Article
Beyond the bell
Explore the bold new world of Fresh Mex.
November 12, 2007
Twenty years ago, if you asked someone to talk about Mexican cuisine, they most likely would have referenced Taco Bell, Chi Chi's or any one of a host of similar operations.
How times have changed.
"As a category of food at restaurants, Hispanic is now No. 1," said Tim Ryan, Culinary Institute of America president, in a September speech to the Restaurant Association of Maryland. "That category is going to continue to grow for all kinds of reasons."
Nowhere is that trend more apparent than in the fast-casual restaurant industry where just a few years ago, "Fresh Mex" was a poor cousin to burgers and fries in the segment. Last year, however, three of the top 10 restaurants named to the Fast Casual"Top 100 Movers and Shakers" fell into the Fresh Mex category, including powerhouses Chipotle Mexican Grill, Qdoba and Moe's Southwest Grill.
Not just tortillas and beans
Even a few years ago, most Americans thought of Mexican food as mainly rice, pinto beans and ground beef, perhaps supplemented with fried tortilla chips.
While those ingredients may be one aspect of Mexican food, today's consumer is looking for something more, said Robert Angelone, chief executive officer of the New York-based hotel and restaurant consulting firm The Epicurus Group.
"Unfortunately, because of the Taco Bells of the world, Mexican food has a reputation of being just tacos, Mexican pizzas, quesadillas and things like that," Angelone said. "Consumers today want more diversity, fresher products and less reliance on things like cheese and sour cream."
Today's Fresh Mex menus are influenced by the cuisine of areas such as northern Mexico, where the food approximates what Americans traditionally consider Mexican food, to the fruit products of Central America to Venezuela, where seafood is a menu staple.
There are as many different cuisines as there are countries south of the border, if not more, Angelone said.
The rising Hispanic population has helped introduce those flavors to American menus.
"The Latin American population is not what Americans tend to think of as just Mexicans crossing the border; it is people coming from all over Latin America," he said. "And with them comes their food, the same way that at the turn of the 19th century we had Italians, Swedes, Germans and French people coming into this country bringing their food."
However, what is served in Fresh Mex-style fast casuals isn't a duplication of those cuisines, said Steven Kishi, president of the 13-unit casual-dining chain Super Mex, based in Long Beach, Calif. Super Mex is looking at the fast-casual segment for the company's future growth and Kishi is quick to point out that Super Mex offers traditional Mexican cuisine rather than Fresh Mex.
"I think what is considered Fresh Mex is a contemporary adaptation of Mexican food rather than the traditional flavors from Mexico," Kishi said. "It's not your traditional flavors from Mexico; it's more like food that has been put into a Mexican-style format."
Robert Phillips, president of the 30-unit Rockville, Md.-based California Tortilla, concurred with Kishi's assessment "When we consider new menu items, we look at not just the Fresh Mex section of the industry, but what is selling in other sections of the country and other sections of the market," Phillips said. "Our most popular burrito is our Blackened Chicken Caesar Burrito, which is by no means Mexican."
Healthy aspect a big driver
Part of the driving force behind the popularity of Fresh Mex is a demand for bigger, bolder flavors, said Ted Stoner, director of strategic product development for Denver-based Qdoba Mexican Grill.
"The American population is really craving more exotic flavors than they ever have before," Stoner said.
At the same time, there's a healthy aspect to Fresh Mex food as well.
"While we do have some items you wouldn't want to associate with health, we have so many items like our beans, which are made with a minimal amount of fat, our salsas and our grilled meats," Stoner said. "There are a lot of flavorful ingredients that allow you toget exactly what you want depending on how you want to eat, and when you look at that finished build, you are still looking at a very filling portion."
The rising popularity of Fresh Mex has introduced to American diners a host of ingredients such as mangos, tomatillos and a variety of chilies.
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"We've always just seen chilies as chili powder, which is a dried blend not specific to a variety of chili," Stoner said. "What Mexican cuisine has really brought to America is an education on what each of those chilies are and what flavors they impart."
Chefs today are excited about the flavors of different chilies, Stoner said. Qdoba recently introduced an Ancho chili barbecue sauce to match the addition of seasoned shredded pork to its menu. The sweet and spicy barbecue sauce, which Stoner himself created, incorporates Ancho chilies and hints of hickory and mesquite.
Identifying the market
Despite the fact that Mexican cuisine serves as the basis for Fresh Mex menus and the tremendous growth of the Latino population in United States, Latinos are not a big part of the customer base at Fresh Mex restaurants.
Most American quick-serve concepts are not that developed among Hispanics, Paul Curhan, vice president of marketing and advertising products for Seattle-based Taco Del Mar.
"We have a fair share of the Latino market in our sales, but the growth of quick-casual
Mexican is not driven by that," Curhan said. "I see most of the growth coming from people switching from other food categories."
The quality and flavor of Mexican food has been elevated in venues ranging from fine dining all the way to quick casual, Curhan said. That trend has helped get people to switch.
And today, operators said, most people are familiar with the basic style of Fresh Mex food.
"We have been around since 1995, and certainly burritos have been around a lot longer than that, but there was definitely an education process at the beginning," California Tortilla's Phillips said.
"The consumer today often has a preconception of what the product will be, whether that is from visiting one of our locations or one of our competitors," he said. "The market is starting to mature from that perspective."
That increased awareness has translated to increased sales for the segment overall.
"The awareness factor has grown tremendously, and we do better in an environment where there is a lot of competition," said Alan Hixson, president of the 15-unit College Station, Texas-based Freebirds World Burrito. "The bottom line is that if you are running a good operation and you are executing at a level that exceeds customer expectations, you are going to do well no matter how many people are out there."
From an operator's standpoint, there is an additional benefit to operating a Fresh Mex-style restaurant, Phillips said. Operated correctly, a Fresh Mex restaurant can be an extremely profitable venture.
"It's somewhat self-serving, but the unit economics are fabulous," Phillips said. "That is probably at the core of why so many developers are looking towards this segment to grow."
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