SheeFood

Fill Your Plate in Hawaii

It’s hard to put my finger on what it is about Hawaii that makes every trip down the highway headed toward point B like a vacation. But I’ve lived on Kauai for six years now, and I never take my surroundings for granted. I still pinch myself that I get to live here. Even the locals who have lived here all their lives feel the same way.

I first fell in love with these islands, and especially Kauai (aptly called the Garden Island) on my honeymoon 26 years ago. I blush to say that I cried when it was time to check out of the hotel and fly away. Every single view on this island presents jagged mountains, colorful flowers year-round, blue ocean—or any combination of the three.

Since moving here, I’ve learned a thing or two about the distinct delicious food along with its lore. I recently interviewed several renowned chefs who shared with me the characteristics of the cuisine of Hawaii for the article you can read by clicking here. It’s the main feature in the May/June 2023 issue of The National Culinary Review magazine.

But there wasn’t room in the article to share all of the fun food facts of paradise. Below are some things I’ve picked up that you may not read in magazines.

• The popular tropical ice treat is called shave ice, not shaved ice. And good ones have ice cream in the middle. If it’s cold enough to give you goose bumps, don’t admit it out loud. They don’t have goose bumps in Hawaii. They have chicken skin.
• SPAM is so popular, you’ll find large quantities on the endcaps at grocery stores, including Costco. You’ll also find it on the breakfast menu at McDonald’s. And you’ll find cases of it at 7-Eleven made up into musubi, the most ubiquitous SPAM snack in Hawaii.
• Looking for passionfruit? Call it that and locals will know you’re a tourist. It’s lilikoi.
• You ordered salmon on the menu? Sorry, that wasn’t local. It was flown in. Salmon does not swim around Hawaii.
• Pupus (pronounced poo poos) are little finger foods that you know as appetizers. Expect to find them at catered social events.
• Mayonnaise makes everything good. Macaroni salad and poke may be the two most popular dishes in Hawaii of which mayo is a prime ingredient.
• A baby’s first birthday is on par with weddings and graduations for elaborate partying among family and friends far and wide. Parents of one-year-olds put on a lavish baby luau, complete with pupus and a luau buffet, Hawaiian music band, decorations, party favors and games.

If you ever have a chance to visit Hawaii and wonder which island to see, my husband and I renamed the 4 main islands on our honeymoon, and we stand by those summaries 26 years later.

• Oahu is New York City with a beach. Crazyville. The traffic jams are outrageous. But what great shopping and eating.
• Maui is California. It’s the hipster place that Millennials with their kids want to be. Go there in the winter to see whales.
• The Big Island of Hawaii is the moon. I have not figured out why anyone would want to live there. But if you want to see volcanos and Serengeti-size lava fields, go to the Big Island.
• Kauai is the Arkansas of Hawaii. It’s rural and unpretentious. Most locals drive a pickup truck. (Tourists drive the Jeeps.) No need to unpack the high heels in Kauai. There’s no place to wear them.

Jody

Poutine is No Match to Loaded Fries Here

There may not be a physical boundary between the U.S. and Canada, but you could consider Canadians’ love affair with poutine a clear food divide.

After Canada’s French fry/cheese curd/gravy dish launched in Quebec in the 1950s, it gradually blended into the culture as the culinary symbol of comfort and national pride. The dish that many Americans have never heard of is so iconic in Canada that food lovers travel the country to its myriad of poutine festivals. Next up is the Ottawa PoutineFest April 27-30, 2023.

Perhaps someday we Americans will “get it,” but to my senses, gravy on French fries is a perfectly spectacular way to ruin a good plate of fries.

I suppose American foodservice operators feel much like I do, because there is only a smattering of gravy doused French fries on menus across this country. Suffice it to say, poutine is not trending here.

BUT, French fries certainly present a tasty foundation for other smotherings that are delicious to Americans. Here are five recent potato-load LTOs I’ve run across:

1. Rutter’s, the York, Pa.-based c-store chain, offers Pulled Pork Fries: Fries topped with Austin Blues pulled pork, shredded cheese, barbecue sauce and ranch dressing.
2. Dallas-based Bonchon has gone global with its Loaded Bulgogi Fries: Thinly sliced marinated steak over seasoned fries, topped with mozzarella cheese, spicy mayonnaise and chopped scallions.
3. Arby’s new Loaded Fries are also packed with protein, described as curly fries topped with sweet and spicy sauce, warm cheddar cheese sauce, diced fried chicken nuggets, and chopped bacon.

