Michael Osanloo: Yeah.
Andy Barish: — kind of cadence?
Michael Osanloo: Yeah. Excellent recollection, Andy. We had Winter Storm Elliott, name that will live in infamy for me. But it ruined the Christmas holiday season. It was the week right after Christmas and that’s a really big week for us from a catering standpoint. So, it really pulled the rug out from under our catering business. We’re hoping for more mild weather, I guess, in the Midwest. So, knock on wood for that. But that did pull the rug out from underneath us. And you will recall that this is a unique year in that we have a 53rd week. So, we obviously will report like-for-like numbers 52 week, but we do have a 53rd week, which will create a little bit of extra kind of momentum for the year.
Andy Barish: Thank you.
Operator: Our next question comes from David Tarantino with Baird. Please go ahead.
David Tarantino: Hi. Good morning, Michael. For what it’s worth, I’m also hoping for more mild weather in the Midwest.
Michael Osanloo: Amen, David.
David Tarantino: So, yeah. I had a couple of questions, one is on the October order trend that you referenced. I was hoping maybe you could give us some sense of magnitude of the improvement from what you saw in the third quarter, just so that we’re all on the same page here.
Michael Osanloo: Michelle is giving me a dirty look as is my IR person. Let’s just say that we’re definitely into the positive territory in terms of transactions, and I think that’s all I can say right now. So, we’re very optimistic about that. We’ve also — yeah, we’re also — in part of that G&A spend, we spent a little bit of money on advertising in Chicagoland. And if you’re an unfortunate Bears fan and you’ve been watching Bears games or Monday Night Football or the World Series, you will have seen some Portillo’s advertising. And whenever we do brand-enhancing marketing like that, it tends to have a positive impact for us. And so, we’ve seen a little bit of that and I wouldn’t be surprised if that continues to drive some momentum into the fourth quarter. So, we’re optimistic and I think we’re pulling some levers to make sure that the traffic trends remain what we have seen.
David Tarantino: Great. Thank you for that context. The other question I had is on new unit contribution. So, I guess the way we model it, it came in a little light of what we had modeled and it looked like maybe the average weekly sales for the new units was a little lower than what you saw in prior quarters. So, I just wanted to understand that dynamic and whether it might be related to kind of coming off some of the honeymoons in the early part of year.
Michael Osanloo: Yeah.
David Tarantino: Or if there’s something else going on?
Michael Osanloo: I would encourage you to double check your models and adjust timing because I think that it depending on if you assume the mid-quarter convention for each new unit, we honestly didn’t do that. Most of our units are opening up towards the end of each quarter. And like the ones in the fourth quarter, you should be modeling them late in the fourth quarter. Obviously, we’re already into the fourth quarter, but it’s not a function of they’re coming in softer. It’s a function of when they’re opening and when you model them within a quarter.
David Tarantino: Perfect. And any comment, Michael, on the second Texas location, how that’s opened so far?
Michael Osanloo: We’re very happy with Allen. We’re very happy with Allen. We’re very happy with Allen. I think Arlington is going to be fanta — I mean, we’re super excited about Texas. I’m eager to get Arlington open. It’s a beautiful restaurant. The team is chomping at the bit. And then, we’ve got Fort Worth coming in shortly after that and we already preannounced Denton early 2024. So, I’m excited to get to five restaurants in the state of Texas in Dallas Metro within 12 months, which is for us — for us, that’s an audacious task that we just took on and accomplished.
David Tarantino: Great. Thank you very much.
Michael Osanloo: Thank you, David.
Operator: Our next question comes from Chris O’Cull with Stifel. Please go ahead.
Chris O’Cull: Thanks. Good morning, guys.
Michael Osanloo: Good morning, Chris.
Chris O’Cull: Good morning. Michael, the industry has started to get more promotional. I think you mentioned incremental advertising here recently, but what other initiatives can the company take to keep traffic flat to positive if it needs to?
Michael Osanloo: Yeah. So, I want to knick-knack with one thing. So, the industry’s gotten promotional, Portillo’s does not get promotional. We don’t discount. So, you’re not going to see a dollar menu, we’re not going to do shrinkflation, that’s just not who we are. I support when we do brand-enhancing activities, just a reminder of who Portillo’s is and our marketing is showing pictures of our food, right? Because it’s craveable, it’s delicious, it’s a reminder of why people love Portillo’s. I think our team did an amazingly creative job with the existing advertising, which is the sounds of Portillo’s hearing sort of the crunch of the onion rings as they fall onto your plate, things like that. So, it’s brilliant — its brilliant brand-enhancing advertising and we’re seeing the impact of all of the macro trends, Chris.
So, our dining rooms are really full and that’s because I think that with price points where they are in casual dining we are a refuge from that. We have fantastic food and a beautiful environment and it’s working really well for us. Our drive-thrus did get a little slowdown in Q3 and that’s because of exactly what you’re describing, some very aggressive discounting activities by QSR, which, again, we don’t discount. And so, there’s going to be a shopper that chooses to go get a $1 burger or a $2 burger versus our burger. And when economy gets better, they’ll come back to us or when they want to sit down with their family, they’ll come into our dining rooms. And so, I think we just ride that ebb and flow a little bit. We’re happy with where we’re positioned.
