How B.J. Novak turned a tribute to chain restaurants into the hottest ticket in Hollywood with a 25,000-person waitlist

• B.J. Novak is behind Chain, an immersive dining experience that pays tribute to chain restaurants. 
• He joined forces with film producer Nicholas Kraft and Michelin-starred chef Tim Hollingsworth.
• Chain recreates dishes from popular restaurants, and the pop-up has become a massive hit. 

As my boyfriend and I walked through a recent Chain pop-up in honor of Jack in the Box, I saw his eyes light up. He had spotted a T-shirt with a little ice-cream cone over by the merch corner, explaining it was the logo for Friendly's — a chain he remembered from his childhood in Boston.

This, I later learned, is the same way "The Office" star B.J. Novak explained Friendly's to film producer Nicholas Kraft when they were launching Chain, an immersive dining experience that has become the hottest ticket in Los Angeles. Chain pays tribute to these restaurants with new interpretations of their most iconic dishes, which are created by Michelin-starred chef Tim Hollingsworth.

"Friendly's is something B.J. grew up with, and he literally lights up when he talks about it," Kraft said. "You can feel the excitement."

I hadn't told Kraft the story about my boyfriend, but clearly, I didn't have to. Chains have been an integral part of American culture for decades, tying us together across states, generations, and income brackets through the power of affordable family dinners and nostalgia.

We might not be watching the same TV shows or movies anymore, but we can all bond over the collective memory of Olive Garden breadsticks, an Outback Steakhouse Bloomin' Onion, or a late-night Taco Bell Crunchwrap Supreme.

This shared love has helped turn Chain into a hit with everyone from foodies to celebrities. When I recently checked out Chain's first food festival in Los Angeles, I spotted Mindy Kaling while stuffing my face with an homage to a Red Robin burger, caught a glimpse of John Legend and Chrissy Teigen while waiting for my Chili's-inspired margarita, and shared a table with Rachel Bilson as we chowed down on our tribute to Dunkin' Donuts.

And lest you think this is an influencer-driven event for Instagram clicks, Kraft told me Chain never pays anyone to show up or post about their events.

"Anyone of note who shows up, they're there for the same reason anyone is there. This stuff resonates," he said. "A lot of this stuff is connected to childhood. Chrissy was once just a young girl in Seattle enjoying Red Robin."

So how did it all start? Let's go back to the beginning for just a moment.

It all started in a parking lot

Novak first came up with the idea to open a restaurant that paid homage to popular American chains in 2018. He mentioned the concept to Phil Rosenthal — of "Somebody Feed Phil" fame — who introduced Novak and Kraft to Chef Hollingsworth, who runs Otium in downtown LA and began his cooking career at Thomas Keller's revered Napa restaurant The French Laundry, which holds three Michelin stars.

"The thing we all shared at that meal was an appreciation for New Americana dining," Kraft told me. "We all came up on different chain restaurants and, from a very authentic place, we all got excited about them."

"More than anything, food is about connecting people and bringing new people together," he added. "And we all appreciated that no one has brought more people together around food than Chili's, or Pizza Hut, or Jack in the Box."

So, the trio began turning their Chain dream into a reality. Hollingsworth developed the recipes, production designer Ruth De Jong (whose credits include "Yellowstone" and "Oppenheimer") was brought on to help with the interior, and John Mayer designed the logo.

"John's official title is our graphic design intern," Kraft said with a laugh. "It's an unpaid position, but it's great exposure for him."

But then the pandemic began in March 2020, and any hope of connecting people disappeared as nationwide lockdowns went into effect.

"Every restaurant in the world shut down, and we were like, you know, this is probably not the moment to open a restaurant," Kraft recalled.

Fast-forward a year later, and everyone still loved the idea of Chain. Plus, they didn't want Hollingsworth's hard work to go to waste. So, in March 2021, they decided to do a pop-up in a parking lot. Instead of a whole menu, they served just one dish — Hollingsworth's interpretation of the Bloomin' Onion. The concept was an instant hit.

