You are given a text that consists of multiple sentences. Your task is to perform abstractive summarization on this text. Use your understanding of the content to express the main ideas and crucial details in a shorter, coherent, and natural sounding text. 
Text: During our call, management may discuss certain items which are not based entirely on historical facts.
And of course, on the call, we may refer to certain non-GAAP financial measures that management uses in its review of the business and believes will provide insight into the company's ongoing operations.
I'm pleased with Brinker second quarter performance in the progression throughout the quarter.
It was great to see the effects of the delta spike dissipate.
Our momentum come back and flow through improve.
Take-out and delivery remain strong in the mid-thirties, while dining room demand was on the rise.
All our brands had impressive holiday results as guests got more comfortable coming together in groups, which helped us deliver a better than expected quarter with positive sales of 17.7% and adjusted earnings per share of $0.71 cents.
These results demonstrate that would diminish COVID interference our business model continues to perform well, particularly at volume.
Now we, along with the restaurant, the rest of the restaurant industry are not without our headwinds.
Obviously, there are cost pressures, with inflation at the highest levels we've seen in years.
We've responded with appropriate pricing actions and with our most recent price increase, our menu price is now up over 4%.
We've been deliberate about taking incremental price increases throughout the year to ensure that with every step, we protect our traffic advantage, and we've done exactly that.
Chili's continued its trend of beating the industry, marking the 16th consecutive quarter of traffic outperformance.
This trend has continued into January, despite being on the current spike.
Our fundamental belief is that the key to healthy, sustainable growth is to have an increasing number of guests choosing us, so we will maintain a disciplined approach to determining the timing and amount of future pricing actions.
To ensure we deliver a great guest experience, and continue to grow the base business, we're focused on making sure Chili's is staffed with stable, well-trained teams and smooth operational systems.
The staffing situation across the country has been the most unique I've seen in my career, but we're pleased with the hiring progress we've made.
We have more team members on a per restaurant basis today than we did pre-COVID.
Just last week, when I was out in restaurants, managers were saying that they're where they used to see only two or three applicants for a job and now getting 10 or more.
So we're devoting increased time and attention on providing high quality training and improving retention for our new hourly team members and managers.
And with the added pressure that COVID has put on our operations team, retention today is about more than just a paycheck.
It's also about improving quality of life and creating a sense of belonging.
We found new ways to leverage our technology to accomplish these goals.
We're implementing a virtual learning platform that allows us to train both hourly team members and managers from the Restaurant Support Center.
This is a live, interactive experience that improves the speed, quality and consistency of our training while reducing costs and the burden on our restaurant managers.
With this system, we're experiencing a 20 percent retention improvement for new hourly team members.
For managers, we're also focused on increasing career progression and diversity that's so important to our business.
We're doubling down on leadership development programs for both new and tenured managers like our highly successful women, Take the Lead program.
We see much higher retention levels among those who've engaged in these programs.
Our rehire rates also demonstrate further evidence of the positive impact of these efforts.
Historically, the rehire rate for managers who, for whatever reason, chose to leave Chili's and then come back to us has been in the low to mid-single digit range.
Today, that rate is more than double, and it's even higher at the hourly level, which speaks to the power of our culture and the strength of our business.
We know how crucial it is to support our teams with efficient, effective systems that enable smooth operational execution, improve the guest experience, and strengthen our base business.
This is another area where our technology, expertise gives us a big advantage.
At Chili's, we recently completed the implementation of two major technology systems.
The first, is our handheld system, which redefines how we serve our guests.
With this system, our servers cover more tables and earn more money.
We're already seeing an average of 15% higher server earnings and significant improvements in guest metrics.
We've been testing this in restaurants for years now so we know the potential once it's fully up and running.
We're also capitalizing on the consumer's increased demand to dine off premise with a new curbside system that provides a more seamless guest experience.
The operators are getting comfortable with it now, and restaurants that have fully adopted are generating 15 to 20 point improvements in guest metrics.
These efforts to strengthen our base set us up to accelerate additional growth vehicles.
We've ramped up Chili's development plans and currently have in excess of 20 new full size restaurants in the pipeline.
We're also testing small footprint off premise centric designs for densely populated markets that don't make sense for a full size prototype.
We've opened our first Urban kitchen in Manhattan, offering both Chili's and It's Just Wings.
And I never thought I'd see the day when I'd see a Chili's in Manhattan, but it's been up and running for a month, and we're encouraged by its early performance.
We plan to open two small footprint locations and trade areas adjacent to college campuses in the near future, and virtual brands continue to be an important growth vehicle for us.
We remain fully committed to this strategy.
Our size and scale are uniquely suited to enable growth through this vehicle.
It's Just Wings continues to perform well, and as of this week, Maggiano's Italian Classics is up and running in over 700 restaurants.
We're actively working to expand sales channels, build brand awareness and accelerate this part of our business.
Second quarter proved that when our business operates with minimal COVID impact, guest demand is high and the model is strong.
We generated solid cash flow and good earnings.
