Off-premise, in March, both IHOP and Applebee's off-premise sales reached absolute dollar levels, higher than when the restaurants were 100% off-premise in 2020, indicating the staying power of this largely incremental business.
We achieved revenue of $204.2 million and EBITDA of $58.1 million, reflecting strong underlying performance across our business.
Cash, we generated free cash flow of $30.7 million which, in part, enabled us to repay our $220 million revolver in early March.
And also importantly, our franchisees opened 10 new restaurants during the quarter, indicating that they're beginning to pivot toward growth.
Number one, we are an asset-light 98% franchise model that is a significant generator of cash.
Here's what we have today that no one could have even imagined pre COVID.
Applebee's and IHOP are collaborating with their franchisees on the 17th and 19th with the goal of hiring more than 20,000 new team members, and we're making it easy to apply via text, email and in-person, and both brands are leveraging very creative social campaigns to generate interest.
And third, we're making investments to improve the guest experience in our portfolio of 69 company-owned Applebee's restaurants in the Carolinas, which by the way, consistently ranked among the top performers in the domestic Applebee's system based on sales.
So these three investments that I just mentioned are largely an investment in capex, and they represent an additional $5 million in capex since we last spoke.
At the end of the first quarter, 99% of our domestic restaurants were open for dining operations, with restrictions in some states.
I'm pleased to reiterate that we repaid the $220 million drawdown from our revolving credit facility in early March 2021 as planned.
We now expect to achieve an annual interest savings of approximately $5 million.
We ended the first quarter with total unrestricted cash of $179.6 million.
This compares to unrestricted cash of $163.4 million for the fourth quarter of last year, excluding the $220 million that was drawn against our revolving credit facility, a 10% increase.
For the first quarter, adjusted earnings per share was $1.75 compared to $1.45 for the same quarter of 2020.
Gross profit for our Applebee's company-owned restaurants increased 5.9 percentage points to 9% for the first quarter compared to the same quarter in 2020.
Rental segment revenue for the first quarter of 2021 was $26.1 million compared to $29 million for the same period last year.
Rental segment gross profit was 19.8% for the first quarter of 2021.
This represents sequential improvement of 12 percentage points compared to the fourth quarter of 2020, which was more heavily impacted by charges related to the planned closures of underperforming IHOP restaurants.
Our effective tax rate for the first quarter of 2021 was negative 6.6% compared to 23.2% for the same quarter of 2020.
G&A for the first quarter of 2021 was $39.9 million compared to $37.6 million for the same quarter of last year.
Cash from operations for the first quarter of 2021 was $30.6 million compared to $29.6 million for the same quarter last year.
Our highly franchised model continues to generate strong adjusted free cash flow of $30.7 million for the first quarter of 2021 compared to $27.5 million for the same quarter in the prior year.
As a result of our progressive recovery, we chose to repay the $220 million drawn against the revolver in early March.
As of March 31, 78% of the $61.9 million in royalty, advertising fees and rent payment deferrals that Dine Brands provided to 223 franchisees across both brands has been repaid.
We just delivered the two highest monthly sales volumes Applebee's has achieved since the inception of Dine in 2008.
In fact, it's quite likely March and April represent two of our all-time highest volume months in the 40-year history of the brand, but I really can't confirm this as our database only goes back 13 years.
What I can confirm is that March comp sales were positive 6.1% versus 2019, reflecting the confluence of consumer stimulus, compelling marketing and most importantly, operational excellence.
Momentum continued to accelerate in April as Applebee's delivered a plus 11.4% comp sales result versus that same 2019 baseline.
According to Black Box, 2021 comp sales versus 2019, as John referenced, Applebee's has now significantly outperformed the casual dining category for 12 consecutive weeks.
And get this, an average of 560 basis points.
In many respects, this is reminiscent of Q1 of last year when we posted 10 consecutive weeks of positive comps before the emergence of COVID.
Equally important to our guests is the innovation our team continues to deliver behind Applebee's $5 Mucho Cocktails, as we begin to see the alcohol business steadily return to pre-COVID normalcy.
For both March and April, Applebee's restaurant sales averaged an impressive $54,000 per week.
It's worth noting here that our off-premise volume has held steady between $17,000 and $18,000 per week per restaurant reflecting the staying power of this off-premise business.
For the month of April, Applebee's sales mix consisted of a 67% dine in, 20% Carside To-Go and 13% delivery.
Included in this delivery segment is our new virtual brand, Cosmic Wings, and after about 10 weeks in market, Cosmic Wings sales have averaged about $330 per restaurant per week with significant geographic variability, reflecting Uber Eats coverage.
For context, individual restaurants range from a low of $100 per week to a high of $2,000 per week.
I'm very encouraged with the integration of handheld tablets in about 500 Applebee's restaurants.
Additionally, one of the positive outcomes of this past year was the approximate 33% reduction in our core menu and the simplification of our operation.
Our first quarter comp sales improved sequentially by 8.9 percentage points compared to the fourth quarter.
Average weekly sales were approximately $26,000 for January and sequentially increased to just under $36,000 from March, reaching a high for the quarter of approximately $40,000.
Regarding our domestic restaurants opened for business, 97% of restaurants were opened for dine-in service with restrictions in most states as of March 31.
That compares to only 70% with dine in as of December 31.
With guests eager to return to in restaurant dining, we're pleased that California recently increased indoor restaurant capacity to 50%.
IHOP's presence in California makes up approximately 13% of our domestic business.
We launched IHOPPY Hour in September of last year to offer our guests a broad selection of value options during those nonpeak daypart hours, mainly two to 10 p.m. IHOPPY Hour continues to drive incremental sales even as business improves across all of our dayparts.
Burritos & Bowls perfectly filled the gap we had in our menu and continues to capture 8% to 10% of total ticket order incidents since we launched it with really minimal promotion.
Despite capacity restrictions generally being eased across the country in the first quarter, our off-premise sales held steady at 33.3% of total sales.
For the first quarter, our sales mix consisted of 66.7% dine-in, 16.8% to go and 16.4% delivery.
In fact, our weekly off-premise sales in March reached dollar levels higher than we were 100% off-premise last year, even at the higher than shutdowns.
We believe the brand can potentially exceed its historical annual average of approximately 60 new restaurants opened over the last decade.
We made great progress over the last 12 months.
And after 13 months of being locked in our houses, we, Americans, are ready to do that.
I've finally gotten to do that in the last couple of weeks, and it's truly energizing and invigorating and what impressed me the most on my recent visits to our restaurants is that even after 13 months of extreme challenge, I was greeted with unbelievable enthusiasm and optimism about the future.

Summary:
We achieved revenue of $204.2 million and EBITDA of $58.1 million, reflecting strong underlying performance across our business.
Here's what we have today that no one could have even imagined pre COVID.
At the end of the first quarter, 99% of our domestic restaurants were open for dining operations, with restrictions in some states.
For the first quarter, adjusted earnings per share was $1.75 compared to $1.45 for the same quarter of 2020.