Texas Roadhouse Hands Veterans Meal Vouchers Redeemable Through 2027

Texas Roadhouse will hand out free meal vouchers to veterans and active-duty U.S. military members on Veterans Day, Wednesday, November 11 — and the vouchers stay valid through May 31, 2027, an unusually long redemption window for a limited-time promotion.

The distribution runs from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. at every Texas Roadhouse location in the country. Guests must show proof of service — a military or VA card, or discharge papers — to receive one.

Each voucher covers a choice of 10 entrées, including a 6-ounce sirloin, plus two made-from-scratch sides and a Coca-Cola product, sweet tea, iced tea, or coffee. The giveaway continues the chain's annual Veterans Day tradition, and the multi-year redemption period gives recipients flexibility that most promotional freebies don't.

Why the long redemption window matters

What does this change for operators? Structuring the offer as a voucher rather than a same-day comp spreads the cost across 18-plus months. It also pulls voucher holders back into restaurants during slower periods, when a comped entrée is cheaper to absorb — and tablemates typically pay full price.

The entrée-plus-sides-plus-drink format is fixed, which keeps food cost per redemption predictable across the roughly 640-unit system. That's the kind of math that makes a national free-meal program sustainable year after year.

First Watch signs multi-year POS deal with NCR Voyix

In technology news, NCR Voyix, a platform-based unified commerce provider for shopping and dining, announced that First Watch Restaurants Group — the Daytime Dining concept serving breakfast, brunch and lunch — has signed a multi-year Voyix Commerce Platform agreement.

Under the deal, First Watch will deploy Aloha Next, NCR Voyix's cloud-native restaurant point-of-sale and management system. The agreement replaces First Watch's existing POS infrastructure with a single cloud platform; the multi-year term signals a systemwide rollout across the daytime-dining chain's restaurants.

Hero opens near Roosevelt Row

In Phoenix, Vivili Hospitality Group's new Italian restaurant, Hero, debuts October 30 at 1030 N. 1st St. It's the first of three concepts the Prescott-based group plans to open near Roosevelt Row.

The restaurant spans 2,800 square feet, with a 2,500-square-foot patio to follow. Hero positions itself as a design-forward take on the modern Italian neighborhood restaurant — a full-service play aimed at a district that keeps adding dining options.

The Roosevelt New Orleans opens Café Alice

The Roosevelt New Orleans, A Waldorf Astoria Hotel — the French Quarter's historic grande dame — announced the opening of Café Alice, a new all-day dining concept.

The venue reimagines the former Teddy's Café as a European-style café and bar, with a menu from the property's executive chef. The move gives the storied hotel a casual, all-day revenue stream alongside its traditional fine-dining outlets.

PeppFest runs through December at Piesanos

Piesanos Stone Fired Pizza is keeping its limited-time PeppFest menu event running from September through December. The promotion is built entirely around pepperoni, aggregating exclusive items under one topping banner — classic menu engineering that bundles a high-margin, widely liked ingredient into a four-month LTO window.

Le Colonial opens on Thanksgiving for the first time

Le Colonial, the French-Vietnamese restaurant in downtown Delray Beach, will open on Thanksgiving for the first time. Instead of a traditional holiday spread, it's serving a Hanoi Roasted Thanksgiving Duck — a tea-cured, roasted bird that reframes the holiday menu through Vietnamese culinary tradition.

For a restaurant that has historically closed on Thanksgiving, opening the doors represents a deliberate bet on holiday demand, a day when most full-service competitors are dark.

Halloween promos stack up at Applebee's and Outback

Two casual-dining chains are running Halloween-week family deals:

• Applebee's Grill + Bar: a Kids Eat Free special on October 30 and 31, but only at participating locations owned by Potomac Family Dining — a franchisee-level promotion, not a systemwide chain offer.
• Outback Steakhouse: a free kids meal with any adult entrée purchase on October 31, valid for dine-in and online orders. Online customers redeem it with promo code SPOOKYFREE. Outback is also running an Aussie 3-Course Meal bundle alongside the Halloween deal.

Both offers use the same mechanism: discount the child's ticket to drive adult check averages on a night when families are already out. With Texas Roadhouse's voucher giveaway landing a week and a half later, the veterans promotion sets up a November where casual-dining traffic plays will run nearly back to back.