By Joan Lang, Editorial Director

A new “fine casual” segment is evolving out of the Chipotle quick-quality model. Older concepts are rebranding as fast casual or launching their own F/C siblings. And all around, there is quick, healthy, customizable food that blazes a new guest-satisfaction trail.

It’s the dawning of yet a new age of segmentation around the twin goals of cooked-to-order food and convenient and contemporary trappings.

Small wonder. Traditional quick service is hurting for sales and struggling to redefine itself, and there’s no question that many consumers are losing their taste for fast food, whether because of boredom, health concerns, or desire for a better overall experience.

Finer, Faster

Call it Fine Casual. Call it Fast Fine. But whatever you call it, a new niche is evolving between fast-casual and casual—just as fast-casual created a space between fast food and casual over the past decade.

Many of the concepts are being developed by fine dining chefs, intent on bringing their cooking to a wider segment of the dining public—and hoping for a Danny Meyer/Shake Shack-size payout.

Beefsteak is Jose Andres’s entry into the market, where “fresh, market-driven vegetables take center-stage.” The menu focuses on make-your-own grain and veggie bowls, with or without meat or another protein, plus a tightly curated list of Our Favorites that include a salad, gazpacho and a Beefsteak tomato “burger.”

David Chang’s new Fuku concept centers on an $8 spicy fried chicken sandwich, fries and a salad—no more and no less—and entertained such lines during its first week of operations that it had to close for a weekend to regroup.

Meanwhile, Honor Society Handcrafted Eatery in Denver, spearheaded by local chef Justin Bronson, is dubbing itself a healthful, “fast fine” concept serving breakfast, lunch and dinner, with a scratch menu built around a platform of plated meals, with a base protein and side dishes featuring seasonal and sustainable ingredients.

In San Francisco, Little Gem promises “order-at-the-counter dining taken to a new level of quality and experience,” courtesy of two Thomas Keller alumni who are in the process of putting together a menu that is dairy-, gluten- and sugar-free.

The dual-format Little Beet and Little Beet Table, based in the New York area, are also offering accessible, affordable, veggie-centric food in the fast casual segment, as well as a “polished casual” venue where chef Franklin Becker gets to flex his creative muscles a bit. With a “create-your-plate” platform as well as house-designed signatures, The Little Beet caters to the “guiltin’ free” set, while The Little Beet Table offers table service, wine and beer, and a more refined overall experience.

And on the flip side, Darren Tristano of Technomic even posits that there’s room in the equation for something called QSR-Plus, with a stripped down, quality-oriented menu that guests are willing to pay more for because of its quality focus—as evidenced by the success of brands like Chick-fil-A and Potbelly.

Healthy Equation

If there’s one thing that defines the new generation of fast casual restaurants, it’s the search for healthful dining options—not the sprouts and tamari “health food” of old but the DIY, veggie- and grain-laden model that also eschews gluten, refined sugar and other current lifestyle no-no’s.

Matt Matros, founder of Protein Bar, modeled his menu on the kind of food he’d want to eat himself, including “bar-ritos” that change out the burrito’s rice for quinoa, a variety of gluten free bowls, egg-white and oatmeal breakfasts, and salads, juices and blended drinks

Matthew Kenney, known to raw foodists and vegetarians as a chef to be reckoned with, has launched Make Out, “a plant-based fast casual café for the everyday eater.” The menu highlights greens, bowls, wraps and flatbreads, as well as such dairy-free sweets as parfait cups, cookies and cheesecake.

In fact, bowls are emerging as the newest platform for the customizable, fast-casual menu, obviating the need for bread and allowing for bases of grains, greens, veggies and other good-for-you ingredients. Bowl of Heaven, on the expansion trail with new franchise agreements in California and Nevada, is typical of the genre. Its menu is anchored by acai bowls that are custom-made with trendy superfruits, as well as fresh juices and enhanced smoothies.

New Flavor Experiences

It stands to reason that the fast-casual format would also bring new flavors and globally themed menus to the marketplace.

• Lolo’s Seafood Shack, in New York City, is inspired by the casual, beachside seafood joints of St. Martine and elsewhere in the Caribbean. The menu includes traditional seafood steampots and Shark & Bake, as well as snacks, sandwiches and veggie sides such as johnnycakes and sweet potatoes with honey butter.

• Dos Toros is a San Francisco-style taqueria with six locations in the New York City area, and a simple mix-and-match menu that offers three different proteins (carnitas, carne asada and pollo asado, plus rice and beans) in a choice of burrito, plate, salad, quesadilla or taco.

