SheeFood

Uncertain Times Call for Certain Foods

The search for certainty in uncertain times leads to comfort food. It’s something I don’t see diminishing any time soon. During the height of pandemic shelter-in-place restrictions, 72% of consumers surveyed for Datassential’s ONE TABLE initiative said they were eating/cooking more comfort food. According to a OnePoll survey conducted on behalf of Farm Rich, 69% of consumers say they will continue to enjoy the same amount of comfort food post-pandemic.

Of course, comfort food is as individual as there are individuals, but for sure the category speaks to nostalgia and foods that bring back fond memories of happy times—like what you ate and loved as a kid. It’s up to operators to find new angles for such comfort items as mac n cheese, ice cream, fried chicken and beyond.

Some have brilliantly tapped into the word campfire, calling to mind the experience as much as the particular food. Campfire conjures happy memories of vacations and outings, experiences out in nature, spending fun times with family and friends, staying up late, etc. Campfire food is not on the same plane with current health, nutrition and plant-based trends, but rather looks back through the lens of glowing memories. Trends didn’t matter, and they don’t matter now in a comfort food/campfire context. Operators have license to call upon memories as they build summer LTOs around the campfire theme—on any part of the menu.

Right now, Voodoo Doughnut is running a Smoky Campfire Cannolo promotion through Sept. 13, 2021. Catch the s’mores vibe in their description: Cannolo drizzled with chocolate, filled with marshmallow cream cheese and both sides dipped in crushed graham crackers on both ends.

Considering beverages, America’s largest bubble tea chain, Kung Fu Tea, recently partnered with Hershey’s on three drinks, two of which called on s’mores. Its S’mores Slush blended Hershey’s chocolate with ice and marshmallow on bottom, while its S’mores Slush with Coffee included the chocolate with hints of coffee and marshmallow on bottom.

Mooyah Burgers, Fries & Shakes developed a summer Campfire Burger. The company wisely found a way to extend the theme beyond the obvious connection burgers have with campfires by including a hickory smoked “campfire sauce” on the burger. The sauce ingredients are a mystery, but the burger combines beef, bacon, grilled onions, melted cheddar and potato chips on a potato bun.

An ideation session could lead to other interesting menu items. Just add an appropriate descriptor like campfire potato jackets; bonfire burgers and/or dogs; charcoal fire tent vegetables; campfire stove coffee; picnic potatoes or cookies; or campfire kettle hot cocoa. I made those up. Maybe you could add to it.

Comfort food, while taking folks to their happy place, is a tired menu theme. Campfire is a refreshing subtheme. So is carnival, which takes you to cotton candy, carnival corn dogs, fried pickles, funnel cakes and on and on. Summer is the perfect excuse to take the menu outside the regular world of menu trends and allows you and your guests to indulge in indulgence.

Tell me what you think.

Jody

How to Differentiate the Menu Economically

The secret sauce to incremental sales is… well, actually, sauce. While some operators choose to give their tasty, proprietary sauce away, that’s clearly not a profitable choice. Consider Olive Garden. It recently launched Never-Ending Dipping Sauces (marinara, alfredo and five cheese marinara sauces) to go with its unlimited breadsticks. But that sauce comes with a $3.99 price tag. That choice to charge reflects Olive Garden’s election to make a profit. In the chain’s recent Q4 conference call, CEO Gene Lee explained that while Olive Garden’s same-store sales aren’t as robust of late compared to other casual dining restaurants, its restaurant-level margins are 25.5%, which is stellar. He said, “Isn’t our job to try to drive profitable sales growth? And that’s what we’re focused on.” And so, case in point is the never-ending bread-dipping sauce that is not free.

Perhaps Baskin-Robbins thinks the same way. For a June LTO, it offered Sour Berry Slime, a green sweet-and-sour sauce to combine with any ice cream or shake for 99 cents. Adding to the punch for profit, guests can also elect to buy a bottle of the slime sauce to take home for $6.99.

Apart from Profit

Other operators of late are coming up with interesting sauces for purposes of differentiating, adding bold, economical flavor and offering something guests can’t make at home.

