The casual-dining chain that invented its own food holiday is doubling down for the milestone year. Metro Diner is marking the 8th anniversary of National Fried Chicken & Waffle Day — a holiday the brand created in 2018 — by giving 88 guests Free Fried Chicken & Waffles for a Year, its largest promotional giveaway to date.
How Winners Are Selected
The campaign runs across three entry channels on August 8: in-diner drawings at any of Metro Diner's 69 locations, national social media contests, and influencer partnerships. Guests who order the signature dish during their August 8 visit are automatically eligible for their local drawing, while online participants can enter through Metro Diner's social channels. Local diners will finalize and announce their winners the following week.
The dish at the center of the campaign — half a crispy fried chicken served atop a fluffy Belgian waffle, dusted with powdered sugar, finished with strawberry butter, and accompanied by the brand's sweet-and-spicy sauce — has been a menu anchor since the Jacksonville-founded chain launched in 1992. Stanley Goodman, President and Chief Operating Officer of Metro Diner, described the holiday as an expression of the dish's identity for the brand. "We created National Fried Chicken & Waffle Day to celebrate the dish that has become synonymous with Metro Diner," Goodman said. "As we celebrate the holiday's 8th anniversary on 8/8, it felt only fitting to give 88 fans the chance to enjoy our signature Fried Chicken & Waffles for a year."
Operator Takeaway
The campaign is a textbook example of owned-holiday marketing, a tactic family-dining and fast-casual operators have increasingly leaned into to drive traffic during traditionally slow mid-week periods. By anchoring a multi-channel promotion to a proprietary calendar moment, Metro Diner generates earned media, social engagement, and in-location foot traffic simultaneously — without relying on a third-party delivery platform or discounting the core menu broadly. The tiered entry structure (in-person, social, influencer) also mirrors strategies gaining traction across casual-dining restaurant promotions as operators look for ways to reward loyal guests while expanding reach to new audiences.
For independent and regional chain operators tracking food and beverage brand-building trends, Metro Diner's approach — establishing a repeatable annual event tied directly to a signature menu item — illustrates how a single dish can anchor a year-round marketing calendar. The brand, which has been featured on Food Network's Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives, operates more than 60 locations east of the Mississippi and describes itself as among the nation's fastest-growing locally owned family-dining concepts.
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.