• At Uma Temakaria, the creation of a Michelin-starred Manhattan chef, the vehicle for freshness and customization fast-casual style is hand-roll sushi, a freshly made seaweed cone filled with the likes of salmon, tuna, tofu, avocado and seaweed salad, as well as a custom hand roll or rice bowl option.

• In Southern California, fast-growing Slapfish is a fast-casual “modern seafood shack” specializing in such iconic sandwiches as fish tacos, lobster rolls, as crab-lobster grilled cheese, along with signature sauces such as housemade tartar, Sriracha spread and creamy lemon herb.  Daily seafood plates and sandwiches, plus sides and snacks (hand-cut chips, lobster dip, fried pickles) round out the bill of fare.  Owner Andrew Gruel is committed to ocean sustainability, which sweetens the deal.

Want help with your fast-casual concept? Contact Synergy Restaurant Consultants.

Emily Callaghan, Concept Development & Communications

 

At Synergy, we like to say that restaurants should refresh their interiors every seven to 10 years to remain clean, fresh and relevant, but what about a restaurant’s overall brand? Do changing times require revamped logos, collateral (business cards, packaging, menus) and website refreshes?  They do indeed.

Synergy has come a long way from the brand it was more than 26 years ago, founded by two passionate chefs with a desire to help brands big and small hone operations and establish standardized efficiencies, particularly in the back-of-the-house.

Since then, Synergy has grown to be so much more, now offering clients turnkey solutions to their greatest restaurant challenges. Architecture, interior design and kitchen design? We’ve got it. Branding and marketing? You bet. Menu development? It’s still a strong suite, after all these years. And behind these areas of expertise are the Synergy experts themselves.

To better reflect where Synergy is today, we’ve updated and relaunched our website. This change more accurately encapsulates what Synergy can do for restaurant operators, private equity firms, developers and entrepreneurs, also painting a picture of whom you’ll be working with when choosing Synergy. At last, we’re showing the world who we are today.

Now, I ask, is your restaurant sending the right message? Here are relatively straightforward tactical changes to consider.

1. Website: Restaurant websites are far more simple than B2B websites, and updating yours needn’t be an enormous undertaking. These days, there are both free and inexpensive templates. Also make sure your design is responsive on mobile and tablet, as restaurantgoers often use their devices to research restaurants.

2. Brand Style Guide: Create a document that outlines your custom logos, font families, color schemes and guidelines for usage to maintain consistency of your brand across your website, print materials (this includes your menu) and even uniforms.

3. Social Media & Review Platforms: Is your logo updated and consistent across Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and the like? Is your information up-to-date? Don’t be a restaurant that posts an outdated menu or even incorrect basics like hours of operation or address (yes, this happens).

As we’ve just gone through this ourselves, we’re here to help you, too.

Enjoy the new site, and a more complete picture of the Synergy brand—and good luck showing the world yours.

By Joan Lang, Editorial Director

Ambitious young entrepreneurs and boldface-name chefs aren’t the only ones attempting to cash in on the popularity of fast casual concepts that offer convenient service, affordable prices and an elevated level of food quality and customization to a new generation of customers.

Many established players on either side of the space are moving up and down with fast-casual projects of their own.

 

• Yum Brands has been especially proactive in its attempts to create new brands. Pizza Hut is hard at work refining Slice Bar as part of an attempt to reposition itself in the fast-casual niche, where pizza is already undergoing a revolution with the likes of Pieology and 800 Degrees. Taco Bell is experimenting with U.S. Taco, which touts upgraded offerings like a grilled Manchego taco with molcajete salsa—even as it tests its own new initiatives including delivery. Yum also has Banh Shop, a freewheeling, fast-casual take on Vietnamese street food.

 

• Buffalo Wild Wings has also been playing in the fast casual field with last year’s investment in Rusty Taco, which has garnered 2015 Breakout Brands status in Nation’s Restaurant News. Now nine units strong, the better-taco concept showcases handmade tacos featuring such distinctive fillings as picadillo (spiced ground beef), brisket and achiote pork, as well as breakfast tacos.

 

• The Bonanza and Ponderosa group has also been refining its fast-casual entrant, having recently rebranded its year-old Bo’s Steak & Grill as Cole’s Backyard Grill. Located in Lindale, Texas, the new franchise features an ambitious, cookout-style menu of steaks, burgers, chicken fried steak and fried chicken, beer-can chicken, and ribs and brisket.

 

• Denny’s continues to court millennials with its fast casual spinoff, The Den. With 11 units in operation in University locations, the new-style diner touts all-day breakfast (including Denny’s signatures such as The Grand Slam) and an abbreviated menu of “hand-smashed” burgers, sandwiches, and shakes.

