A stretch of 69th Street East in Palmetto is about to host something that doesn't exist anywhere else in the country: a single restaurant that serves both Buffalo Wild Wings and Jimmy John's under one roof. The combination store at 5241 69th St. E is set to open next Tuesday at 11 a.m., with the first 100 guests age 18 and older scoring free wings for a year, free Jimmy John's sandwiches, and other prizes.
The nation's first combination Buffalo Wild Wings GO and Jimmy John's location was reported by Creative Loafing Tampa, which notes that free wings for a year works out to six free wings per week for 52 weeks. Local operator Quality Foods Restaurant Group is running the store, with franchisee Kenther Ramos telling the outlet the combination offers two menus in one location. Ramos manages restaurant franchises across four Florida counties stretching from Palmetto south to Port Charlotte, according to Business Debut, and the new location will run daily from 10 a.m. to 1 a.m.
How the Two Concepts Share One Building
The 5245 69th Street East building splits its operations by format: Jimmy John's runs a dedicated drive-thru, while Buffalo Wild Wings GO functions as a walk-in pickup concept offering roughly 80% of the traditional Buffalo Wild Wings menu, per the same Business Debut report. The building includes indoor seating for 20 to 24 guests plus an outdoor patio. Creative Loafing Tampa's Colin Wolf reports the new combination restaurant has picked up the proposed nickname “Buffalohns,” at least according to a caption accompanying coverage of the debut.
The Buffalo Wild Wings GO format itself isn't new — it launched outside Atlanta in 2020 and relies on compact storefronts between 900 and 1,800 square feet equipped with heated pickup lockers, digital menu boards, and minimal dine-in seating, according to Modern Restaurant Management. Standalone GO locations have surpassed 200 units nationwide as franchise demand shifts toward smaller, off-premise footprints that can't accommodate a full 6,000-square-foot sports bar, as Hoodline reported when the format landed in Columbus. Before settling on Palmetto, Quality Foods Restaurant Group also filed plan review paperwork in September 2025 for a combined BWW Go / Jimmy John's location at 8037 S. Tamiami Trail in Sarasota, according to WhatNow, suggesting the Palmetto debut is part of a wider regional push along Florida's Gulf Coast.
The Corporate Muscle Behind the Mashup
Both chains sit under Inspire Brands, which also owns Dunkin' Donuts, Baskin-Robbins, Sonic, and Arby's. Inspire Brands purchased Buffalo Wild Wings in 2018 for an estimated $2.9 billion and absorbed Jimmy John's in 2019, the same year founder Jimmy John Liautaud sold the remainder of his shares in the sandwich chain. Inspire Brands is the fast-food arm of Roark Capital Group, which, per Creative Loafing Tampa's reporting, lobbied to keep a federal $15 minimum wage increase out of President Biden's American Rescue Plan back in 2020.
Pairing complementary chains under one roof is becoming a company-wide habit for Inspire Brands. The parent recently paired Jimmy John's with Dunkin' at a 1,986-square-foot drive-thru location in San Antonio, according to the San Antonio Express-News. Inspire Brands isn't alone in the strategy, either — Yum! Brands has its own KentacoHuts combining Pizza Hut, Taco Bell, and KFC under one banner.
An IPO Looms Over the Expansion
The Palmetto opening arrives as Inspire Brands works toward a potential Wall Street debut. The company generated $33.4 billion in annual global systemwide sales across more than 33,300 locations in 2025, with Buffalo Wild Wings reaching 1,323 units and Jimmy John's operating 2,689 locations nationwide, according to Nation's Restaurant News. In May, Inspire Brands submitted a confidential draft registration statement with the SEC for a potential U.S. initial public offering led by JPMorgan Chase and Bank of America that could raise up to $2 billion to pay down corporate debt, as Hoodline reported in its earlier IPO coverage. Atlanta-based Roark Capital Group, which has backed Inspire Brands since 2018, holds $41 billion in assets under management and oversees franchise platforms comprising more than 117,000 locations worldwide generating roughly $100 billion in annual system revenues, per Roark Capital Group's own figures.
Dual-brand buildouts have become a wider industry play as real estate costs climb and single-concept sit-down traffic softens. Competitor Dine Brands Global operates 45 dual-branded Applebee's-IHOP locations as of June 2026 and reports that combined units generate on average double the revenue of single-brand restaurants, according to CoStar. Hoodline has tracked the Buffalo Wild Wings GO rollout in suburbs from Lake Zurich to Fremont, but the Palmetto store marks the first time the compact wing format has been fused directly with Jimmy John's storefront and drive-thru operations in a single building.
