Order up!

By Don Shilling

Area Denny’s restaurants have extra eggs and servers on hand today as they prepare to give away free meals to all customers.

The restaurant chain used the biggest marketing stage in the world — a Super Bowl ad — to invite everyone to a free Grand Slam breakfast from 6 a.m. to 2 p.m. today.

“We’re expecting lines out the door the whole time,” said Penny McCormick, assistant manager at the Denny’s in Boardman.

So many people are expected that she doesn’t think everyone will get seated by 2 p.m. In that case, each restaurant will issue up to 500 rain checks.

Jeff Richards of Austintown, who owns the local Denny’s restaurants, said more than 1,000 customers are expected at each restaurant in those eight hours. Each restaurant seats about 150.

Lois Colasante, manager of the Austintown Denny’s, said the phone rang constantly Monday from people asking if what they heard on the commercial was true.

Yes, it is true. Everyone can receive the original Grand Slam — two eggs, two pancakes, two sausages and two strips of bacon. It’s a $5.99 value. No carryouts are allowed.

The callers seemed excited when the details were described, Colasante said.

“We’re expecting to get killed. It’s going to be great,” she said.

Richards said Denny’s franchisees in northern Ohio passed along a simple message to corporate officials when they announced the free food promotion internally three weeks ago: “Don’t run out of food.”

The Ohio operators remember what happened in May when Papa John’s offered 23-cent pizzas to apologize to Cleveland Cavalier fans. The team’s fans were offended when a pizza franchisee in Washington, D.C., passed out shirts with the number of Cavs star LeBron James — 23 — and the word “crybaby.”

Hundreds of people lined up for discount pizzas, and many stores ran out of ingredients. Some crowds got rowdy.

Boardman Police Chief Patrick Berarducci said the local Denny’s hasn’t asked for assistance. He doesn’t anticipate problems.

Richards’ restaurants have ordered extra food and brought in extra staff.

The Boardman restaurant, for example, will have 10 cases of eggs instead of two and 20 cases of pancake mix instead of seven.

Normally, it would have six employees on hand for a Tuesday morning. Today, it has 20.

Richards said the promotion is part of Denny’s latest ad campaign, which pokes fun at breakfasts offered at other places and calls Denny’s offerings a serious breakfast.

“The is real food — eggs, pancakes and meat,” he said.

Some people have forgotten about Denny’s, even though it has been around for more than 50 years, he said.

“I hope this lets people know we are still here and attracts people who haven’t been with us for awhile,” he said.

Steven Anderson, an industry analyst who follows Denny’s, said offering free food during a recession is “the right message at the right time.”

The promotion should bring in customers who have drifted to places such as McDonald’s and get them acquainted with Denny’s new menu, he said.

“It’s a gutsy promotion,” said Anderson, who works for MKM Partners in Connecticut.

He added, however, that he thinks Denny’s paid less than the published rate for a 30-second Super Bowl commercial — $3 million — because it signed up in the last few weeks. Plus, Denny’s is giving up a minimal amount of revenue in exchange for the publicity, he said. Tuesday is one of the chain’s slower days.

Like all restaurants, Denny’s traffic has been down during the recession, Anderson said. The South Carolina-based chain has been improving its profits, however, by relying less on company stores and more on franchised locations because of the fees they produce, he said.

Denny’s operates more than 1,500 restaurants in the U.S. and four other countries.

shilling@vindy.com