers, experiences, and shares food. Recent data reveals a staggering truth: 84% of Gen Z actively try social media food trends, fundamentally reshaping how restaurants must approach marketing, menu development, and customer engagement.
"This brand has never had top-of-funnel paid media launched at scale," Lynch said on the company's most recent earnings call. "It's hard to believe, but all the marketing has always been word of mouth, earned media and bottom-funnel ... promo activations, and so we leaned in on making some of these investments and so we're ecstatic with the results."