Seven restaurant brands, each with its own kitchen, are lined up along one side of Focus Brands’ Culinary Innovation Center at the company’s Atlanta headquarters.
Here, where each kitchen is equipped like a real-life, brick-and-mortar restaurant, a myriad of menu ideas take shape.
Jamba is first on “kitchen row,” outfitted with blenders and freezers; then comes Schlotzsky’s, tricked out with giant mixers for bread dough, meat slicers and conveyor toasters; Moe’s Southwest Grill is set up with cold and hot wells to replicate its store footprint; McAlister’s Deli has tea brewers and ovens for baking potatoes and cookies; and Auntie Anne’s is decked out with dough mixers and marble counters for making and shaping pretzels.
“It was the sun and the moon and paved the way for us to create the ‘planets’.”
Stepping into the last two kitchens, Cinnabon and Carvel, reveals colorful branded signage and retail-style counters, plus an in-house bakery for cinnamon buns in one and soft-serve machines for ice cream in the other.
But when I visited on a recent Thursday in May, all the culinary action was buzzing around the kitchens of McAlister’s Deli and Moe’s Southwest Grill. Each has a menu story to tell, revealing news many months in the making.
McAlister’s big morning move
McAlister’s Deli has built a lot of equity in lunch catering, with its menu of sandwich trays, baked potato bars and salads, said Mike Freeman, McAlister’s Chief Brand Officer.
Freeman was ready to leverage that equity into breakfast. “It’s always been available under the radar, but we didn’t have a dedicated menu,” he said. “Consumer demand for breakfast catering was strong, and we saw it as a way to add another revenue channel and daypart.”
But before McAlister’s Culinary Manager Brock Peek could even start on the menu, Freeman and his team tackled the packaging.
“Everything hinged on the box,” said Freeman. “We wanted to move away from plastic and use green packaging.” Plus, it was key to find a box with inserts that would work with a “breakfast bar” setup, since that serving style is part of the brand’s DNA.
Even though packaging was still a supply chain challenge, McAlister’s leveraged relationships with vendors and suppliers—plus the power of 520-plus restaurants in 29 states—to create a spin on its successful lunch boxes. The new cardboard-and-craft paper breakfast boxes are sustainable, segmented and easy to carry.
“The packaging was a big game changer,” said Freeman. “It was the sun and the moon and paved the way for us to create the ‘planets’”—aka the actual menu items.
Although office buildings in large urban centers are still not 100% filled because of hybrid and remote work schedules, McAlister's operates in a lot of smaller cities and towns where catering is in demand. Orders come in from workers in municipal buildings, schools, utility companies, doctor’s offices and the like, said Freeman, with the average order of 30 breakfasts.
Catering by the numbers
In a recent survey, ezCater found that 67% of workers believe that skipping breakfast negatively affects their productivity in the workplace. Still, 60% of them skip breakfast two or more days per week, creating a big opportunity for employers to improve productivity by providing breakfast.
No wiggle room on SKUs
McAlister’s chose several box configurations and was ready to go. Now, it was time for Peek and the culinary team to work on the menu.
The biggest challenge: creating exciting choices without adding any new SKUs. There was no wiggle room here, said Freeman.
McAlister’s is a sandwich specialist, so individual boxes of breakfast sandwiches were a natural way to start meeting that challenge. A wide selection of carriers, including croissants, whole-grain bread, ciabatta and baguettes, was already in inventory.
From there, the team created four new breakfast boxes, each with a signature morning sandwich. The lineup includes Breakfast Florentine with eggs, cheese and spinach; Spicy Sausage & Egg; Breakfast Club Royale; and Breakfast Veggie. All come with Greek yogurt and fresh fruit, placed in cups designed to fit into inserts in the new box.
Customers can also order classic sandwiches of eggs with bacon, sausage or ham. All the breakfast sandwiches are available as trays as well as individual boxes.
To add McAlister’s style, Peek and the team also developed several breakfast bar concepts. The customizable Avocado Toast Bar features the chain’s French baguette, cut into slices and accompanied by house-made avocado spread and toppings including diced cooked bacon, diced tomatoes, cucumber slices, red onion and gorgonzola cheese.
“The build-it-yourself bars check the boxes for differentiation and a health halo.”