Ubiquitous tacos, chicken sandwiches and burgers must stand out in a flavorful way, which can be accomplished with sauces. Chili’s came up with The Chili’s Chicken Sandwich LTO through June that featured a breaded and fried chicken breast… with a proprietary secret sauce described as “thick, sweet and tangy.” I personally think they could have given it an intriguing name.

For inspiration, Mooyah Burgers, Fries & Shakes is running a summer Campfire Burger, and the thing that makes the definition is hickory smoked campfire sauce. What exactly is campfire sauce? Even without spelling it out, the name draws.

Also, through June, Fuzzy’s Taco Shop offered a Spicy Chimi Fajita Taco that featured three sauces in one taco: garlic sauce, pico de gallo and spicy chimichurri sauce. But back to my original point on profitability. When the sauce is part of the dish/sandwich makeup, it’s hard to imagine the logic of charging extra for it. But what about chicken nuggets? They are a staple on many menus. Now Wendy’s is adding broader appeal to its nuggets by offering a new Ghost Pepper Ranch nugget dipping sauce. No extra charge. But why not try offering a unique super flavorful option for a little upcharge? That is a play from the casual and fine-dining playbook. (Think queso for chips.) Sauce is an underexplored menu ploy for increased margins in a profit-shrinking environment. And kudos to Baskin-Robbins for thinking to offer the LTO sauce for sale in a take-home bottle. It’s time to get creative like that.

Tell me what you think.

Jody

The Next Restaurant Disruptor

What is the next restaurant disruptor? What meal-acquiring platform will customers have an appetite for since ghost and virtual kitchens that were unarguably helped along by delivery?

I believe vending machines are on the cusp of business opportunity and consumer acceptance. I see it as more than a chance for restaurants to create an extra income stream. It’s a chance to champion convenience and technology while riding high on the free publicity it will generate while it catches steam in the US. Vending machines and their iterations will be found on busy street sides, in apartment buildings and offices, at the gym and at entertainment events, for starters.

The entry level is low. For instance, once a day, independent-operator Jones Bar-B-Q in Kansas City, Kan., stocks a vending machine outside the building filled with the restaurant’s sandwiches, beans and more. Owner Deborah Thompson told me the machine is especially popular among those working the night shift in the near-by industrial district. Workers only have a half hour to eat and often run over to the vending machine for a sandwich when the restaurant is closed.

More buzzworthy, consider a vending machine that actually cooks the food—combining vending with robotics. It’s already underway. Piestro, which launched a year ago and is still in testing, makes pizza in under 3 minutes viewable through the unit’s window. It’s not technically called a vending machine, but it could be. Just get the right people behind a concept like that, and it could take off. Piestro’s founder is Massimo Noja De Marco, who was co-founder of Kitchen United. He knows something about how to start things. The vending machine (currently only called robotics) is completely temperature controlled and combines ordering and payment simplicity.

We could look to Japan for a world of know-how. The country has more than 5 million vending machines. In some cases, target marketing happens as cameras detect the demographic standing before the machine. It then suggests what the guest might like to order on the touchscreen display panel.

Entrepreneurship is already at work allowing operators to enter the space while focusing solely on preparing the meals. Boston-based Alchemista places food lockers in luxury apartment buildings throughout Boston while partnering with a few high-end restaurants that want to get their food out to the masses. Rather than call it a vending machine, Alchemista calls its units on-demand modular marketplaces. Alchemista reps go pick up the meals to place in the temperature-controlled lockers throughout the city. The locker menu is available via QR code with payment also accomplished via the smartphone.

Just these examples show that vending machine opportunities and iterations could be endless, extending profitability beyond the restaurant—and perhaps in lieu of a restaurant. How about ghost-kitchen vending machines? Consumers are now conditioned to get food unconventionally. Consumers will easily make the mental shift from vending machine candy bars and soft drinks to craveable, sensible meals. We could be on the cusp of something.

Tell me what you think.

Jody

Is Autonomous Foodservice Delivery Necessary?

Remember clear back one to two years ago when we were hearing all about foodservice drone delivery? It was expected to be the next big thing. Well, all is quiet on that front now, but that doesn’t mean the industry has given up on autonomous delivery.

In the space of two days this month (April 2021), we learned that Domino’s has partnered with Nuro’s R2 robot to deliver food in Houston, while Chick-fil-A has partnered with Kiwibot in Santa Monica to test an autonomous four-wheeled rover for delivery.

