New logo: Buffalo Wild Wings

Buffalo Wild Wings is an American restaurant and sports bar chain, originally started in 1981 to serve Buffalo-style chicken wings. Today it is a listed company with several hundred locations around the United States and Canada. This week, it has unveiled an updated visual identity. The new logo is inspired apparently inspired by sports stadium typography, and the winged buffalo icon has been updated.
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New logo: Chili's

The American restaurant chain Chili's has started rolling out an updated version of its chili pepper logo.

The chili fruit has been redrawn, giving it a cleaner look and making the clever way the stalk acts as an apostrophe clearer. The letter S has switched to the more elegant Sari typeface.

Previous logo.

The previous logo was probably introduced around 2002. However, the "classic" Chili's logo with the swirling H-L ligature remained in use for a long time after that.

It seems like the new logo was introduced in September. It's not clear exactly when that happened, but various outlets associated with Chili's have been using the logo since at least September 22. The changes were reported on in the New York Times on September 29. As of today, the official Chili's website still features the old logo.
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New logo: Del Taco

The American fast food chain Del Taco, with over 500 locations in 17 states, recently unveiled a new logo, along with a new restaurant prototype in some locations. Del Taco credits both the restaurant design and the new logo to Tesser Inc., a brand design agency specialized in fast food.

The previous logo was launched in the 1990s. It reintroduced a sun as a part of the Del Taco logo. The chain had previously used a sun as it logo during the 1960s and 1970s.

The new logo is essentially a more modern version of its predecessor. All elements are in their regular places - the sun, the green rolling hills, the angled red script typeface - but have been given less cartoonish and more contemporary interpretations. The sun has regained the "buzz saw" look it had in the 1970s. The new typeface is a "unique brush style font". As chief brand officer John Cappasola explains, "The new logo retains the positive equity we have built up over the years while capturing the energy and confidence of this great brand as we position Del Taco for the future".

A press release announcing new logo and restaurant design was sent out on August 8, but some media coverage had appeared a few days before that. Del Taco says the new logo will be phased in from the fourth quarter.
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New logo: Red Lobster

Yesterday, July 26, the American seafood restaurant chain Red Lobster announced a new ad campaign. This announcement also marked the official launch of its new logo.

Although the new logo officially replaced the previous one yesterday - for example on Red Lobster's official website and social profiles - it has been around for at least a few months. It was trialled on a newly designed restaurant in Tampa Bay which opened in April.

Previous logo.

The new logo features a refreshed lobster and new typography. It also includes the phrase "Fresh Fish, Live Lobster".

The following images were provided by Red Lobster press:
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New logo: Bennigan's (2010)

The American Irish-themed restaurant chain Bennigan's has struggled financially in the last few years, with continous reports about bankruptcy. Perhaps in an attempt to bounce back, last year, the chain launched a new visual identity.

The new logo is a clean break with three decades of swirly "tavern-style" typography, instead going for individualistic slab serif letterforms. The logo can also include a pint of beer, which for some reason has a B from the old logo on it.

The oldest dated use of this logo I've found is from November last year, from a report about the opening of a new restaurant with an updated design. However, it is possible that the new logo was introduced several months before that. I haven't found any media mention of the rebrand.

Previous logo.

The previous logo had been used with minor alterations since the mid-1990s. The logo used before that was introduced in the late 1970s or early 1980s, initially including the word "Tavern".

Logo used until the mid-1990s.

Some visuals of the new identity:
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New logo: The Wendy's Company

Last Monday, July 4, Wendy's Arby's Group sold the fast food chain Arby's to Roark Capital Group. Following this sale, the next day, July 5, the company announced that it would change its name to The Wendy's Company, effective the same day.

The Arby's sale means the company will now focus on the Wendy's change, something reflcted in the new company name and logo. The freckle-faced red-haired girl with pigtails from the classic logo used by Wendy's restaurants is now featured in the corporate logo, and the word "Wendy's" shares its color with the girl's hair. The typography is playful and much less "corporate" than its predecessor.

Previous logo.

