Denny’s hires a Cracker Barrel veteran as COO

Denny’s has hired Aaron Howard as its new chief operating officer, replacing Christopher Bode, who was promoted to CEO in April.

Howard has a long career in restaurants, including nearly 16 years at Wendy’s and more than 13 at Cracker Barrel, where he rose to regional VP before leaving in 2023.

In recent years, he has had two brief stints with CKE Restaurants, the parent of Hardee’s and Carl’s Jr., and also spent a year as COO of Restaurant Growth Services, which owns O’Charley’s and 99 Restaurants.

He joins Spartanburg, South Carolina-based Denny’s at a time of transition. The diner chain was sold in January to a group including TriArtisan Capital Advisors and Yadav Enterprises, and now has a new CEO in Bode and a new turnaround plan, Project Grand Slam. Howard will have a key role to play in those efforts.

“Aaron is an operator,” said Bode, who was president of Hardee’s while Howard was also at CKE. “As we continue to strengthen value, relevance, profitable traffic and restaurant-level profitability, Aaron’s leadership will be critical to how we raise execution across the franchise system.”

In a statement, Howard said he was attracted by the opportunity to work closely with the restaurants and improve execution and service. “Strong restaurants are built through consistency, discipline, and care,” he said. “That is the work I am here to help drive.”

Denny’s has more than 1,450 restaurants worldwide, most of them franchised. U.S. sales declined 2% last year, according to Technomic.