I think these fall into the category of “just because you can doesn’t mean you should.” I know that technology has literally transformed the foodservice industry. After all, it’s phone apps that work in conjunction with restaurant ordering and work-flow platforms and third-party delivery companies that have made virtual restaurants and ghost kitchens a new “thing” in the past year in particular.

Robot/vending machines also have transformed foodservice, making fresh salads and bowl meals in a small, enclosed footprint in non-commercial locales like hospitals and universities, for example. This has leveled the foodservice playing field that will shortly give grocery and convenience stores, and even office buildings and apartments, equal opportunity to be “restaurants.”

All these tech opportunities arose in the midst of the perfect storm when delivery and food safety moved to the forefront. While these tech-forward autonomous delivery vehicles certainly fit within food safety (think contactless) and delivery moorings, they are not necessary. Food delivery does not need to be remade in that way.

I can think of only two reasons that the likes of Domino’s and Chick-fil-A would go down this autonomous delivery path. First is financial as a solution to the expensive “last mile” challenge. With that, I can only assume that these operators clearly see the ROI down the road once these “vehicles” scale up. But I will say, looking at it from the “final mile” perspective is only from the operators’ perspective. Other than the “wow” factor, consumers aren’t driving this technology application.

This brings me to the other reason operators may be looking at autonomous high-tech delivery vehicles. We are back to the “wow” factor—a branded marketing ploy. It makes for great free publicity. If that’s the case, perhaps a “delivery LTO” is sufficient. Once the novelty wears off, there needs to be a more permanent reason for the investment.

I guess that leads to a potential third factor behind autonomous delivery… hungry tech firms driven by investor capital. But again, this is not consumer driven.

There is a need for delivery, but this final mile is already well served. So bottom line, there’s not really a need for autonomous delivery. I think it creates more problems than it solves—a subject for another blog. I predict food delivery will continue to be well served by humanoids.

Someone tell me what I’m missing.  

Jody

Delivery Visionaries Saved Casual Dining

There was a day not too long ago when casual dining execs found pushy third-party deliverers a nuisance to reckon with. How were these busy restaurants to integrate these unsolicited delivery orders/pickups into their operations? They took a few Advil and figured it out, because no matter how unplanned this delivery activity was, it represented undeniable income.

Now look who the power brokers are. Casual dining would be gone now if it weren’t for the DoorDashes and Uber Eats of the world with their dynamic customer-facing ordering technology with well-developed operator backend technology to help. The infrastructure was well developed before the pandemic and the resulting restaurant crisis. And now these chains thank their lucky stars for the persistent aforementioned delivery companies. 57%  of restaurants say their business would have closed during the current crisis if not for DoorDash, according to DoorDash’s survey conducted and released as part of its recent economic impact report.

Truly, these delivery platforms serendipitously paved a path to recovery for sit-down restaurants. Here’s the working equation: Meal orders minus dine-in services plus virtual “operations”/menus plus chicken equals casual dining’s salvation.

Follow with me. When sit-down dining shut down, consumers still wanted to order food. Standing in the gap were their third-party delivery apps allowing them to search for food from a particular restaurant, or search by food type.

Whether casual dining chains figured this out on their own, or if DoorDash and/or Uber Eats alerted them, restaurants discovered they could increase eyes on their menus if they launched more menus under more names virtually from within their existing kitchens. After all, the order technology and kitchen interface was already there. The beauty, it turns out, is that delivery prone customers don't care what restaurant brand prepares their food.  

And so. If a restaurant can start one virtual restaurant, it can start three. A few days ago, Red Robin announced the launch of three virtual brands from its kitchens: Chicken Sammy’s, The Wing Dept and Fresh Set. Of note, DoorDash reports that chicken sandwiches are the top meal ordered from its platform. Smart operators find out things like this and make a virtual brand and menu out of it. Chicken Sammy’s offers a selection of chicken sandwiches, chicken tenders, sides and more. The Wing Dept sells chicken wings and sides.

Again, whether operators already knew the wild popularity of chicken or if the delivery companies told them that they could hardly go wrong with the bird… nearly every virtual concept adopted by casual dining features chicken.

