Fast-casual chain QDOBA is turning the traditionally slow fall shoulder season into a traffic driver with 'Diptember,' a nine-week promotional campaign running September 1 through November 2 that centers on two new limited-time menu items and a series of digital discount offers.
The headline product is Queso Fundido — QDOBA's Signature 3-Cheese Queso topped with seasoned ground beef, picante ranch and fresh cilantro, served with freshly fried, salt-and-lime tortilla chips. The item starts at $6.25 and is available as a standalone side or as part of a catering order, including the chain's Chips & Dip Party Pack. To seed trial, QDOBA is offering $2 off any digital order that includes the new dip through September 6 using the code FUNDIDO — a deliberate move to funnel first-time purchasers through its owned app and website rather than third-party platforms.
New Sweet Side
Alongside the savory launch, QDOBA is debuting its first-ever sweet dip: Churro Chips Chocolate Dip, starting at $2.75. The item pairs an in-house fried churro chip — itself a recent menu addition — with a chocolate dipping sauce, extending the brand's condiment range into dessert territory. The move reflects a broader fast-casual menu diversification trend as operators look for incremental check-building opportunities without major kitchen investment.
The promotion also capitalizes on two food-holiday pegs that carry proven digital reach in the Mexican fast-casual segment. On National Guacamole Day (September 16), guests can redeem a free regular chips and guac with an entrée purchase using code GUACDAY. National Queso Day (September 20) unlocks a free chips and queso with code QUESODAY. Both offers are valid through QDOBA's app, website, and in-person at participating locations — but notably, none of the Diptember codes work on third-party delivery orders, a clear signal that the brand is prioritizing direct-channel economics.
Operator Angle
"Customization is at the heart of the QDOBA experience," said Chef Katy Velazquez, VP of Culinary Innovation at QDOBA. "With 14 dips, salsas, and sauces available across our menu, guests can create a different flavor experience every time they visit."
For franchisees and multi-unit operators, the structure of Diptember is worth examining as a promotional playbook. The campaign layers a new LTO (Queso Fundido) onto an existing platform (the 14-dip lineup), ties spend to food-holiday moments that already generate organic social conversation, and routes the most aggressive discounts exclusively to owned digital channels. QDOBA operates 870 locations across 46 U.S. states as well as Canada, Puerto Rico, Japan and South Korea, giving the promotion meaningful national scale.
The catering integration — Queso Fundido is available as a Hot Bar add-on and in party packs — also positions the fall campaign to capture group occasions, a segment that fast-casual catering operators have aggressively targeted as office and event catering rebounds. All standard dips can be added to create-your-own entrées at no additional charge, preserving QDOBA's value positioning while the new premium items provide an upsell pathway.
Written by Michael Politz, Author of Guide to Restaurant Success: The Proven Process for Starting Any Restaurant Business From Scratch to Success (ISBN: 978-1-119-66896-1), Founder of Food & Beverage Magazine, the leading online magazine and resource in the industry. Designer of the Bluetooth logo and recognized in Entrepreneur Magazine's "Top 40 Under 40" for founding American Wholesale Floral, Politz is also the Co-founder of the Proof Awards and the CPG Awards and a partner in numerous consumer brands across the food and beverage sector.
