Kudos to those restaurants that during our unprecedented crisis went to the drawing board for problem-solving menu development, including meal kits, meal bundles and selling groceries. A few months ago, I tried to write a meal-kit themed article and had to scrap it because I only found one restaurant doing meal kits, and that was Chick-fil-A, back in 2018, and they discontinued it after a time. I could write that article now! (and practically did in my last blog post).
But one evergreen theme menu developers return to in a crisis is comfort food. What are they tapping into for solace this time around?
Breakfast. I don’t know why, but nothing warms the cockles like breakfast food. Mind you, it doesn’t have to be for breakfast. Wienerschnitzel recently reached for the cereal box for its Froot Loops Shake and Froot Loops Dipped Soft Serve Cone. Einstein Bros. Bagels introduced French Toast Chicken Egg Sandwich. Bagels already carry the breakfast vibe, but how about French toast bagels with chicken? This LTO combines the comfort of breakfast with the trendy chicken sandwich theme making it appropriate for any meal.
What else could be done with breakfast to fit the comfort-food theme? Consider the breakfast favorites of internationals. In China, they love their hand-held crepelike breakfast street food jianbing. Hispanics might be missing churros right now.
Kids. For the children and the child in everyone, now is a good time to revisit mac & cheese. Sports bar chain Yard House wisely came out with a Mac & Cheese Meal that serves four people. For $50, it’s clearly not a box product. It includes chicken, bacon, wild mushrooms, cheddar cheese, Parmesan cheese and truffle oil. It comes with either a Caesar salad or mixed field greens salad.
For its bundled Feast For Five meal, Romano’s Macaroni Grill taps into its kid-friendly comfortable carbs by offering “enough Spaghetti Bolognese, Fettuccine Alfredo with chicken, Pasta Milano or mac & cheese to feed five people.” For an extra $10, customers can add Brussels sprouts, toasted cheese ravioli or chocolate cake.
Classic home-cooked meals. Everyone’s gotten used to their go-to shelter-in-place home cooked favorites, but it’s so much work! Let restaurants come to the rescue. Current prices aside, brisket is a family favorite that restaurants typically don’t include in their menu mix. But Smashburger just launched a Smoked Bacon Brisket Burger.
Turkey and dressing only pops up on menus at Thanksgiving, but in April, Perkins broke out a Turkey & Dressing Family Style meal for four that included turkey over sage dressing with turkey gravy and cranberry sauce plus salad, mashed potatoes and buttered corn.
Could classic pot pies see a revival? Church’s Chicken recently offered an order of four Hand-Held Chicken Pot Pies free to those who purchase a family meal.
We don’t know how soon restaurants will dispense with the comfort-food theme and go back to their long-term plans centered on healthy/sustainable fare and practices. But clearly, this has been the time to push pause and meet customers where they’re at.
Oh, and BTW, Chick-fil-A recently proudly revived those meal kits that they tested and discontinued in 2018.
Tell me what you think.
Jody
