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**When Your Chip Brand Opens a Restaurant**

2h ago · 5 sources · launch

Lay’s just left the snack aisle.

PepsiCo has opened a limited-time Lay’s restaurant in Shanghai, designed as an immersive brand experience that pulls the chip into full-blown away-from-home dining. Think farm-to-table storytelling that traces the potato from planting to finished chip, woven through the menu and the physical space. The opening menu was created with Michelin-starred chef Francesco Bonvini and chef Tian Shuai, so this is not a stunt with folding tables and chip bowls.

The space also includes a retail zone with limited-edition merchandise and co-branded items. Translation, you do not just eat the brand. You wear it home.

PepsiCo calls Shanghai a test-and-learn platform, with insights meant to inform future activations across markets. The company already piloted the idea in March with Pilla Tortilla in Madrid, where Lay’s showed up as an ingredient inside a familiar format to explore the away-from-home channel. The Shanghai concept goes further. It builds a full narrative around the brand.

Why it matters: PepsiCo is not chasing restaurant margins. The stated goal is brand building and unlocking new occasions in away-from-home dining. That signals a shift. Big CPG is treating restaurants as live R&D labs and cultural billboards.

The contrarian take? The real product is not the meal. It is the data and the insight. Lay’s is testing how far a snack brand can stretch, and what it takes to earn a seat at the table.

Key facts

  • PepsiCo has opened a Lay’s restaurant in Shanghai as an immersive, limited-time brand experience designed to bring Lay’s beyond the chip aisle.
  • The Shanghai Lay’s restaurant is positioned as a test-and-learn platform, with learnings intended to inform future activations across markets.
  • PepsiCo previously opened Pilla Tortilla in Madrid in March, using Lay’s as an ingredient within a familiar format to explore the away-from-home channel.
  • The Shanghai concept features a farm-to-table narrative tracing the potato’s journey from planting to finished chip, woven through the menu and physical environment.
  • The opening menu was developed in collaboration with Michelin-starred chef Francesco Bonvini and chef Tian Shuai.
  • The restaurant includes a retail zone offering limited-edition merchandise and co-branded items, extending the brand experience beyond the visit.
  • PepsiCo stated that while the experience can drive commerce, the primary focus is on building the brand and generating learnings to unlock new occasions in the away-from-home channel.

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