Pepsi Opens Manhattan Restaurant

The soft drink company’s first foray into restaurants has a more upscale feel than expected.

September 26, 2016

NEW YORK CITY – What’s a Pepsi restaurant without its namesake beverage? A place called Kola House, Fortune reports. The Manhattan eatery opened last week with nary a Pepsi bottle, Dorito or Lay’s potato chip in sight.

The restaurant is being billed as serving “farm-to-table” cuisine made by Jon Feshan, executive chef. The name comes from its menu focus on the kola nut, which will be included in chicken and pork entrees, among other dishes. PepsiCo took a more hands-off approach with the menu, allowing Feshan free reign in designing dishes, as long as the kola nut was included in some of the meals.

“They aren’t approaching this as Pepsi, they are approaching it as a restaurant,” Feshan said. “It’s not a branding opportunity. They want to have a nice restaurant.”

The concept has some scratching their heads wondering why a successful food and beverage maker would dabble in a non-branded restaurant, but PepsiCo had a different idea in mind: to serve good food. Other food makers have had success with popup stores and restaurants, but this could be the first time a company has launched an entirely unique experience apart from its current brands. Even Kellogg’s cereal bar in New York serves, well, Kellogg’s cereal.

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