The company was called Triarc until 2008 when it bought the Wendy's chain and changed its name to Wendy's/Arby's Group. The logo was a stylized combination of the initials W and A.
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New logo: Espresso House

New logo.

Espresso House is a Swedish coffehouse chain, with locations in most cities in the southern half of Sweden. Starbucks has long been absent from the Swedish market, and Espresso House has filled much of that void. The first store opened in 1996, and since then it has expanded to at least 95 locations.

Old logo.

The Espresso House concept shares many similarities with Starbucks. The circular Espresso House logo is also suspiciously similar to the old Starbucks logo, but uses a coffee bean instead of a mermaid/siren/whatever.

Now, Espresso House are launching a new look, along with a completely new version of the coffee bean in a circular frame. The Norwegian design studio Holidesign, who have much experince in branding coffee, have taken credit for the new look. The typgraphy in the new logo is more balanced than the previous one. The new colour scheme based on earth tones and the new composition provides a vintage feeling. The vintage theme is then carried on in packaging and in-store graphics.

Even though Holidesign announced their work for Espresso House last year, the new logo is yet to appear on Espresso House's official website, and they don't seem to have made any announcements about it.

The following images were published by Holidesign:
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New logo: Little Chef

Little Chef is a chain of roadside rastaurants in the United Kingdom. Although it is considered something of a British icon, it has fallen behind the competition from international fast food chains for a long time. Recently, an overhaul of the visual identity for the chain was presented, created with venturethree.

The new look introduces a new friendly script wordmark, but also includes updated restaurant interiors and new packaging, all using a selection of vibrant new colours, with red still being the dominant one. The branding goes under the internal name "Wonderfully British", positioning the chain against international fast food giants.

The chain's mascot is a "little chef" called "Charlie", who has been updated to "give him new energy and purpose, and link the old and the new".

The "Charlie" mascot, before and after.

The new identity was brought to public attention on May 11. It is yet to launch on the official Little Chef website. When the announcement was made, venturethree claims that in less than one hour they got 40,000 hits on their website, which crashed briefly. A manifestation of the interest and love the British people still have for Little Chef.

The previous identity was only a few years old, launched in November 2008 and created by Ab Rogers.

Previous logo, used since 2008.

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New logo: Ivar's seafood, April Fools?

This year saw some great rebrand hoaxes, for example Brand New's Home Depot rebrand. One rebrand which was presented on April 1 is however yet to be retracted.

Ivar's is a regional seafood restaurant chain based in Seattle, Washington. They have long used a logo with the name written in cursive, with a wavy line extending from the I to underline the name. Last Friday, they presented a new logo which removes the name, leaving only the wavy line and the tagline "Since 1938".

Now, what speaks against this being a permanent rebrand? For starters, Ivar's are known in Seattle for elaborate marketing stunts. Ivar's is also based in the same city as Starbucks, who made similar rebrand earlier this year when they removed the company name from their logo. They have even posted an image of historical paper cups standing in line, just as Starbucks did back in January. The press release is crammed with marketing speak about "embracing change and being fluid", "adapting as a brand" and "evolving forward".

Another press release gem is the following quote from Seth Godfin (!), "world-renowned brand strategiest" from Gotcha Creative & Branding:

Ivar's is taking a risk by dropping its synonymous cursive company name from their logo, but our extensive research showed people simply don't read as much as they used to, especially cursive, given people's tendency to text and microblog -- it was no longer relevant.

One thing which speaks against this being a hoax is the fact that the minimalist logo still adorns the Ivar's website. Generally, you retract an April Fools joke on April 2.
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New logo: Long John Silver's

On Thursday, February 10, 2011, the seafood restaurant chain Long John Silver's unveiled a new logo to be rolled out for lent. This comes with a new slogan: "We Speak Fish".

Previous logo.

The previous identity dates back to around 2001-2002, some time before or after the chain was bought by Yum! Brands, owners of KFC, Pizza Hut and Taco Bell. Many sources report that Yum! are trying to sell off Long John Silver's, which may be linked to this latest refresh.
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