Denny’s Serving Hobbit Fare to Middle-earth Fans Starting November 6

Fans of Peter Jackson’s “Lord of the Rings” movies invaded restaurants years ago both before and after their annual line parties. Around the world, the midnight “first showings” of the three LoTR movies attracted huge crowds, sometimes numbering in the thousands, who waited for hours (often in the cold) to see the much-anticipated Jackson adaptations of J.R.R. Tolkien’s beloved classic novel.

Local restaurants reaped a windfall as theater crowds stoked up on food before joining the line parties or unwound after seeing the movies. And this time around a major American restaurant chain, Denny’s, has latched on to the merchandising rights for the three “Hobbit” films.

Working with Erwin Penland Advertising Denny’s reached out to a small coterie of food bloggers and Lord of the Rings fans who would be interested in writing about Denny’s upcoming multi-movie campaign. How could I say “no” to an offer of free food and free lodging? (Yes, in the interest of full disclosure we were brought together at the company’s expense to see what they have to offer.)

I can’t say I’m a regular Denny’s customer. I have eaten at various Denny’s through the years. It’s one of those national brands we all recognize but you don’t really think of Denny’s as a cutting edge restaurant. They are best known for their Grand Slam breakfast, after all, and that was named in honor of major league baseball player Hank Aaron in 1977 after he surpassed Babe Ruth’s home run record.

Over the past few years Denny’s has been experimenting with movie tie-ins and, admittedly, I haven’t paid a great deal of attention to those campaigns. Thankfully Erwin Penland sent me a teaser image to let me know what the press event was all about and I was hooked. Denny’s and Hobbits and Dwarves and Elves, oh my!

So I found myself visiting Spartanburg, SC where Denny’s runs its corporate headquarters. There gathered with other fans and bloggers I enjoyed the full presentation that Denny’s put on for us (obviously in the hope that we would say nice things about the campaign). So, yes, I said some nice things on Twitter (using the hash tag #DennysSneakPeek). But before I get into the details of what I enjoyed, let me throw in some obligatory negative comments.

First up, the sneak peek was limited only to the promotions tied to the first “Hobbit” movie. This is completely understandable but it was obvious that everyone in the room wanted to talk about the WHOLE ENCHILADA and not just one slice of the pie. In other words, we’re still embargoed on some details that weren’t supposed to be part of the presentation. I understand the marketing side of this story but as a fan I have questions and hopefully future marketing outreach campaigns (for whatever movies by whatever companies) can be more long-term.

You may read into that some of the frustration that I as a science fiction fan felt over the long silence coming from Disney on the “John Carter” movie (which bombed earlier this year despite being one of the year’s highest grossing films, with a world-wide box office of almost $300 million). When you’re dealing with a huge film franchise, communication is critical. Modern audiences don’t like too many surprises, even pleasant ones. They want to be courted.

So all that is to say that what I can reveal about Denny’s association with “The Hobbit” is just a part of the picture. There is more to come, and clearly they are hoping to whet people’s appetites with what they can reveal this year.

Second, I dared ask about “low carb” offerings on the menu. Alas! It seems that Middle-earth inspires more carby than proteiny thoughts. But fear not, my fellow carb-watchers — there are some proteins in the mix and I will let you know about them. Also, I was reminded that customers are encouraged to request whatever special changes they need for any menu items (within reason), so you can substitute some high-fiber things or proteins here and there or just leave off some of the carbs.

That said, the campaign officially begins on November 6 (but you can see a video of one of the TV spots at Ad Age). Frankly, I feel that is a bit late in the game (and I told them so). But the Denny’s team revealed that they have been working on this campaign for a long time. Science fiction fans often forget that a lot of preparatory work goes into merchandising licenses. It’s not just about getting the contracts signed and rushing production ideas into a board room. So I appreciate all the behind-the-scenes work that went into putting this campaign together. Believe me, John Q. Public will only ever see a fraction of the ideas that the folks at Denny’s considered.

We started the morning with a quick catered breakfast while everyone walked around the meeting room taking pictures of posters and pictures of things. It was like being kids in a candy store. “Is there anything we’re NOT allowed to shoot?” I asked. “Take all the pictures you want,” they said. So we snapped and snapped and snapped. The first 15-20 minutes was consumed by camera whizzing and cell phone snapping. (BTW — if you’re going to take pictures for a story, you want to take far more pictures than you can possibly use to ensure you get good shots.)

Denny’s staff then gave us a short presentation about the goal of the campaign and the scope of what they were doing. The core item is the custom/bespoke Middle-earth menu that will be available on November 6 onward. The menu will remain in the restaurants until after the New Year. They didn’t just slap a Warner Brothers logo on a Denny’s menu — they went all out and designed a menu (and dishes) for “The Hobbit”.

The menus will walk out of the restaurants, I am sure. I kept asking how many they had ordered and no one was willing to share any numbers with me but one executive finally conceded that they are anticipating some interest in the menus. I’ll just leave it at that.

In addition to the menu and the food there will be collectible cards. What I think impressed us the most about these cards (I have not opened my sample pack) is that Denny’s said they are the only company (in America, at least) licensed to produce collectible cards for “The Hobbit”. There will be 10 in the series plus two “chaser” cards. These are limited run cards featuring Gandalf and Bilbo and they will be randomly added to various card packets. Obviously the intent is to keep you coming back until you get the two chaser cards.

In addition to the menu, food, and trading cards there is a placemat with QR codes you can use to unlock secret online content that is made available exclusively through/for Denny’s by Warner Bros. You’ll be able to watch a couple of behind-the-scenes videos with footage from “The Hobbit” (my guess is little if any of that footage will make it into the movie but the Denny’s folks were not in a position to say), play games, and do some social things.