• It’s Just Wings (Brinker International from its Chili’s and Maggiano’s locations)
• Tender Shack (chicken tenders from Bloomin’ Brands’ Carrabba’s Italian Grill and Outback Steakhouse kitchens)
• The Wing Experience (Smokey Bones barbecue chain)
• Cosmic Wings (Applebee’s)
• Sarah’s Hot Chicken (21-unit Fish City Grill)

Sales numbers are impressive. Chili’s estimates it will generate $150 million in sales during the first year of It’s Just Wings virtual operations.

Now we will watch virtual brands spring up from grocery stores, c-stores and any noncommercial business that operates a kitchen, like hospitals, business and industry cafeterias and universities.

I think these delivery companies just redefined “restaurant,” while leveling the playing field. Meet the restaurant sales leaders of the future. They are invisible.

Tell me what you think.

Jody Shee

How One Restaurant Made Headlines

I dropped my jaw this morning when I read an article about Popeyes’ newest sandwich release. “I don’t think that’s ever been done before,” I said out loud.

It’s a Cajun Flounder Sandwich for $4.49 that launched today (Feb. 11, 2021). If you’re afraid to order it for fear you won’t like it, you can purchase “sandwich insurance” for 15 cents. Then, if you don’t like the sandwich, you can replace it with their famous chicken sandwich.

Really? Brilliant, if for no other reason than it’s unheard of. The analytical skeptic in me wonders if that’s really kind of a BYGO promo, where the “get one” isn’t really free… it’s 15 cents. As in buy a fish sandwich for 15 cents extra and get a chicken sandwich to boot. Unless you have to cough up your fish sandwich before you can get the chicken sandwich. But I digress.

I think of it as “flavor insurance,” and it’s a tremendous gimmick to get folks to try something new. The timing of this LTO coincides with Lent season.

I was so captured, I announced the novel idea to my husband, who was on his computer between Zoom meetings and only half paying attention. I framed the announcement as a brilliant Lent promo. With only half his brain engaged, he smelled something fishy. “If that’s a Lent promotion, those who buy the fish sandwich aren’t going to pay 15 cents extra for the insurance that promises them a chicken sandwich that they were trying to avoid in the first place.”

Bubble burst. But the logic doesn’t have to make sense if this campaign was really mainly about getting free publicity. The insurance, after all, was only for opening day. Popeyes sent out a press release about it, as any chain would do. But the insurance twist garnered some buzz. I googled Popeyes fish sandwich insurance 2021 and found articles on it on Bloomberg.com; chicagotribune.com; today.com; CNN’s wire service Mercurynews.com; and many local news station’s websites. Mission accomplished. And I’ll bet the company is not losing money over this.

I think this is an award-winning publicity campaign. Would any other brand dare develop their own me-too version? Probably not a good idea. Popeyes got the corner on this one. And I might add that fish was the perfect specimen for a flavor insurance promo, because more folks are squeamish of fish sandwiches than of burgers or chicken sandwiches.

At any rate, let the fish LTOs begin, and let them all be crispy.

Tell me what you think.

Jody

The Next Frontier for All These Chicken Sandwiches

Are you watching with me as QSRs aim for the fence with crispy chicken sandwiches? I’m loving it! McDonald’s launch of three new chicken handhelds draws renewed attention to the crispy chicken sandwich trend that kicked off with Popeyes version in 2019. KFC and Jack in the Box responded with theirs…and the race was/is on. No one is ever more than a mile away from a crunchy chicken sandwich.

While fast food’s R&D centers on such details as bun types and condiments along with spice levels and perhaps global flavors, I see greater potential for them down the pike—in bowl form. I know that sounds like a “duh” comment, but there aren’t crispy chicken bowls out there except for P.F. Chang’s Crispy Honey Chicken Bowl. Why is that?

I ask because of all the growing plethora of bowls on menus, chicken bowls are the most ubiquitous. Their tribe nearly doubled over the past three years, according to Mintel Menu Insights. But crispy chicken bowls? I’m thinking that cross-purposing the sandwich crispy chicken into bowl renditions is a natural next step. Am I wrong?

There’s plenty of room for evolution with bowls. I think the origin of bowls related to portability and health. For example, grains don’t work in sandwiches (though yes to wraps). Additionally, those going for grains perhaps wish to avoid carbs and gluten. And we’re back to bowls.