As we continue to navigate the inflationary pressures and respond prudently for the long term health of our business, we want you to know we're committed to keeping our business model strong and we still have growth ahead of us.
We see a lot of opportunity to leverage our scale, our ownership model, to grow the brands in our portfolio and move the business forward and deliver a great return for our shareholders.
And this is only possible because of our amazing teams working tirelessly in the restaurants, and in the support center.
Let me continue the overview of our second quarter by providing additional insight into our operating results, as well as briefly touching on the initial post-holiday operating environment as we move into the back half of our fiscal year.
For the second quarter of fiscal 2022, Brinker reported $0.71 of adjusted diluted earnings per share, up from $0.35 in last year's second quarter.
Brinker's total revenues were $926 million for the quarter, and our comparable restaurant sales were positive 17.7%.
For some context around this performance, our sales trends improved steadily as we move through the quarter as guests resume their routines with the waning of the delta wave of COVID.
Our restaurant staffing improve through the quarter, and by the holidays, we experienced some of the highest level of dining room capacity recovery since the beginning of the fiscal year in July.
We ended the quarter on a high note with a strong December, driven by the several weeks leading up to Christmas.
Chili's comparable restaurant sales were 12.1% for the second quarter.
Their comp sales were negatively impacted approximately 1.5% by Christmas, shifting back into the quarter from Q3 prior year, and close to 0.5% from closing early on Christmas Eve.
We chose this year to invest back into the well-being of our teammates in the restaurants and sent them home at four o'clock to spend time with family and friends.
This reaction reduced company sales by approximately $4 million.
Maggiano's reported net comp sales for the quarter of a positive 78.1%.
The much improved performance resulted from a higher pace of dining room recovery and importantly, improved banquet sales.
The team has also done a nice job maintaining their elevated carry-out business, which appears to have stickiness in the mid 20% range, even as the other business channels improve.
Still recovery to go but the top line performance coupled with an improved business model, allowed Maggiano's to deliver an above expectations quarter.
A nice step forward for the brand.
During the quarter, Chili's inclusive of the virtual brands took several incremental price increases and exited the quarter carrying approximately 3% menu price compared to the prior year.
In addition, as Wyman mentioned, we have taken further pricing actions in January, resulting in Chili's now carrying price of over 4% and Maggiano's adding 5% price with their latest menu rollout.
We do anticipate maintaining price at these historically higher levels for the foreseeable future.
Brinker increased its consolidated restaurant operating margin to 11% in the second quarter versus 10.7% a year ago.
We continue to be very encouraged in periods of low COVID impact, as it allows us to realize the power of the business model and the ability to leverage margins with more normalized top line performance.
Food and beverage costs were unfavorable, 120 basis points driven by commodity inflation, partially offset by price.
We are seeing stabilization in our supply chain and have a good line of sight into the balance of the fiscal year, with a large majority of our contracts locked for the next six months.
We are expecting high single digit inflation for the third and fourth quarter.
Labor for the quarter was then favorable 60 basis points versus prior year.
Our recruiting and training efforts a good progress throughout the quarter, and the higher sales volumes in the latter part of the quarter work to effectively leverage the six components of these costs.
Wage rates at the manager, an hourly level remained elevated in the high single digits, and we expect to see this trend continue as we work through the remainder of the fiscal year.
As the teams continue to stabilize outside of COVID spikes, we should make incremental progress in reducing costs such as training and overtime utilization.
The crept into the system during times of higher turnover and lack of labor availability.
Restaurant expense was favorable 210 basis points year-over-year, as the improved sales performance effectively leverage the fixed cost included in this category.
As we work to further build our sales channels, we should see this leverage dynamic continue, and how balanced the inflationary aspects, and other parts of [Inaudible] Our cash flow for the second quarter remain strong with cash from operating activities of $67 million and EBITDA of $88 million.
Our total funded debt leverage was 2.6 times and our lease adjusted leverage was 3.6 times.
Both down slightly from the first quarter, but down significantly from prior year.
Let me finish my prepared comments with some perspective related to our January periods operating performance that closes today.
This has been widely reported.
The Omicron variant spiked rapidly just after the Christmas holiday, and played havoc throughout the industry with staffing and sales capacity, particularly with dining rooms.
We have not been immune to that impact.
After a challenging first couple of weeks, we have seen the spike dissipate in many markets and are seeing improvements in our sales week-to-week as team member exclusions come down almost as fast as they rose.
While it's good to see what appears to be a much quicker resolution of this COVID wave, the January period will be a setback to our overall operating results.
It's important that we quickly move back to a more normalized operating environment in order to meet our expectations for the fiscal year.
Taking a step back from the volatility in the current environment, and looking past the veil of COVID, we remain confident in our ability to drive improved business results across our brands.
We see good growth ahead as we invest in our strategic initiatives, open an increasing number of restaurants, and leverage our technological advantages.
We also remain very appreciative of our restaurant leaders and teams, and the efforts they are making each and every day to deliver the results, we simply report.

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q2 earnings per share $0.71 excluding items.
qtrly brinker comp sales up 17.7 %.
qtrly chili's comp sales up 12.1 %.

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