We can’t talk about loaded fries without delving into other potato offshoots.

4. Domino’s made a splash with its Philly Cheese Steak Loaded Tots. That is potato tots topped with sliced steak, Alfredo sauce, onions, green peppers and mozzarella-cheddar cheese blend.
5. Smokey Bones has gone and rethought loaded mashed potatoes with its Brisket Sundae. That is Smoked Texas-style brisket over mashed potatoes and roasted corn topped with red wine sauce, fried onions and scallions.

Heat is what’s hot with fries currently. Bolder-flavored loaded fries (as in ghost pepper fries and hot honey fries) are among the top three snack trends, according to the National Restaurant Association’s 2023 What’s Hot Culinary Forecast. Loaded potatoes of any kind certainly tickle the tastebuds and present an opportunity to add gourmet value, something fast-food operators crave.

You can even leverage the popularity of loaded fries to encourage a specific behavior. Eureka! based in Hawthorne, Calif., offers free Truffle Cheese Fries to those who link their credit card to their loyalty program membership. Divulging a credit card number must be a fair exchange for a free order of the upscale fries topped with truffle salt, white truffle cheese sauce, Parmesan cheese and chives.

Loaded fries could present other marketing plays. For any operator making loaded fries a signature dish, perhaps encourage an art contest to design a loaded fries serving dish or container. Also on the contest theme, how about a recipe contest to engage fans by allowing suggestions for loading ingredients. Consider an Instagram fry photo contest.

The U.S. might not match the pageantry of poutine festivals, but we can certainly keep cravable loading options fresh and alive.

Jody

With These Breakfast Items, “Just Because You Can,” You Should!

I think the inner kid in all of us comes out at breakfast. The morning daypart is a whimsical food playground for both research chefs and the patrons who simply can’t turn away from what they see. Culinary dreams are made of cereal, waffles, donuts and pancakes.

It is certainly common to take the breakfast imagination to other day parts like Mooyah Burgers, Fries & Shakes has done with its current Froot Loops Shake LTO. But operators are waking up to the idea of bringing the sensibilities of other menu sections and dayparts over to first meal.

Wrap your mind around Caramel Frappe Pancakes. Snooze, an A.M. Eatery just ended that LTO that featured pancakes made with espresso sugar and topped with espresso cream, almond streusel, whipped cream and caramel sauce. What about delivering cornbread via French toast? Turning Point, based in Newark, Delaware, did it, albeit masking the savory flavor with strawberries, blackberries, pineapple, banana, toasted coconut and sweet bourbon sauce.

I’m definitely not the only one who sees this play on dayparts. The 500-plus professionals who took part in the National Restaurant Association’s 2023 What’s Hot Culinary survey ranked “unique handhelds” as the second leading breakfast trend. Operators who put that lens on are finding that it’s worth waking up and going to work in the R&D kitchen. Look at these five current or recent unique breakfast handhelds for inspiration.

1. Grilled Chee Donut. It truly is a grilled cheese sandwich made with a donut. The name is a play on the restaurant name, Cincinnati-based Tom & Chee with 12 locations in seven states. They list the sandwich on the menu under the “Sweet Cheets” category.
2. Pigs in a Blanket are usually party fare. But for an unspecified limited time at Perkins, the dish is three grilled pork sausage links each wrapped in a pancake. There’s syrup for dipping. They are accompanied by two eggs and choice of potato.
3. Montecristo Waffle made it to the breakfast menu at San Francisco’s The New Spot on Polk restaurant. The handheld waffle is topped with fried chicken strips on a bed of homemade jam and topped with melted Swiss cheese.
4. Bacon, Egg, and Cheese Pancake Tacos are now permanent on the menu at Pancake Kitchen by Cracker Barrel. That is, two buttermilk pancakes each folded and filled with bacon, fried egg and shredded Colby cheese. Of course the taco sauce is maple syrup on the side.
5. Donut Glazed Biscuits with or without chicken are available for a limited time at Krystal. For breakfast only, guests can order the Donut-Glazed Spicy Chick Biscuit, or a non-spicy version or just a donut-glazed biscuit on its own.

