Red Robin Turns Up the Heat by Becoming First National Casual Dining Chain to Serve the Ghost Pepper

GREENWOOD VILLAGE, Colo., June 26, 2012 – With temperatures already on the rise, Red Robin’s newest burger styles promise to make this the hottest summer on record. Today, Red Robin Gourmet Burgers, Inc (Red Robin) spiced up their menu with the launch of the Fiery Ghost Style and the Cry Baby Style, expanding the popular Tavern Styles menu introduced in April. With these exciting new additions to its burger roster, Red Robin becomes the first national chain to use the ghost pepper, one of the world’s hottest chile peppers*.

Not for the weak of tongue, Red Robin’s two new styles each bring their own creative and innovative flavor combinations to the Gourmet Burger Expert’s menu:

• Fiery Ghost Style – Red Robin has cooked up a new recipe for burger success with this boundary-pushing style sure to have you grabbing the nearest milkshake to cool down. The style’s star is one of the world’s hottest chile peppers – the ghost pepper, which teams up with both fresh-cut and fried jalapeños atop pepper jack cheese to round out this tour-de-fire.
• Cry Baby Style – Onion-lovers prepare to shed tears of happiness! The Cry Baby Style ups the onion ante by combining crispy onion straws tossed in a unique Sriracha dry seasoning with even more onions sautéed in Cholula Hot Sauce. The one-two punch of crispy and sautéed onions are complimented by pepper jack cheese and a ghost pepper ketchup, warming up taste buds with the unique flavor of the ghost pepper without overwhelming levels of spice.

Proving that variety truly is the spice of life, guests can choose one of the two new Tavern Styles or any of the three original styles – Pig Out, Cantina Jack and Buzzalo – for just $1 more to style up their favorite Tavern Burger available for the everyday value of $6.99 with Red Robin’s signature Bottomless Steak Fries^®, which means free refills.

“The culinary world has really embraced the chile pepper in a number of ways across the American dining landscape, and we are very excited to offer our guests two distinctly-Red Robin approaches to one of the world’s hottest chiles, the ghost pepper,” said Dave Woolley, executive chef with Red Robin. “Our most adventurous guests will love how the Fiery Ghost Style tests the extreme limits of their taste buds, while the Cry Baby Style appeals to a wide-variety of flavor preferences, taking a more mild approach to the flavor of chiles and infusing both Latin American and Thai culinary influences.”

For more information on the Fiery Ghost Style, the Cry Baby Style and Red Robin’s other new menu items, or to find the restaurant location nearest you, visit www.redrobin.com.

***The ghost pepper (Bhut Jolokia) is estimated to range between 855,000 -1,000,000+ Scoville heat units. For comparison, a typical jalapeño pepper falls between 3,500 - 8,000 Scoville heat units. To put it another way – the heat units from the hottest jalapeño accounts for less than one percent of the heat units contained within the mildest ghost pepper. THAT’S ONE FIERY PEPPER!

About Red Robin Gourmet Burgers, Inc. (NASDAQ: RRGB)
Red Robin Gourmet Burgers, Inc. (www.redrobin.com), a casual dining restaurant chain founded in 1969 that operates through its wholly-owned subsidiary, Red Robin International, Inc., is the gourmet burger expert, famous for serving more than two dozen craveable, high-quality burgers with Bottomless Steak Fries^® in a fun environment welcoming to guests of all ages. In addition to its many burger offerings, Red Robin serves a wide variety of salads, soups, appetizers, entrees, desserts and signature Mad Mixology^® Beverages. There are more than 460 Red Robin^® restaurants located across the United States and Canada, including corporate-owned locations and those operating under franchise agreements. Red Robin… YUMMM^®! Connect with Red Robin on Facebook and Twitter.