In today’s thinking, and I mean 2021, bowls seem safe (the appearance of less handling—with lids and all) and easily transported. That safety factor, in fact, turns out to be big. According to Datassential’s May 2020 ONE TABLE consumer survey, 78% said safety is more important to them than sustainability. And what about health? Some 75% even prioritized the safety of the food over its healthfulness. So, we won’t assume that when consumers choose a bowl, in their mind, it’s a healthful sandwich alternative. They want safety along with comfort, indulgence, flavor and maybe health. Bottom line, a crispy chicken bowl offers a lot of potential that isn’t a stretch for any operator offering a crispy chicken sandwich.

So, my food prediction for 2021 is that we will begin to see crispy chicken bowls that won’t try to fit in with protein-bowl, superfoods or keto-centric molds. Those crunchy bowls of yum just make good common sense for consumers and operators alike exactly right now.

Tell me what you think.

Jody

What is the Next Super Fruit?

I’m guessing that what I had for lunch today, no one who reads this has ever eaten before—prepared in any fashion—breadfruit, or ulu as it’s called here in Hawaii. It’s the next super fruit you will be reading about but won’t be able to try unless someone figures out the processing and distribution pieces. In its riper state, breadfruit is sometimes used as a potato substitute, partly because potatoes don’t grow super well here. But my favorite preparation is as a bread substitute, especially as a pancake that requires no other ingredients. We grow breadfruit in our yard in Kauai, and it’s in peak season right now.

You can google all about breadfruit and its great nutrition profile (it provides nearly everything short of eternal life), but I’ll just share my experience with it. It’s OK to pick the fruit at any stage of ripeness for different uses, flavors and experiences, but we like to wait until it is so ripe that if it fell off the tree, it would break open and splat on the ground. We know the fruit has reached that stage when a swarm of gnats swirls around the fruit. You can’t stand under the branch when you pluck off the fruit, because it secretes a dripping latex-like substance. If you know anything about the more popular jackfruit, you know what I mean about that sticky substance. In fact, breadfruit comes from the same family as jackfruit.

I think I can best illustrate breadfruit in picture. So here we go. 

A Vegetable Affair

It is not the same food world in which I grew up in the 1960s and ’70s. Especially produce. Who remembers with me that the produce section was one aisle with a refrigerated coffin on the left and right where you could admire red delicious or granny smith apples, oranges, iceberg lettuce, potatoes and onions? Anything else beyond grapes and strawberries was exotic. My mother rushed us kids past the produce aisle to the canned goods section for our green beans, corn and spinach.

Perhaps once in my childhood, my mom was daring enough to serve broccoli, cauliflower or cabbage. One taste, and those were never going to touch my lips again. Ditto for my siblings.

This aversion to all cruciferous vegetables continued well into my 20s. Then I was invited to dinner at my boss’s house. The dining room was dark and thick with a deep floral aura. I was starving and the kitchen smelled wonderful. What was on the menu? I didn’t ask. I do recall a casserole of some type ushered to the table and took a helping. Part way through dinner, I looked down and thought I spied a cauliflower floret on my plate. Where did that come from? I stirred around my dish and discovered that the casserole I was enjoying was filled with them. I had been eating them! How was this even possible?

If cauliflower could be made palatable, perhaps broccoli could too. I determined to like it by beginning with cheese sauce before graduating to unenhanced.

I know I’m not alone in my vegetable squeamishness… because then came the 1990s. I became the editor of a magazine about fresh produce aimed at restaurants that gave ideas for using more of them on the menu. At that time, surveys indicated that consumers thought vegetables should be more present on menus, but in reality, consumers would not order them unless they were French fries. It turns out, folks liked the vegetable idea, but hadn’t developed an actual taste for them. Thus, vegetables were unprofitable, not only for restaurants, but for that magazine that struggled for advertisers. It folded and I went freelance.

