Menu Development | By Marc Halperin
For breakfast this morning, the choice is yours: Option A is two eggs, bacon, potatoes, toast, orange juice, and coffee for $1.99.
Option B is two Honeysuckle Farms jumbo, free-range eggs served with Fatback Ranch–brand thick-cut, applewood-smoked bacon; premium organic, farm-fresh Yukon Gold potatoes; toasted artisan whole-grain bread from Fonebone’s All-Natural Country Bumpkin Bakery; fresh-squeezed Palmetto County orange juice, and a bottomless cup of Indigo Roasting Co. fair-trade, shade-grown, low-acid, French roast coffee. Price: $2.99.
As you’ve probably guessed, options A and B could well be the exact same breakfast. But the value propositions—on paper, if not necessarily on the plate—are a world apart. Whether or not the Option B breakfast actually tastes appreciably different from Option A is almost beside the point. Given the difference in these descriptions, even price-sensitive consumers who are worried about the state of the economy might well choose to shell out an extra buck or more for Option B.
This example is intended not to demonstrate how gullible we consumers are, but to illustrate how quick-serve restaurant chains could benefit from adding to their breakfast offerings as little as one premium, brand-name and/or locally sourced product, particularly one that offers both real and perceived sensory advantages over its commoditized counterparts.
For several years the Center for Culinary Development has noted in presentations and published reports that consumers’ interest in the provenance of their foods has been, and will remain, a key factor in their purchasing decisions at restaurants and grocery stores. While millions of people—including many quick-serve heavy users—will always see eggs as just eggs, millions of others now obsess over whether those eggs came from a local free-range chicken farm where birds are raised under humane conditions, on a diet of wholesome organic grains, and where sustainable, environmentally sensitive water-management and waste-processing systems are in place.
More restaurants and food companies are paying attention not just for the customer’s sake, but also because other business stakeholders—shareholders, government agencies, community groups, and so on—want them to “go local” as well. After all, local sourcing means less energy is required to get food from the farm to the plate, which in turn reduces the business’s carbon footprint and enhances the business’s reputation as a conscientious corporate citizen.
These sorts of considerations originated with more affluent consumers with plenty of time and disposable income on their hands. But soon enough, mainstream consumers began to catch on, and the result has been massive growth in products—from meats to produce, eggs to cheeses, and breads to juices, beers, and bourbon—that are either locally sourced, organically grown, raised conscientiously, baked by artisans, fresh-squeezed and flash-pasteurized, brewed in small batches, or of higher quality or more noble lineage in some other sense.
In tough economic times, it’s easy to see how more basic concerns about the cost of a dozen eggs could trump worries about those eggs’ origins. But for several years many consumers have shown they are willing to pay a premium to enjoy foods that are (or are perceived as being) of premium quality.
Particularly at breakfast, when differentiation is so difficult to achieve through new-product development, adding even one locally sourced, premium ingredient to standard products might just give chains the edge they seek. Consider the following:
- Chains such as KFC or Chick-fil-A might consider making local, free-range turkey part of the menu each fall for a limited-time offering of turkey fingers with cranberry dipping sauce, or a spicy turkey biscuit sandwich with cranberry mayo.
- At Einstein’s or Bruegger’s, the addition of sustainably farmed smoked salmon could add a schmear of conscience to a menu that’s always been quality-focused.
- The addition of locally grown, vine-ripened tomatoes could turn standard-issue breakfast items into fresher-tasting must-haves. Adding them to a breakfast omelet roll-up, or using them as the basis for a vine-ripened tomato salsa that accompanies a plate of scrambled eggs, could make for compelling offerings at a quick-serve Mexican chain such as Del Taco.
- Chipotle has been way out in front of other chains with its natural pork offerings for burritos and bowls. But other chains could also put premium pork on the menu in the form of natural or nitrite-free bacon or natural pork sausages.
- Other produce with a regional flavor and pedigree could also turn, say, a basic apple muffin into a Washington McIntosh Muffin or, if you’re partial to East Coast varieties, perhaps a Maine Cortland Apple Muffin, a Portland Cortland, if you will.
- Finally, at a time when upscale eggs, cheeses, and flours are all the rage, pizza and bakery chains could tap into the trend with mini breakfast pizzas comprising all three: whole-grain crusts, free-range organic eggs, and local cheeses.
Granted, some or many of the above suggestions could pose challenges from a sourcing or supply-chain standpoint. One can hardly imagine McDonald’s sourcing eggs from 5,000 mom ’n' pop farms just to be able to distinguish its eggs from those served at Burger King. Nonetheless, I think each offers a sense of how a choice ingredient or two could add a little local flavor to the morning menuboard without breaking the bank.