Dine Brands accelerates openings, remodels as development priority returns

Dine Brands is picking up the pace on openings and remodels, and that shift matters as much to the people on the floor as it does to Wall Street. The Pasadena, California company said it opened 24 units in the first quarter of fiscal 2026, up from 10 a year earlier, with growth coming from dual-branded restaurants, relocations and single-concept openings at Applebee’s Neighborhood Grill + Bar and IHOP.

Revenue rose to $225.2 million from $214.8 million a year earlier, helped mainly by higher company-owned restaurant sales tied to the timing and number of restaurants the company acquired from franchisees. Chief executive John Peyton said development remained a key priority for long-term growth, and pointed to the Applebee’s Lookin’ Good remodel program and targeted investments in company-owned locations as part of that plan.

For restaurant workers, the biggest change is not just more doors. It is the format. Dine has defined dual-branded restaurants as locations that run both IHOP and Applebee’s under two separate franchise agreements in one building, and the company said those units are a central part of its expansion strategy. In practice, that kind of setup can mean workers are asked to handle a wider mix of dayparts, menus and service rhythms, with breakfast, lunch, dinner and late-night traffic all feeding the same labor pool. That can create more efficient scheduling, but it can also push hosts, servers, bartenders and kitchen staff to absorb more cross-training and more flexibility than a single-concept store.

Peyton said IHOP was still opening 30 to 40 restaurants a year and Applebee’s would open a handful of new locations, more than it has in recent years. Dine said it was on track to reach 80 dual-branded U.S. restaurants by the end of 2026, with more than 90% of IHOP openings coming with existing franchisees. Another summary of the company’s first-quarter call said Dine already had 43 operating dual-brand restaurants and 13 under construction.

The unit economics are driving the push. Dine has said the Applebee’s Lookin’ Good effort is a multi-year program, and earlier reporting said it began with 30 of the 47 Applebee’s restaurants Dine took back from franchisees, with five more slated for dual-brand conversion before those remodeled units were refranchised. Dine has also said recent Applebee’s relocations lifted sales by more than 50% versus the previous sites, with some locations up 60% to 95%. That points to a development strategy centered on better real estate, tighter labor deployment and more blended operations, not just expansion for expansion’s sake.

The broader shift is clear: Dine is no longer treating development as a side project. It is using remodels, relocations and co-branding to remake how its restaurants function, and the people working inside those buildings will feel that redesign first.