The Art And Science Of Crafting A Fast Casual Restaurant Menu

Fast-casual and fast-food restaurants must strike a unique balance between convenience, price, and quality. A quick service restaurant (QSR) menu offering innovative, consumer-trend-focused dishes set it apart in a crowded business segment. However, creating a standout menu must be done strategically to avoid alienating loyal customers, breaking the bank, or creating operational issues.

Today's article will explore the art and science of crafting a menu that best represents the brand's flavors, creates curiosity among consumers, and keeps guests returning for more. We'll look at the balance of blending classic favorites with new flavors, incorporating local and seasonal ingredients to maximize impact, and predicting diners' cravings before they even know they exist.

I have the privilege of occasionally speaking with seasoned restaurateurs and franchisors who offer valuable insights into menu engineering.

Aaron Noveshen, Founder and CEO of Starbird, a chef-driven, fast-casual brand that features "made from scratch" menu items, was gracious enough to help me better understand the process of achieving success with a fast-casual menu. We discussed the thinking, planning, and steps necessary to develop an innovative, crave-able menu that creates frequent visits.

Gary Occhiogrosso (GO): How do you innovate and create new menu items to attract consumers to super premium fast food?

Aaron Novashen (AN): We attract customers to Starbird by creating unique menu items that are on trend, applicable to crispy chicken, and positively delicious. This extensive work includes our team going on food tours – or food safaris as we call them – to get inspiration from other innovative chef-driven restaurant brands. We look at restaurants from all different segments to see how flavor, presentation, packaging, and overall menu execution are being handled outside our current trade areas. Our team of chefs spends ample time refining and evaluating new menu items, often investing several months to perfect a recipe before it is ready for launch.

GO: What role does scratch cooking play in designing an innovative menu for fast-food restaurants?

AN: As a chef-driven brand, Starbird's menu innovation is inspired by our scratch cooking that creatively incorporates flavors consumers crave. We make everything on our menu from scratch daily using the highest quality ingredients. For example, we're making nine different sauces and five dressings from scratch, which enhance the flavor of our sandwiches, tenders, nuggets, and salads. We're also hand-chopping, roasting and pickling our vegetables every day, which make our salads the most crave-able chicken salads on the market. These are just a few examples of what truly differentiates Starbird from other quick service restaurants (QSRs).

GO: Can you explain the balance between offering popular, familiar items and introducing new, unique dishes to keep the menu fresh and exciting?

AN: Starbird has built a deeply loyal fan base, so when we launch a new product, our customers trust it's going to be delicious. Building and maintaining this trust is the foundation of a fresh and exciting menu.

We use our limited-time offer (LTO) program to introduce menu items and entice customers to try something new or a unique twist on a familiar favorite. In fact, several of Starbird's most popular LTO items, that are now on the menu full-time, including the Nashville Hot Chicken Sandwich and the Thai Chicken lineup.

Additionally, our team regularly revisits recipes every couple of years to see if they need a "revamp," because we have found that flavor trends can change over time. This gives us the opportunity to reconnect with both new and old customers and stay top of mind as their favorite super-premium chicken brand.

GO: In what ways can technology be integrated into the menu design to enhance the customer experience and showcase innovation?

AN: At Starbird, leveraging technology has been a priority since we launched in 2016. Our guests' tech experience starts with the menu design. Consumers can order in a variety of ways, including through our mobile app and touch-screen kiosks in our restaurants. The menu features the item's ingredients and uses descriptions a consumer is familiar with to influence their selection. Images are also extremely important, as a beautiful picture of a crispy, saucy, juicy chicken sandwich makes the item more desirable.

Additionally, we continue to improve our digital ordering experience and delivery integrations. Customers enjoy using the kiosks and, when they do, they spend more. In turn, we've experienced a higher average check and improved margins.

GO: Gluten-free crispy chicken is rare in the fast-food industry. How did you land on a gluten-free recipe for your menu?

AN: Our team is a group of like-minded chefs and restaurant veterans who are obsessed with flavor and making the best-in-class crispy chicken. When we started Starbird, we did not set out to create a gluten-free crispy chicken. Our team tried over 100 different crispy chicken iterations, and we found that gluten-free breading created a lighter, crispier coating that is less greasy than traditional fried chicken. This crisp is what keeps our fans coming back. You can put our chicken in the fridge overnight, and it will still be crispy the next morning!

As gluten-free intolerance has increased over the years, we are happy to provide a safe and delicious eating experience for those who are looking for gluten-free options.

GO: What methods can a fast-food restaurant implement to gather feedback from customers and use it to refine and enhance the menu over time?

AN: At Starbird, we use several methods to gather consumer opinions, including surveys, social media, and in-person customer feedback. We use a tool that integrates with our POS, ordering, loyalty, and kiosk provider. This helps us gather and analyze feedback daily to track things like food quality, order accuracy, service, and more. This tool allows us to measure the success of promotions and can get granular with data because it is integrated directly with our online ordering platform. This data becomes invaluable to us as we refine the menu and add new items. In fact, we recently used consumer feedback to re-launch several of our chicken sandwiches featuring better bread, more flavorful sauces, and a larger chicken breast.

GO: What are your thoughts on menu extension and keeping a small, tight menu?

AN: As we create new menu items, the team analyzes data to make informed decisions on what to keep or remove from the menu. As an example, we recently removed tacos from the menu after learning that other items were performing better and tacos were not a core offering. We continuously review product and sales information, retention percentages, general customer feedback, and trends in the market. We believe it's important to stay focused on what you're known for and not overcomplicate your menu. Delivering a craveable, simple menu has been our focus.

GO: How do you see fast casual and fast food menus evolving over the next five years?

AN: Fast food menus must continue to evolve based on consumers' ever-changing tastes. At Starbird, we've found that consumers today deeply care what they put in their bodies. With so much information at their fingertips via social media and online, they want to know everything they can about every ingredient in a particular menu item. Over the next five years, fast food restaurants will need to continue to innovate and elevate their product offerings, flavors, and ingredients to stay relevant with consumers' demands. I think we will see many more LTOs, chef partnerships, and the use of higher-quality ingredients appearing on QSR menus across the country.

Summary

I'll conclude by writing that it's evident that the future of fast-casual dining lies in agility in menu design—this, along with an unwavering commitment to quality and responsiveness to customer feedback.

The aim is to provide a dynamic and elevated guest experience, whether through a gluten-free recipe that elevates crispy chicken or an LTO program that turns seasonal trends into year-round favorites.

As diners become more informed and demanding and tastes evolve, the fast-casual industry must be prepared to react and lead. With restaurant innovators at the helm, fast-casual and QSR menus are expected to meet the moment and define it in the coming years.