Each of these easily generates an Instagrammable breakfast buzz while leveraging the popular portability theme, though they all seem a little too sloppy to eat in the car on the way to work. They also present a fun, playful “new” form for ingredients already inhouse with the potential to cross daypart boundaries as all-day offerings.

Tell me what you think!

Jody

Pulled Pork Across the Menu

Right now, foodservice operators are knocking themselves out to beat everyone else with chicken. Quit the chicken beating already! Pull yourself together and imagine other opportunities—like pulled pork. It can be economical. You don’t need the best cuts. You don’t have to lose any more sleep contemplating the best way to perfect, execute (and gasp, deliver!) crispy outcomes. Liberate yourself. Put away the fryer and pull out the wares to sous vide, steam, smoke, braise or roast.

As we speak, only a few specific foodservice segments have mastered pulled pork. BBQ restaurants as well as Southwest/Mexican eateries have already perfected the protein. But there’s plenty more to imagine, not only for them, but for all segments.

Let me lead you through an ideation session, and you take it from there. And here’s a worthy goal: Oct. 12, 2023 is National Pulled Pork Day. Set your sites on a pulled pork LTO for that day, week or month.

• Yes to pulled pork/carnitas quesadillas, tacos, burritos and such. But how about a little tasteful global fusion? Experiment with pulled pork lumpia, bao buns, spring rolls or any other traditional encasement.
• Sandwiches are the obvious. OK. Expand on that, like a pulled pork panini; Bahn mi; grilled cheese with pulled pork; Switch out the B for a PPLT; French baguette.
• Cottage Inn Gourmet Pizza offers the Smokehouse BBQ pizza with a base of Sweet Baby Ray’s BBQ sauce topped with pulled pork, cheese blend, onions and bacon.
• As long as you’re slow-cooking that pork, by all means, find a breakfast application. Add some eggs and make a carnitas breakfast burrito. Hash is an under-menued breakfast/brunch dish. Go simple with a pulled pork hash that combines shredded potato, onion and melted cheese. Or, look at Greenleaf Kitchen & Cocktails. The carnitas hash on the brunch menu features braised carnitas, eggs, butternut squash, sweet potato, carrot, bell pepper and red and green onions with hollandaise sauce.
• Go Hawaiian. Kalua pig is smoked pulled pork. Anyone who has visited the Aloha State and attended a luau has had kalua pork, and it was likely memorable, because part of the pageantry of luaus is the pig cooking method and the story that goes with it. Lau lau is an authentic Hawaiian application of kalua pork. It’s a leaf-wrapped package that is worth looking into.
• Pair pulled pork with comfort. Mac and cheese gets a gourmet lift with a dab of pulled pork mixed in. Shareable comfort goes on the bar menu. Cover some French fries with pulled pork and cheese. Or, call upon Canada’s favorite poutine and top it with pulled pork and appropriate gravy.

Tell me what you think.

Jody

Chipotle Leads the New Year

To start off 2023, I think I’ll hand a golden lettuce leaf to Chipotle. It’s gone way beyond the typical BFY New Year’s menu LTO.

But first, let me say that when Brian Niccol took the Chipotle CEO reins from Steve Ells nearly five years ago, I didn’t think he had to do much to improve the menu or the marketing.

Back in the not-so-distant past, Chipotle and Panera Bread pioneered the fast casual foodservice segment. Everyone wanted to “be them” for the buzz they created for assembling fresh food in front of guests who could customize their dish on the spot. It was probably that feat alone that kept Chipotle as popular as it was for so long. The novelty wore off—or diffused as more operators went to that model.

Then the chain became stale, introducing a new item about once a year at best, and it was inconsequential. For marketing, its message only swirled around sustainability issues. In that regard, it pioneered wokeness before that was even a term. But I don’t think you can call wokeness a restaurant marketing virtue. I actually found it to be sanctimonious.

Fast forward to this month as Chipotle’s New Year’s fireworks burst of a combination of innovation, health-focus and technology. Look at the headline on the chain’s New Year’s press release: “Chipotle inspires fans to maintain New Year’s resolutions with new augmented reality experience on Snapchat and Lifestyle Bowls.”

