Pancakes and waffles are never going off the breakfast menu, but consumers are beginning to go in a lunch-and-dinner direction for the first meal of the day. Perhaps it’s the all-day breakfast trend that’s driving demand. Or maybe erratic schedules are pushing breakfast later in the day. According to Technomic’s recent Breakfast Consumer Trend Report, powered by Ignite, more than 26% of consumers—and 40% of older millennials—agree that they enjoy eating typical lunch and dinner foods for breakfast.
Operators are responding by expanding the lineup of savory breakfast items and putting a greater focus on convenience. To drive sales, they’re capitalizing on opportunities: midmorning “second breakfast” meal occasions, breakfast-for-dinner dishes and breakfast delivery to build traffic beyond the traditional morning daypart.
Morphed menus
First Watch tags itself as The Daytime Cafe, and has always offered its entire breakfast and lunch menu during its 7 a.m. to 2 p.m business hours. But now Corporate Chef Shane Schaibly is developing more brunchy items that can span breakfast and lunch. The newest are chicken chimichurri hash and an ancient grain protein bowl made with grilled chicken, avocado and three grains—farro, quinoa and brown rice. Both launched as LTOs at the end of March.
“Customers gravitate toward these savory, hearty dishes during the week,” he says. Other savory items, such as its avocado toast and skillet hash, are always in the top 10 in sales, says Schaibly. While sweet, more indulgent items such as pancakes and French toast are popular on the weekend, they never crack the top 10.
First and second breakfasts
As much as these savory dishes are becoming breakfast staples, the actual time for breakfast is creeping into lunchtime hours. Melissa Gallagher, VP of marketing for fast casual Freshii, has noticed an uptick in second breakfast customers, who come in around 10 or 10:30 a.m. To meet that demand, Freshii has added some new, portable items. Coconut chia pudding, a combo of chia seeds, almond or coconut milk and honey topped with fresh fruit and coconut, is available in refrigerated display cases for grab-and-go, as are Freshii’s Energii Bites—a high-protein snack made with peanut butter, oats, honey, coconut and chocolate chips.
Following on the success of McDonald’s all-day breakfast launch in 2015, more quick-service players jumped in, trying to top the competition with differentiated programs. Brunchfast is Jack in the Box’s entry, “a daypart never before seen in fast food,” according to Adrienne Ingoldt, VP of marketing communications. “Upon launch, we saw new customers coming to our restaurants [through credit card data] that now had a new reason to try our food,” she says.
The Brunchfast menu includes the “fan favorite” bacon and egg chicken sandwich and the new meaty Country Scrambler Plate, which features sausage links, eggs, potatoes, cheese and additional bacon and ham. The Brunch Burger and a Southwest Scrambler Plate round out the platform.
Taco Cabana joined the all-day breakfast movement just this January, offering up select breakfast tacos from 8 a.m through midnight and extending to 24 hours on weekends. Choices include bacon, egg and cheese; chorizo and egg; steak, egg and cheese; and the latest LTO—brisket, egg and cheese. Prices range from $1.19 to $2.69.
To facilitate all-day breakfast service, the QSR had to revamp the cook line to hold tacos all day and train employees to cook eggs to order, says Chuck Locke, president of Taco Cabana. But it’s already paying off, he says. “We’re now selling as many breakfast tacos as dinner tacos,” he says, noting that all-day traffic includes employees coming in after shifts, remote workers and others with different routines. And Taco Boxes—12 breakfast tacos packed to go—have turned into a big seller, Locke says.
Breakfast to go
First Watch’s fresh juice program, rolled out in 2015, has built incremental sales for the chain, says Schaibly. “Customers are coming in and ordering only juice and taking it to go,” he says. In fact, the full-service chain is ramping up off-premise, testing delivery in a few locations. “Breakfast is always busier than lunch, and sometimes the wait for a table is very long. Delivery is a clear benefit for guests who don’t like to wait,” he says.
Freshii recently started its delivery initiative, with plans to expand, says Gallagher. “We’re trying to optimize off-peak hours with third-party delivery,” she says. The chain developed breakfast bowls and egg pockets—grilled pita filled with eggs, bacon, cheddar and tomatoes—to be convenient for takeout and delivery.
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