"It was really just 50 friends and a folding table in a borrowed parking lot with a borrowed kitchen," Kraft said. "We thought people would just get their food and leave, but it turned into a really fun tailgate. Everyone wanted to talk about Outback Steakhouse and their memories of going to chains."

"It very quickly became a communal experience that we would do just for fun every few months as we contemplated what it meant to start a food company in a post-pandemic world," he added. "But what was very clear from these pop-ups is there's something very special about serving a single meal at a time and making it an event."

Using nostalgic memories to breathe new life into iconic dishes

Hollingsworth picks one or two specific dishes from a chain to highlight for each event — like McDonald's McRib, Taco Bell's Crunchwrap Supreme, or the tiny tacos from Jack in the Box. He elevates his creations by using high-quality ingredients, but the point isn't to plop some caviar on top and call it a day.

"I can put lobster in a Crunchwrap Supreme, but then it has nothing to do with Taco Bell," Hollingsworth said. "Chain is very much about tribute and highlighting what the dishes are and making them in the best way that we can. It's really about creating a bite that transports you back."

Hollingsworth often turns to his nostalgic memories when he needs inspiration for recreating a dish, like the pan pizzas from Pizza Hut.

"When I was making it, I was pulling it from a memory of me as a child being stuck in a Pizza Hut in Texas because there was a flash flood," Hollingsworth tells me. "I remembered the video games and the salad bar and the smell of that buttery pan-size pizza."

"That was my moment, and that's what I wanted to recreate," he added. "It's really about making a brand-new memory that transports you back to your childhood."

Sometimes, the team at Chain immediately nails the flavor. Other times, like with the Crunchwrap Supreme, it could take 30 different versions before they crack it. But going on that journey is why Kraft and Hollingsworth love their work.

"Hundreds of millions of people have had Jack in the Box's deep-fried tacos and have a very strong opinion about them," Kraft said. "So how do you create something that's an homage and hits those nostalgic buttons but is still different? That, to me, is so much of the magic, and I think it's what blows a lot of people away."

Chain now partners with all the brands they pay tribute to, collaborating "creatively and culinarily," as Kraft puts it, while the Chain team executes the final result.

"I think the reason that a lot of these places want to work with us is because they understand that we are just fans, and this all comes from a place of love and not from a place of irony," Kraft added. "We love this stuff. We just sort of want to do our fan fiction of what Chili's is, or what Taco Bell is, or what Pizza Hut is."

The comeback of chain restaurants

Chain has blown up since that first parking lot pop-up, now boasting a 25,000-person waitlist awaiting texts to sign up for new events, which are held about once a month in a West Hollywood house designed by De Jong.

To try and meet high demand, the team launched its first ChainFest in December. Billed as the world's first chain food festival, the three-day event featured new dishes from Hollingsworth that paid tribute to Panda Express, Sonic, Chili's, Dunkin', and Red Robin, among others. The $75 tickets sold out immediately. On the second night, 600 people were inside within 30 minutes of the doors opening, and a line snaked around Los Angeles' famous Sunset Boulevard.

"We're constantly amazed by the fervor for chain-restaurant cuisine and culture," Kraft said. "Chain really is a belief that these are important cultural institutions, because they resonate with hundreds of millions of people."

Meanwhile, chains are staging their own major comeback. As an Eater article recently noted, business is booming at restaurants such as Olive Garden, Applebee's, and Texas Roadhouse.

"Ironically, since we started Chain, these chain restaurants have had sort of this resurgence," Hollingsworth said. "I feel like we were even ahead of the curve. And it's working out in our favor that everyone's talking about them at the same time."

How did a comedian, film producer, and Michelin-starred chef help predict the resurgence of chain restaurants? Well, they've seen firsthand how the death of the monoculture has left Americans seeking to find real connections wherever they can.

"It's the same reason why every movie star is 40 or 50 years old, and there's no such thing as a young movie star," Kraft said. "It's become so hard to capture the attention and interest of a massive amount of people, but chain restaurants have been around for 50 or 60 years. That's many generations of consistently offering good memories."

"Chains are the great democratizer, and they're so universal, and that's part of the fun," he added. "How rare is it in our culture to connect so many people — and so joyously?"