Here we are 15-plus years later, and could my younger self have ever imagined the place of cauliflower on the menu? I don’t think anyone eats it for the flavor. Its value is that it is a plant, offers a little protein and it lacks flavor. You doubt me? There’s no other explanation for Buffalo Wild Wings’ new Cauliflower Wings. The cancer-fighting vegetable is breaded, fried and tossed in Asian Zing sauce and is topped with sesame, garlic, salt, pepper, Fresno peppers and scallions. I haven’t had them, but I’m pretty sure you wouldn’t detect a hint of cauliflower flavor. Pizza becomes a low/no-carb affair with a cauliflower crust at the likes of Blaze Fast-Fire’d Pizza, Donatos Piazza and Your Pie. Many places have brought in cauliflower rice, while Noodle’s & Co. has a cauliflower noodle—Caulifloodles. You’ll even find Caulisteak at Milkboy Philadelphia. It’s all popular now because times have changed. Vegetarians, vegans and flexitarians drive the hive, as do those on keto, Whole30 and paleo diets.

Today, vegetables are the food rock stars and the produce department is the savior of the store.  Impossible in the 1960s and 70s. My produce magazine editor career would have thrived with this late turn of affairs.

Tell me what you think.  

Jody

My Big Monkey Business Idea

Yesterday I had a brilliant idea as my husband Richmond and I drove by a grove of coconut trees. (We live in Kauai.) We should get some monkeys to hire out to climb trees and pick the coconuts. Richmond is from Malaysia and has long told me stories about monkeys in Southeast Asia climbing trees and picking coconuts. They are trained separately to either pick young coconuts, which are green and are used for coconut water, or old coconuts—the brown ones, which are used for coconut milk, oil and to eat. 

But Richmond burst my bubble at the mention of my proposed monkey business. Nowadays, if we bought and hired out monkeys for that, we’d be in a lot of trouble as people have classified the coconut-picking monkey industry as “cruelty to animals.” Think People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA).

“No. Way!” But yes. In the past two months while I was apparently asleep under a rock, news emerged in the British press that monkeys in Thailand are being abused and forced to climb trees against their will and thus, stores should not carry coconut products from Thailand. I’ll quote a BBC article:  "These curious, highly intelligent animals are denied psychological stimulation, companionship, freedom, and everything else that would make their lives worth living, all so that they can be used to gather coconuts," said PETA director Elisa Allen. PETA is calling on decent people never to support the use of monkey labor by shunning coconut products from Thailand.

Actually, monkeys don’t mind climbing trees and picking coconuts, and it’s quite a novel thing to watch. In the event a monkey gets stubborn—perhaps tired of picking—it will climb halfway up the tree and just sit there, and no amount of prodding will coax it to keep working, Richmond said. Abuse is an ineffective method to get a monkey to work. Rather, the monkey and its owner or trainer develop a close bond.

Now, if an owner does mistreat the monkey, that is cause for concern, but the whole practice of using monkeys to pick coconuts is no more a crime against animals than using cows to plow a rice field as they do in third-world and developing countries where they also work elephants and horses as part of logging operations to haul timber to rivers where no machinery can reach. We don’t refuse rice from Thailand where cows are denied their best life while forced to work. If we shun making animals to work, then we should add bomb-sniffing dogs to the list of abused animals. I’m sure some owners put the dogs on leashes and in cages or fenced areas to prevent them from wandering free.  

I know I’m being absurd. So are the grocery stores that cave to pressure and misinformation and refuse to carry coconut products from companies that use monkey labor. It’s not just such UK grocers as Waitrose, Ocado, Co-op and Boots that have vowed to stop selling the goods. News travels. I read a CBS News article noting that Walgreens, Giant Food, Food Lion, Stop & Shop and Hannaford in the US refuse to carry coconut products from Thai suppliers that use monkey labor. They apparently are taking PETA’s word that working a monkey is unethical.

To its credit, The Washington Post actually interviewed the Thai Commerce Minister to learn the real scoop. He said monkey coconut picking is mostly a tourist attraction. On the commercial level, shorter coconut tree varieties are the norm that allow for picking with a pole.

But misinformation gets out there, doesn’t it? Perception becomes reality. The Post article gets to the bottom business line: “Increasing numbers of consumers are speaking with their wallets, and retailers are listening.” There’s always a cause, isn’t there? My advice to grocers and foodservice operators is to check out a claim before believing it and standing on it, and worse, taking out a legitimate product or company. And when you learn the real truth, become a positive voice for it.

Tell me what you think.

Jody