The new menu items (there are 7) demonstrate smart marketing by virtue of the names of the bowls. Actually, the chain has had lifestyle bowls for awhile. Previously it attached role models to the bowl names. Now the chain incorporates BFY buzzwords that GenZ and Millennials would appreciate. They don’t hide this generational grab. The first bullet point in the press release says Chipotle kicks off 2023 with new Lifestyle Bowl menu inspired by GenZ and Millennial wellness trends. Get a load of these names:

• Balanced Macros Bowl
• Veggie Full Bowl
• Wholesome Bowl
• Grain Freedom Bowl
• High Protein Bowl
• Plant-Powered Bowl
• Go Half Veggie Bowl

Naming dishes according to consumer values goes a long way marketing wise. Of course, the dish must be craveable. But I like what I’m seeing on menus that moves away from naming dishes according to the diet of the day (Keto, Whole30, etc.)

Moving past Chipotle, here are some other recent dish names worth a nod:

• Skinny Biscuit from Biscuitville Fresh Southern. It’s around 180 calories because about 1/3 of the middle is removed, making it thinner.
• Longevity Bowl from Tender Greens. It features slow-cooked black lentils with fennel, dried pears, roasted purple and yellow cauliflower, baby kale salad, and choice of roasted maitake mushrooms or grilled trout.
• Detox Bowl from Vitality Bowls. It is made up of a blend of açai, strawberries, banana, kale, spirulina, flax seed, and almond milk topped with banana, blueberries, almonds, goji berries, and honey
• Praeger’s Veggie Bowl at Flat Top Grill. It touts Dr. Praeger’s plant-based “chick’n,” garlic, water chestnuts, red and green bell peppers, baby corn, signature Flat Top Grill spice blend, and barbecue sauce over steamed white rice.

Mindful menu development benefits from mindful dish names. It makes promotional elements much easier, paving the way to a turnkey marketing campaign. It’s the stuff that the food media loves.

Jody

Hello Type 2 Diabetes

We’re into the last lap of 2022, and I wonder if I’m the only one who notices that end-of-the-year LTOs are refining the sugar industry. I would be more worried about the onslaught of stuffed and stacked cookies, ice cream, cakes and donuts, but we all know that diet-friendly January is around the corner. Healthy specials will be the stuff of restaurant press releases soon enough.

But until then, look at some of these new glycemic index overloads that give American desserts the “too sweet” reputation they have among internationals.

• A hot Mrs. Fields cookie alone is tough to resist, but how about a sizzling rendition in a mini-skillet topped with M&Ms or chocolate chips, a scoop of ice cream and chocolate sauce? Way. It’s on the menu at Acapulco Restaurant y Cantina at least through February.
• Through the first week of January, Chuck E. Cheese is bringing it with the icing. Its Polar Bear Cupcake touts a large vanilla cupcake filled with vanilla frosting, all rolled in white sprinkles with candy ears, eyes and nose.
• I have a feeling this one isn’t going away anytime soon. KFC has tested and now is expanding its Funnel Cake Fries, which are funnel cakes shaped like French fries dusted with powder sugar. Pick your poison!
• Krispy Kreme is trying for a mashup with its Sugar Cookie Doughnut. That is one of its popular glazed doughnuts with sugar cookie icing topped with a sugar cookie sprinkle blend. It will only be around through the holidays, but good job tapping into the traditional holiday handheld crunchy dessert. 
• This one from Native Foods has an apt title: Glazed and Confused. It’s a chicken sandwich, but not really. It’s plant-based fried chicken with candied jalapeno pepper slices and non-dairy maple butter—but it’s on a glazed doughnut! Either the doughnut guilt is erased with the plant-based chicken, or the doughnut provides the entry point to those who otherwise couldn’t get over the plant-based chicken ick factor.
• Waffle LTOs easily turn into desserts. This season it’s The Toasted Yolk Café with its Double Stuffed Oreo Waffle. They describe it as a warm chocolate waffle stuffed with sweet cream cheese and Oreo filling, topped with caramel sauce, whipped cream and Oreo crumbles. That, my friends, takes the waffle cake.

 Of course, these are just LTOs. The industry knows we will get back to our better selves soon enough. In fact, chefs have their eye on better-for-you dessert tweaks. The National Restaurant Association’s What’s Hot 2023 Culinary Forecast is out. In this chef survey, respondents rank alternative sweeteners as the No. 1 dessert trend. That would be the likes of maple sugar, coconut sugar, etc. Well, perception is reality, you know? For better or worse, Paula Deen’s famous quote of yesteryear comes back to roost. “Honey, I’m your cook. not your doctor.”

