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Secret Spin-Off Restaurants You Never Knew Existed
Oct 14, 2025
When it comes to casual dining, we all know the biggest players in the game. Fast food franchises like McDonald's and Taco Bell, or sit-down restaurants like Denny's and Cracker Barrel have dominated America for decades. But you can't hold onto market domination without a little market innovation, which is why many of these giants have tried to duplicate their success with spin-off restaurants!
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Today, we're taking a look at the weirdest spin-off restaurants of famous chains
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In 2017, the very first Hoot's Wings opened its doors just outside of Chicago, Illinois
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You might think a Hooters spin-off without the, well, Hooters, would be doomed to fail
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But Hoot's Wings is still thriving all these years later. During the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, the brand dipped its wings into the saucy
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trend of virtual restaurants. Hooters opened several under the names Hootie's Burger Bar
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Hootie's Bait and Tackle, and Hootie's Chicken Tenders. And they were far from the only well-known franchise to cash in on the idea
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Chuck E. Cheese also got in on the virtual restaurant craze during the 2020 lockdowns
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But the chain wanted to keep its involvement quiet. Operating under the name Pasquale's Pizza and Wings
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hungry online diners had no idea they were actually ordering from Charles Entertainment Cheese himself
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A few months later, the chain filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Despite all this, both Chuck E. Cheese and Pasquale's are still operating today
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But not all virtual kitchens were able to hang around. Yet another virtual kitchen that wasn't long for this world was Wingstop's Thighs Only restaurant
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The creatively named Thighstop was created in part as a response to a nationwide chicken wing
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shortage in 2021. The Thighstop concept was slowly and quietly discontinued over the next few years
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and as of today, the restaurant is unavailable on all food delivery apps
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But before the virtual restaurant craze had taken hold of American fast food culture
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Chipotle actually had two secret spinoffs that were quite a bit different than its normal fare In 2011 the chain opened its first ShopHouse a Southeast Asian restaurant operating under the same model as chipotle with customers being able to see their orders take shape in front
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of them chipotle opened another similar concept called tasty made in 2016. this time they focused
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their efforts on building burgers but neither shop house nor tasty made were built to last
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both spin-offs were put to bed by 2018. kfc recently launched its new spin-off restaurant
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and unlike some of the restaurants on this list, it's a real place and not some virtual ghost
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kitchen. Saucy opened on December 23, 2024 in Orlando, Florida. As the name suggests
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Saucy provides customers with a wide range of sauces to try. Those sauces include everything
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from classics like ranch, barbecue, and honey mustard to more adventurous choices like spicy
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mango chutney. But what are you dipping in those sauces? Saucy has one main focus
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chicken tenders. Another recent development in the spinoff restaurant scene is McDonald's
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Cosmix. The menu at Cosmix is mainly drinks. The first of the spinoff restaurants opened its doors
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in Illinois in 2024, and six more locations were beamed down onto the planet in Texas
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Perhaps the strangest spinoff known to fast food fans was the Taco Bell Hotel. The chain took over
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V Palm Springs, an existing resort in the California desert city. For five blissful
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nights in August of 2019, Taco Bell fans could relax on fire sauce pool floaties
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wrap themselves in Taco Bell branded robes, and enjoy a never-ending supply of Taco Bell menu items
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Hopefully, they also had some Pepto Bismol on hand. And, uh, nobody go in the pool
#Fast Food
#Food Service
#Restaurants