Article

Fast casual menus focus on the familiar

Consumers are seeking out flavors that are tried and true, but there is still room for innovation.

March 2, 2009

Consumers looking for the taste of new flavors and exotic ingredients will have to wait until next year, experts say.

People who are stressed out over bills and dwindling bank accounts tend to seek out comfort food; things that are reassuring, said Maria Caranfa, director of Mintel Menu Insights. That means key words on menus in 2009 will be those that highlight tastes of the familiar.

And people want something they recognize, said Suzy Badaracco, president of Culinary Tides. They want whole foods, something that will nurture and comfort them.

Comfort food, however, shouldn't be generic. It needs to be specific to the region and incorporate regional ingredients and flavors.

"Comfort food is not macaroni and cheese. That's too general. For instance, comfort food in Chicago will be heavy Polish and Russian influence. In Oregon you'll have a Japanese influence and typically seafood, something you won't get in Idaho," Badaracco said.

Vancouver, Wash.-based Burgerville recently announced several new menu items based on ingredients and flavors native to the region. This year, Burgerville is offering a monthly rotation of two new items based on local, seasonal ingredients such as Yukon gold potatoes, rosemary and spinach. Items based on these ingredients will include a Yukon gold basil veggie burger on a nine-grain bun, a rosemary chicken sandwich on a baguette with a side of rosemary shoestring potatoes and a spinach, scrambled egg and turkey sausage Florentine breakfast pastry with butter crust.

Although the offerings provide consumers with a taste of the familiar, they also provide the chain with a unique opportunity.

"People are hungry for new ideas and we want them to be pleasantly surprised when they walk into Burgerville," said Jeff Harvey, CEO of Burgerville. "People are migrating to quick service restaurants due in part to price. But we want to keep them constantly intrigued with our menu selections so they never leave."

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So far the gambit is paying off. Three weeks into its Yukon gold potato special Burgerville has doubled its projections and will likely run out of the product before the month is over.

"New menu introductions have to be successful for restaurants," Caranfa said. "In past years they could be more creative and if something didn't sell they just tried something else. But now more than ever, because of the economy, they have to have a solid plan behind new menu plans because they can't afford to fail."

That doesn't mean the flavors of 2009 will be completely static or homegrown. South American countries such as Chile and Argentina and Middle Eastern countries such as Israel, Lebanon and Armenia are having a growing impact on American cuisine, Badaracco said.

"New flavors are typically brought in from other countries. And right now American tourists are bringing all sorts of cuisine back with them from South America just as returning soldiers and journalists are coming back with flavors from the Middle East," Badaracco said.

And the cuisine brought back from these countries is ideal for U.S. consumers given the current economic climate--it typically comes from low-income regions and it is filling and often inexpensive, just like American comfort food, Badaracco said.

"When times are tough we all look for the same things, food that reassures us and is familiar. And the food from South America and the Middle East is coming in so fast that it is already becoming regionalized in certain parts of the country. For many people this new cuisine is becoming our new comfort food," Badaracco said.