Jody

2023 Food Trend Reimagined

It’s time to start crystal-ball gazing into what’s up for 2023 on menus. Whole Foods has already come out with its top-10 food-trend list. One stands out as a solid repeat for the past few years, but with a revised name. Nostalgic foods. We’re not calling them comfort foods anymore because we’ve all moved past the pandemic. We’re done with comfort. But we still love foods reminiscent of “the old days.”

Breakfast cereal and mac and cheese encapsulate nostalgic foods, per Whole Foods. I can see that. Guaranteed, if you work those in, your customers will lose their minds.

Cereal

If you need some inspiration, Lolli-Waffles at London House Chicago presents what I think is the best spin on cereal. Picture buttermilk waffles on a stick covered with maple syrup and whipped cream rolled in a choice of Lucky Charms, Count Chocula, Boo Berry, Frankenberry or Cap’n Crunch. Can you say sugar coma? Actually, that’s worth a comment. Our better selves are trying to pay attention to things like the keto diet, plant-based foods, clean label, locally sourced, blah blah blah. But we’re human, after all. Bring on the Cap’n Crunch.

Corn flakes offer a specific value for the crunch factor. For example, Wishbone in Chicago serves Crunchy French Toast—made that way by dredging challah bread in corn flakes.

Cereal can also make it to the dessert menu as it does at Greenleaf Chop Shop in Beverly Hills, California. It describes its Gluten Free Summer Camp dessert as gooey, chewy and krispie! Made with caramelized rice krispies, marshmallows and brown butter chocolate chips.

Cereal also works on the lunch menu at Picasso on Paseo Restaurant in Oklahoma City. The Fried Avocado Wrap features corn-flake crusted avocado, spicy mayo, napa cabbage slaw and tomato.

You can even bring cereal to the entrée menu. Magnolias at the Mill in Purcellville, Virginia, uses corn flakes as part of the Fried Green Tomatoes meal featuring corn-flake crusted tomatoes, cheese, tomato jam, Sriracha aioli, pork belly, pistachio butter and an add-on of blackened shrimp for an upcharge.

Mac and cheese

Before I make the full-on transition to mac and cheese, what if you could combine cereal with mac and cheese? Talk about nostalgic with a twist! Hello Deep South Mac and Cheese at Addison, Texas-based Bar Louie. Get a load of this description: Creamy four-cheese (cheddar, mozzarella, provolone and pimento) mac and cheese with southern fried chicken, house-made spicy candied bacon, Parmesan, scallions and spiced rice krispies.

Lately, operators have been featuring mac and cheese as a burger topping. And why not, after all? Back Yard Burgers has done that. In the theme of toppings, mac and cheese is also a pizza topping at Green Mill Restaurant and Bar with headquarters in St. Paul, Minnesota.

There are certainly more opportunities to take mac and cheese off the sides menu and place it square in the center. Black Eyed Pea offers Buffalo Mac and Cheese that it describes as creamy mac and cheese topped with marinated grilled chicken, bleu cheese crumbles and drizzled with spicy buffalo sauce.

I’ll bet the ever-experimenting Dallas-based Velvet Taco chain has done mac and cheese tacos. Mac and cheese soup would have great potential. So would mac and cheese chili and mac and cheese chili-loaded fries. Mac and cheese nachos, anyone? Because it’s such a kid favorite, I can also picture fried mac and cheese sticks.

Point is, if you’re looking for an LTO prospect that commands attention and nostalgia, start noodling mac and cheese ideas. Add cereal and see what happens.

Tell me what you think.

Jody

What in the World is Going on With Doughnuts?

In the world of menu item mashups, I think the cronut may have been the first one to catch my attention. Dominique Ansel is credited with wedding the croissant with the doughnut in 2013 at his New York bakery. That may have been when the mashup term was coined in the culinary domain. Incidentally, another baker wanted to make and promote his version, but found cronut was trademarked. So, he named his doughssant. And then there was the Zonut… same thing, but created by Australia pastry chef Adriano Zumbo. And so on.

