He began his career in the 1960s in Southern California with fast-food company Jack in the Box, rising to oversee its expansion into a regional chain in the United States.

With its sale to Pillsbury in 1976, Brinker rose to new heights, eventually becoming president of the company's entire restaurant operations.

At the height of his tenure with Pillsbury, he was responsible for the creation or oversaw the operations of such restaurants as Bennigan's, Burger King, and Häagen-Dazs.

When he left Pillsbury in 1984 to purchase a small gourmet burger shop called Chili's, Brinker saw his greatest business success.

While in college, he met and married Tennis Grand Slam winner and world champion Maureen "Little Mo" Connolly in 1955, became president of his class, and graduated with honors in 1957.

After Brinker had graduated from college, he took a job with a small chain of diners in San Diego named Oscar's.

"[3] When Jack in the Box went public in the early 1960s, Brinker sold his interest in the company and moved to Dallas with the intent to open a new business.

The concept was to create a restaurant that catered to the 25- to 44-year-old demographic, a group that was still in the early stages of developing a taste for inexpensive fast food.

[3] With the Steak and Ale chain, Brinker originated the concept of the modern casual dining restaurant that is now ubiquitous in the marketplace.

Besides the novel concept of having customers leave their tables to serve themselves from a salad buffet, the Dallas-based chain also created the now common stock introduction of "Hi, my name is ______, and I will be your waiter tonight.

Over the next ten years, he went on to establish a niche industry that was situated between the fast-food and higher-priced gourmet segments of the restaurant field.

[5] As a part of the acquisition, Brinker was given the position executive vice president of Pillsbury's restaurant operations, as well as a seat on the company's board of directors.

[5] As his status in Pillsbury grew, Brinker was asked to take over the operations of its main fast-food chain, Burger King.

[6] However his new position was short lived, as he left the company in 1984 to take over a small, Dallas-based gourmet burger chain called Chili's.

Over his nearly 50-year career, he worked with, hired or trained many executives who have gone on to establish themselves within the modern restaurant industry in the United States and Canada.

[8][9][10] The vice president of OSI Restaurant Partners of Tampa, Florida, Joseph L. Jackson, began his career as a general manager of Steak and Ale who made a favorable impression with Brinker during his time with the company.

[11] Other restaurant chains and food service companies that Brinker directly or indirectly influenced include Boston Market, Flying J, Lettuce Entertain You, Sizzler, and many others.

Outside of the restaurant business, former colleagues have taken the lessons they learned from him and gone into such divergent fields as human resources management, corporate and private investigations, and market research services using such programs as customer satisfaction surveys and mystery shopping.

[16] On February 14, 1981, Brinker married a third time, to Nancy Goodman, the former wife of Neiman Marcus executive Robert Leitstein.