 

• La Boulanger, a French-inspired bakery-café chain with 18 locations in central California, has announced that not only is it not the chain that’s being closed by Starbucks, but its founders are also looking to open a wine-bar/bistro called Fire, Oak & Barley. Designed to overlap with La Boulanger on breakfast and lunch, the new “fine fast” concept will target dinner sales with pizza, a burger, sandwiches, steaks, pasta and specialties from the woodburning oven.

 

• It makes sense that organic and vegetarian food manufacturer Amy’s Kitchen would leverage interest in cleaner eating with its fast-casual venue, called Amy’s Drive-Thru. Launched this summer, the vegetarian concept features meatless versions of burgers, pizza, burritos and salads, as well as meticulously sourced ingredients and repurposed or sustainable building materials, solar power, and recycled rainwater.

 

• John Gilbert, now co-owner and president of Romano’s Macaroni Grill—recently liberated from Ignite Restaurant Group—is the impetus behind a fast-casual component called Romano’s Kitchen Counter, specializing in $7 express lunch and lower tariffs for time- and cash-poor customers. Earlier this year, the Counter concept was expanded to include dinner as well as lunch to-go, seven days a week. The $9 dinner menu includes Pork Belly & Chicken Carbonara, Prosciutto & Chicken Penne, Pesto Chicken Farfalle, Diavola Scaloppine and Chicken Milanese Panzanella.

 

• Umami Burger founder Adam Fleischman, who stepped down from day-to-day operations at that wildly successful burger juggernaut in 2014, is now working on three fast-casual concepts: Fat Noodle, with chef Joshua Skenes, which will specialize in hand-pulled Chinese noodles; Chop Daddy’s, a two-unit barbecue joint; and Choco Chicken, chocolate-fried chicken concept that has met with mixed success. His AdVantage Restaurant Group also includes the full-service Smoke.Oil.Salt and Taco Teca.

 

You’ve probably have heard about California’s drought crisis. Even if you don’t live in California, as a restaurant operator, you will feel its effects.

 

The USDA has recently reported its Food Price Outlook for 2015 and 2016 and there are some important findings. It’s no surprise that many foods have increased in response to the Southwest drought as well as rainfall issues affecting Texas and Oklahoma. Notable price increases have appeared in beef and veal, which are now 10.9 percent higher year-over-year and 0.9 percent from May to June. The prices of pork, poultry, fats and oils have all increased, as well. The most volatile and significant price jump happens to be from the humble egg, partially due to the Avian Influenza outbreak, jumping from a whopping 17.8 percent from May to June.

 

At the same time, fresh fruits and vegetable prices showed a decrease in price in June.

 

With such volatility, it’s important to have a good strategy in supply chain management to help control your restaurant’s costs.

 

1. Go Veggie-Heavy: Abundant portions of vegetables can help to increase perceived value (and add great color) in a plate, while contributing to favorable plate costs.
2. Maintain Accurate Food Costs: With fluctuating commodity pricing, it’s important to keep and eye on actual food costs. Armed with this information, you can then decide if it’s necessary to increase prices.
3. Watch Your Inventory: Pilferage is a common problem in restaurants. In addition to ensuring that team members take inventory in pairs (for accuracy and speed), meat-heavy concepts should invest in a meat cage to keep high-cost items—such as steaks—out of reach of hourly employees.

 

For full information on changes to food prices as well as CPI forecasts, visit the USDA website.

Cow photo credit: Tony Fischer CC by 2.0

The FDA has just posted an important alert regarding cilantro from Mexico:  Cilantro fields from the Mexican state of Puebla are said to be contaminated with human feces and toilet paper. The discovery was found through the investigations by The Centers for Disease Control and state of public health officials due to recurrent outbreaks of cyclosporiasis in the United States: an intestinal disease that can cause severe diarrhea, fatigue, and other gastrointestinal illnesses. As such, the FDA is imposing an import ban on cilantro from this state. Read more about this news here.

 

If you operate a restaurant and have purchased what you believe to be cilantro grown in this area, discard the herb immediately and contact your purveyor for a refund or account credit.

From a long-term standpoint, is your restaurant prepared to handle the aftermath of a crisis? Let’s not forget about the Chi-Chi’s Hepatitis A disaster of 2003, which sickened hundreds and killed three.  While proper planning should be your first line of defense, consider what would be required of your operation if a problem were to occur. It’s key to establish a contingency plan, from a press, public relations and compliance standpoint, should a guest fall ill.

 

Cilantro photo credit: Qfamily CC by 2.0