But the doughnut has a lot more to give, and mashups continue. Earlier this month (September), Krispy Kreme launched a first-of-its-kind mashup between churros and doughnuts, calling them ChurrDoughs. The LTO special treats come in three flavors: Cinnamon Sugar, Cookies & Kreme and Dulce de Leche.

It’s the fall, so other chain operators are attempting to take doughnuts where they don’t traditionally go. Shake Shack just launched an Apple Cider Donut Shake: An apple cider doughnut frozen custard spun and topped with whipped cream and crunchy cinnamon doughnut pieces.

Voodoo Doughnut is taking a play from the beverage industry with an over-the-top indulgent doughnut designed to draw major attention on social media. Remember when shakes combined ice cream, cake, cookies, whipped cream, candy and more? Voodoo Doughnut’s fall special is the Mix-A-Lot Doughnut smothered in chocolate frosting and covered with pretzels and M&Ms with a peanut butter drizzle.

But there’s another “who could have imagined” mashup that crossed doughnuts with beauty products. On March 31, 2022, Dunkin announced its collaboration with E.L.F. Cosmetics for a doughnut- and coffee-inspired “wake up and makeup” makeup collection. I won’t list all six products, but one was The Dunkin’ Dozen: 12 shades of eyeshadow inspired by such flavors as strawberry frosted with sprinkles, chocolate frosted with sprinkles and Boston kreme. Another was Donut Forget Putty Primer, a “glazed-up” primer with a smooth texture and a doughnut scent. And how about the Glazed for Days Lip Gloss Set featuring a sheer, glossy duo of iconic colors that also smell like doughnuts. TikTok star Mikayla Nogueira was the promotion ambassador who hosted a live shopping event on her channel in April to walk fans through the makeup collection.

So, here we’ve seen that doughnuts have staying power, otherwise, there wouldn’t be national brands dedicated nearly exclusively to the treat. Now, while global cuisine is such a foodservice industry talking point, the next doughnut stars could likely originate from other cultural cuisines.

I live on Kauai where the population of 72,000 is made up of a few predominant ethnic groups, one of which is Portuguese. Thus, tourists will find delight in what has become a Hawaiian doughnut version taken from the Portuguese playbook—malasadas. It’s my favorite dessert on the menu at Tidepools at Grand Hyatt Kauai Resort & Spa.

Malasadas are reminiscent of doughnut holes, but more doughy/pastryesque. A plate of seven (rolled in a cinnamon/sugar mixture) comes with three dipping sauces: chocolate, mango-passionfruit coulis and koloa spiced rum pineapple caramel sauce. We order ice cream to go with it, so we cut open the round pastries, top them with ice cream and drizzle the sauces over the top.

Malasadas are a delicious part of Hawaiian cuisine—something tourists can experience that is typically not featured on the mainland. But it could be. It’s out there for the discovering!

Tell me what you think!

Jody

Spicy is the "it" Thing

The food world woke up around August 12, 2019. That was the day Popeyes launched its spicy crispy chicken sandwich. Now, that wouldn’t be so noteworthy, except they ran out of them in two weeks. Completely. R&D chefs arose. We are still seeing  “me-too” launches daily.

The takeaway from that wake-up moment was twofold: consumers love crispy chicken sandwiches. But they also love spicy sandwiches. Arby’s is my favorite recent example of a chain that applied that learning in the extreme earlier this year. It promoted its Diablo Dare Crispy Chicken Sandwich as the spiciest sandwich on the market with five sources: ghost pepper jack cheese, fiery hot seasoning, fire-roasted jalapenos and Diablo BBQ sauce, served on a red chipotle bun. To underscore the spicy factor, it warned the sandwich “is so spicy, we had to include a free vanilla shake to cool your mouth down between bites.”

Other R&D chefs have expanded in other directions

• Wendy’s launched a Hot Honey Chicken Biscuit Breakfast Sandwich earlier this year to not only spice up the breakfast menu, but to tap into sweet-and-heat sensibilities. Hot honey is super trendy right now.
• Consider The Velvet Elvis Sandwich at Pinky’s Westside Grill. It’s crunchy peanut butter, spicy honey, cream cheese, banana and bacon on Texas toast.
• Which Wich offers ZA’WICH. That’s pepperoni, spicy capicola, marinara, provolone and hot pepper mix.
• Burgers, take notice. Bad Daddy Burger Bar is running an El Poblano Loco special, which is beef patty, pepper Jack cheese, pico de gallo, fried poblano peppers and chipotle ranch on a bun. Those fried poblano peppers? You can also order a side of just those with chipotle ranch.