There are also two TV commercials. One, called “Hobbit Inspiration” (which you can see on Ad Age), features real Tolkien fans who have become known for their costumes. Others who attended the sneak peek might divulge more details about who is in the commercial but I’ll leave it a mystery. I just want to say that I wish my grandmas were still alive.

In addition to the swag that was handed out we were treated to a fairly open question-and-answer session — two, actually. One of the talking points of the presentation was the fact that the Denny’s corporate staff features many Hobbit/Tolkien fans — including Scott Richard (Corporate Chef, Senior Manager Product Development), who led the dish development team. This is the kind of project that comes along maybe once in a lifetime, where people who just do their jobs day after day are suddenly drawn into something special.

As one executive put it, “(We didn’t just want to put) something on a cup” for this campaign. In other words, the decision was made early on to go all out — to do whatever a restaurant chain can to bring a touch of Middle-earth to their customers’ lives. So while the food may not have been designed by J.R.R. Tolkien (the Tolkien Estate really has very little connection to these movies) all the work that went into selecting and arranging the offerings was inspired by a love of Tolkien and Peter Jackson’s movies.

We were whisked away to Denny’s corporate test kitchens — where they develop new dishes and perform quality testing — for a “Hobbit food tasting”. We sampled nearly every hobbity offering on the menu. There was no way we could eat all that food, and they even downsized portions for us to limit our intake. I have to watch my carbohydrates anyway and on several dishes I ate only enough to appreciate the flavor without indulging too much.

But some of these dishes were so good it was hard to stop eating. I have my list of favorite restaurants and frankly they’re all a little more pricey than Denny’s, IHOP, or similar family-style diners and restaurants. Still, the dishes we were served today were pretty darned good, in my humble opinion.

Perhaps it makes some slight difference when you’re being served directly out of the corporate test kitchen — I cannot speak to that, but we ate like hobbits. So here is a quick rundown of the dishes. Sharon Lykins, Director, Product Innovation at Denny’s, introduced the servings to us and gave us some background on how the project unfolded from the production side.

In the interest of leaving a little mystery in the experience, I won’t share everything about each dish with you. There is an element of discovery in the first time you try each one. Click on the thumbnails to see larger versions of the images (they’ll open in new browser windows/tabs).

Radagast’s Red Velvet Pancake Puppies If you have a hankering for hush puppies you’ll fall deeply, madly in love with Pancake Puppies. The original recipe uses blueberries but these red velvet pancake puppies pack a couple of alternative ingredients that make them seem magical. Well-named, but definitely sugary sweet.

Hobbit Hole Breakfast You can get two fried eggs served in the middle of a grilled chedder bun arranged to look rather like a hobbit door opening into a hole. Golf fans will love the “hole in one” metaphor.

Lonely Mountain Treasure Aka, Seed Cake French Toast. Good goblin, great Gandalf! What is food like this doing in a diner menu? We almost didn’t let them serve the next course!

Shire Sausage Skillet Okay, Denny’s got your proteins right here, carb-watchers. This ain’t just any old sausage. It’s an authentic English sausage recipe, and even the wrapping is natural. The skillet will steam for two minutes, and unlike some skillet dishes you can get in slightly more expensive restaurants, you don’t have to turn the food to keep it from burning. Oh, and there’s other good-tasting food in this dish (including some eggs — more protein!).

Bilbo’s Berry Smoothie Not being a huge smoothie fan I can’t say I was overwhelmed by this item but it was certainly good and in fact I drank more of it than I should (in order to get a mere taste). Tasting new dishes is thirsty work, after all.

Pumpkin Patch Pancakes WOW! I liked them. But there ain’t no protein in pancakes. I couldn’t allow myself to enjoy the full sample.

Gandalf’s Gobble Melt A slightly unconventional turkey melt sandwich, the meat was flavorful and moist. I was starting to get full by this point and could not fully enjoy the sample.

The Ring Burger This is a gourmet burger with a slight peppery kick. I was really looking forward to enjoying the full sample but I was so stuffed and so carbed out I dove in and focused on the meat and cheese. Still, they told us that Denny’s is now hand-pressing their hamburger when it is cooked. You can tell that the quality of the patty is better than the old Denny’s burger. It’s also got more than 6 ounces of meat. Be careful if you order a double.

Frodo’s Pot Roast Skillet Okay, pot roast in a skillet. I figured that was new so I made room to sample as much as a I could. The meat is moist and tender. They say they let it roast for about 48 hours. Nothing ruins a pot roast faster than dry meat. No problems with this dish. Again, they say the skillet won’t burn the food (I’m not sure if I’m allowed to explain how they dealt with that problem).

Death by Milk Shake Lone-lands Campfire Cookie Milk Shake As Elrond might have said, “I fear to take and savor the milk shake. I will not take it home.” Great Galloping Skin-changers Batman, this was so good! There is something special about the ice cream but they flavor it up with some other ingredients.

We did not sample the Hobbit Harvest Pie, Dwarves Turkey and Dressing Dinner, or the BYO Hobbit Slam.

Can you eat all this food in one sitting? Not unless you want to go to the hospital. Denny’s designed this menu to be enticing and addicting. They want you to come back again and again. But it’s a seasonal menu tied to the first “Hobbit” menu. They wouldn’t tell us what they are working on for the next two movies, although we made some wild guesses and you could see a few twinkling eyes among the Denny’s crowd.

You can go in for trading cards and QR codes but you’ll go back if the food hits home with you. This is not just comfort food, it’s damn-i’m-feelin’-good food. You definitely need to work out if you hit a lot of heavy carbohydrates (breads, starches, sugars — all the good stuff).

So, thank you, Denny’s for the sneak peek. It was very cool. I hope we get to do this again. Really, I will write for free food. Especially Middle-earth-inspired food.

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