Near Scranton, The Office Gets a Real-World Wink

Kevin Malone is known for his famous chili, so maybe it's not too surprising that the bumbling character from The Office is now being tied to the Chili's restaurant chain—but it's not for any spicy meat-and-bean dish he's cooking up. The AP reports that Chili's is "filling a hole in Office lore" by opening a new location in Pennsylvania's Dickson City, just a few miles from where the show's fictional Dunder Mifflin paper company was located in Scranton, and actors Brian Baumgartner (who played Kevin on the show), Kate Flannery (aka Meredith Palmer), and others from the show are now appearing in promos for the new restaurant.

CNN reports that Chili's is opening its new location on April 7, almost two decades after "The Dundies" episode aired to kick off the show's second season. In that episode, the Dunder Mifflin crew heads to their local Chili's, supposedly located in Scranton, to hold an awards ceremony for staffers. Baumgartner tells the AP that, at the time, "we were a failing show, quite frankly, with really bad ratings." But then, "we decided to open that second season with kind of a bang, and left the office for the first time" to head to Chili's.

"They're righting this incredible wrong by actually having a Scranton branch," Flannery tells People, which notes there was never a real Scranton Chili's location until now. "All is right with the world because of this." Flannery adds that the new restaurant will look much like the one depicted on the NBC series, with the AP noting the site "will be decorated as it would have been in the mid-2000s," complete "with old signs and chalkboard art." This Chili's will be the nation's only location to feature the Awesome Blossom onion appetizer, shown on the show but pulled from real menus in 2008; a "Scranton Margarita" will be sold at all Chili's on April 7 only. (More Chili's stories.)