This love of spicy food is fairly recent. When I started researching and writing about food more than 25 years ago, spice levels were much lower, and chefs weren’t eager to push the limits. Today’s generation is much more daring, plus our country has a different demographic makeup. There’s research on this spicy topic. According to one report, “only 15% of consumers believe they can tolerate their food at a ‘very spicy’ level, but 37% still consider themselves to be a ‘spicy food aficionado.’ Nearly half of Americans (43%) admit they like to ‘test their limits’ when it comes to trying spicy foods.”

Back to the Arby’s Diablo Dare Crispy Chicken Sandwich promotion. How brilliant was it to combine a vanilla shake with the sandwich? Yes, it was a gimmick that garnered a LOT of free press/buzz, but it was probably also necessary!

Tell me what you think.

Jody

What is the Perfect Appetizer?

As long as there are potatoes, there’s still profit-building potential for inflation-struggling restaurants. And not just QSRs, but all segments. From an operator’s perspective, French fries are an easy snack, side, bar menu, appetizer. 

But you need to see these skinny spuds from the consumer point of view. Fries have no barriers to overcome. They are comfort food. They are also affordable, and for that, fries need a closer menu examination. For example:

• Run periodic LTOs on unique loaded-fries iterations.
• Pick a different ingredient to name “fries” (as in churros or any dried/chip vegetable.)
• Offer a few choices of loaded fries ingredient combos for a customized snack/appetizer order, perhaps rotating now and then.
• Introduce global-flavor dipping sauces.

Fries work for both operator and customer from an economical standpoint. You do know that customers are a hairbreadth away from opting out of eating out, don’t you? According to a Nation’s Restaurant News article, 37% of consumers say they are spending less of their disposable income on restaurants compared to last year. Additionally, 40% believe they are getting less value from restaurants, and 82% blame higher prices. To cope, 34% say they are choosing less expensive items on the menu. This is where French fries come in.

Applebee’s is using appetizers, including its new Brew Pub Loaded Waffle Fries, as a way to get guests in the door for late-night hours by offering “Late Night Half-Priced Appetizers.” First, the crispy waffle fries are topped with a combination of melted cheddar cheeses (Blue Moon white cheddar beer cheese is one!) and applewood-smoked bacon—served with buttermilk ranch dressing. The loaded fries are already one of the cheapest appetizers on the menu—and then to offer them half price during a specific daypart—shows that Applebee’s knows how to leverage fries.

That half-price appetizer brings it close to the price of Taco Bell’s spring 2022 LTO of Steak White Hot Ranch Fries. That is seasoned fries topped with warm nacho cheese sauce, marinated grilled steak, diced tomatoes, a three-cheese blend, sour cream and a sauce made with buttermilk and ghost chili peppers. Notice how both Applebee’s and Taco Bell brought on some sexy bold flavors.

Other operators have a different attention-grabbing play when it comes to “fries.” I’m referring to Wings & Rings’ summer Strawberry Shortcake Funnel Fries. That is funnel cake sticks topped with strawberries, powdered sugar, strawberry sauce and whipped cream. Or how about Sonic’s summer Pickle Fries? They are fries-shaped dill pickle slices, battered, fried and served with a side of ranch dressing.

Fries can even be elevated as they are at Rusty Pellican in Key Biscayne, Florida, with its Caviar Frites. Nation’s Restaurant News describes them as Yukon gold potatoes fried and tossed in ranch dressing powder. They are plated and squirted with vodka crème fraîche made by combining two parts crème fraîche to one part sour cream along with a splash of vodka and seasoned with cayenne pepper, lemon zest and salt. But we’re not done. They place bowfin caviar around the sides of the fries and salmon roe on top. It’s served with a side of ranch dressing—all for $23.

The winning combo for any operator is fries with whatever makes sense (and is readily on hand) in your building. You know, I’ve said before that if a restaurant could only offer one dessert, for the sake of the greatest number of guests, let it be chocolate. Here I will say that if an operation can only offer one appetizer, for the greatest number of guests, let it be fries.

Tell me what you think.

Jody