Contenders in the fast-growing breakfast-and-lunch-only market admit they have a vulnerability: lack of convenience. The places were conceived as sit-down establishments where patrons could kick back with a daytime cocktail or two as they indulge in highly crafted meals requiring a knife and fork.
Now several veterans of the segment are betting they can address that shortcoming with a concept combining the usual distinctions of a daytime dining venture, including cocktails, with the added feature of a drive-thru.
The menu for the Twisted Egg Shack was drafted accordingly. Pancakes, for instance, were yanked off the menu because they required more prep time than a drive-thru patron may be willing to wait. The emphasis is on delivering portability without a sacrifice in quality, says Brett Baumgartner, the Toasted Yolk franchisee who opened the Egg Shack prototype.
“This isn’t fast food,” he told Restaurant Business. “We wanted to give a quality product you can’t get anywhere else out of a window.”
The food is priced accordingly. Chris Milton, a co-founder of Toasted Yolk and a principal in the Egg Shack brand, likens the prices to what customers might otherwise see at a Starbucks. Since the prototype opened Sept. 16, the team hasn’t seen any price resistance from customers. It expects the check average to normalize at $23 to $24 per person.
Selections include several types of bowls, alongside such breakfast and brunch staples as avocado toast, a.m. tacos, omelets and scrambles. Patrons who intend to have breakfast on the run can opt for a line of croissant-based handheld sandwiches that are made to order.
Lunch options include sandwiches—or Stackers, in Egg Shack parlance—along with several salads.
All juices are squeezed by hand, Baumgartner says. They include the juices that are mixed with Champagne for the mimosas, which sell in classic or frozen form for $9. Non-alcoholic versions of the popular brunch refreshment are also available. A mimosa kit that serves four is offered for $26.95.
The cocktails are offered both via the drive-thru and for table service within the store’s dining room, which appears smaller than the seating area at most daytime dining cafes.
Baumgartner, Milton and their partners intend to keep opening Toasted Yolks as they roll out their new venture. They view the smaller-sized Egg Shack as a way of expanding their development options to include markets that may not have the populations to support a Toasted Yolk. “But they have the traffic and everything else we need to be successful,” said Clay Carson, who’s spearheading development of Egg Shack. “We think there’s a tremendous opportunity in those markets.”
The first Egg Shack is in Beaumont, Texas, a location not likely to be confused with Dallas or Houston. The second store is slated for similarly sized Victoria, Texas.
In addition, Carson said, enough drive-thru operations have thrown in the napkin in recent years to create a significant opportunity for conversions.
The smaller format also lowers the cost. The principals say they’re striving to bring the expense of a store down to less than $400,000.
They declined to say what they expect the stores to gross. But “it’s a helluva lot closer to a Toasted Yolk than it is to a Jersey Mike’s,” said Carson, referring to the fast-growing fast-casual sandwich chain.
Because of the concessions that were made to speed and portability at Egg Shack, its co-founders wanted it to be perceived as a concept distinct from Toasted Yolk. “We didn’t want to go down the road with a Toasted Yolk Express or something else that would cheapen the [established] brand,” said Baumgartner.
The team initially tried a version of Egg Shack that merely put more emphasis on convenience and to-go business but found it didn’t work. At 4,000 square feet, it was still smaller than a typical Toasted Yolk and sported an outdoor patio, a feature that didn’t exactly scream grab and go.
“We saw very quickly that it needed a drive-thru,” said Carson. That first attempt at an Egg Shack was closed, but “it served its purpose.”
Led by concepts like First Watch and Snooze, the breakfast-and-lunch sector has grown rapidly, delivering what vibrancy the larger family-dining segment has seen in recent years. Indeed, old-guard family-focused brands like Denny’s and Cracker Barrel have acquired brands that give them a foothold in the market.
But concepts in the field acknowledge that they can’t match the convenience afforded by fast-food concepts that offer a breakfast menu. Snooze tried to fill that gap with a virtual brand called Bodegga by Snooze. It featured a menu of sandwiches, bowls and other highly portable options for consumers in a time crunch.
First Watch saw off-premise sales soften last year as the price of delivery climbed for customers. But the decline wasn’t a cause for alarm, CEO Chris Tomasso said at the time. Patrons were forgoing an omelet or breakfast sandwich at home to visit a unit instead, where they’d get the full First Watch experience, he asserted. “We're happy to have more people in our dining room, frankly,” Tomasso said, explaining that only an onsite visit provided a full blast of what makes First Watch different.
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