What Will You Order From The New Pepsi Restaurant?

The new Pepsi Restaurant, a.k.a. Pep’s Place, will be open for the next 30 days, taking online food delivery orders in select US cities.

Unlike other restaurants, Pep’s Place requires that you choose a Pepsi beverage first.

For the next 30 days, this online Pepsi restaurant will serve customers in select US cities, including Chicago, Denver, Miami, and Minneapolis. The food can be ordered directly from Pep’s Place on PepsPlaceRestaurant.com or delivery apps Grubhub, DoorDash and Uber Eats.

Unlike your usual restaurant, at Pep’s Place, your order starts with your choice of beverage, and of course, it has to be a Pepsi drink. Once you do choose your drink, whether it’s Pepsi Zero Sugar or one of the many flavored Pepsi beverages, the platform will recommend the best food to go with it.

Now, you must be asking yourself if you should really trust Pepsi to make good food. And you would be right to ask yourself that. The truth is that, while Pepsi created the overall concept and end-to-end consumer experience, the food is actually provided by Famous Dave’s. The mains include winges, burgers, ribs, and a salad. And you can choose fries, corn, Mac&Cheese, veggies or chips to go with your main. There is also a brownie, because, you know, sweet tooth.

Unlike your usual restaurant, at Pep’s Place, your order starts with your choice of beverage, and of course, it has to be a Pepsi drink.

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Why is Pepsi getting into the food delivery business?

The insight is very real: With the COVID-19 pandemic, U.S. adults spent more than twice as much on delivery apps in April 2020 compared to April 2019 and have continued to spend at elevated levels ever since, according to figures from data analytics firm Earnest Research.

But, yes, this is first and foremost a PR stunt. The Pepsi Restaurant will only exist for 30 days.

But the truth behind the idea is that Pepsi is struggling to convince customers to purchase a drink alongside the food they order at restaurants. By prompting customers to choose a drink first and then helping them shape the perfect meal based on the one they chose, Pep’s place is aiming to shift how people think and act when scrolling through online menus.

“Even though consumers know that food tastes better with Pepsi, they often still forget to order a beverage with their favorite meals,” Todd Kaplan, Pepsi’s VP of marketing, said in a statement.

And that is the true beauty of this activation.