For the French Toast Bar, the same baguette is sliced slightly differently and dipped in batter. It arrives cooked with toppers including fresh fruit and berries, diced cooked bacon, candied almonds, maple syrup and butter. There’s also a Yogurt Bar with toppings.
“The build-it-yourself bars check the boxes for differentiation and a health halo,” said Freeman. “And the whole catering menu checks the boxes of freshness, value, quality and speed.
A couple of items didn’t make the cut because they were too time consuming. The team thought about doing a breakfast potato bar as a takeoff on McAlister’s popular baked potato bar, but speed was a giant consideration, he added. A breakfast bread pudding with fruit was also nixed, as it required too much optimization.
“We want to get the orders out fast,” said Freeman. “Customers order the night before, and we are ready to execute quickly next morning.”
McAlister’s realizes that it’s in a very competitive space “but most fast-casual operators are doing breakfast at retail,” said Freeman. “We made a conscious decision to focus on breakfast catering, with a dedicated menu.”
The program was tested over six months and will roll out nationally in August. Freeman sees it as the first installment of a comprehensive all-day catering program for the brand.
“We’re going after snacks and dinner, ideating around grazing boards but with a McAlister’s twist,” said Freeman. The brand’s cookies are also an opportunity for snack catering, he added.
Moe’s refreshes the brand but keeps the vibe
While McAlister’s was busy developing breakfast catering, Moe’s Southwest Grill was re-evaluating and revitalizing its brand platform.
The 625-unit chain was not started by a guy named Moe, as many think (including me!).
“Moe’s is an acronym for ‘Musicians, Outlaws and Entertainers,’ and we’re rooted in that spirit,” said Chief Brand Officer Tory Bartlett. “We saw an opportunity to harness more of that rebel spirit through our menu and guest journey.”
Moe’s brand refresh was tagged “Project Victory” and was tested in 85 locations before launching systemwide in April. It’s a major step in realizing Moe’s plan to grow from a large regional brand into a national one.
“We saw an opportunity to harness more of that rebel spirit through our menu and guest journey.”
Project Victory touches seven key points. In the spirit of acronyms, the “V” stands for validate necessary ingredients. “It’s not only about having fresh ingredients, it’s about having the right ones,” said Bartlett. “We have to maximize our limited hot and cold space.”
“I’ is for “improve line efficiency and speed of service.” The goal is to get people through the line in less than three minutes to improve the guest journey, Bartlett explained.
The “C” stands for “clean up the appearance of our food.” Moe’s preps and serves menu item items right in front of the guest, spooning ingredients from hot and cold wells to make burritos, quesadillas, bowls and more. That sometimes gets messy.
“We’re aiming for less dripping of queso and other sauces, and displaying the guacamole so guests see the freshness,” said Bartlett. “We really thought through the placement of ingredients for a cleaner perception.” Many of the sauces are on the line but there’s also a separate salsa bar; that was reorganized and cleaned up, too.
“T” is for “transform our flavor profiles,” a mission Moe’s Executive Chef Matt McKinney has been working on for many months. “People love Moe’s because of our flavor profiles,” McKinney said. “We over-index on flavor.”
The secret’s in the sauce
Sauce innovation has been on the front burner during Moe’s brand refresh. McKinney developed three new sauces, all launched just last month.
Signature Moe’s Sauce is a mild blend of Greek yogurt, dill and Southwest spices that works especially well with chicken. Poblano Crema is also mildly flavored, a combo of roasted poblano peppers, avocado, sour cream, garlic and lime juice. We tasted it on a steak taco, and the pairing was spot on.
On the spicier side is Kickin’ Cayenne, a mix of hot peppers and seasonings. The new trio of sauces joins Southwest Vinaigrette, Hard Rock and Chipotle Ranch on the line.
Guests can use the sauces to customize any menu item, but Moe’s also offers “Greatest Hits”—chef-curated builds with ingredients and flavors combined for a guaranteed successful result. The new sauces are also featured in several limited-time offers.
For the in-restaurant salsa bar, McKinney created a Black Cherry Chipotle Salsa, a seasonal addition that’s currently on the menu. It’s a slightly sweet and smoky blend of black cherries and spice for a sweet-heat flavor profile.
“We started testing the cherry salsa in 2019, but the pandemic got in the way and it was challenging to get the black cherry puree,” said McKinney. It will stay on the menu for four to six months, then be swapped out for another seasonal salsa.
“We’re on a mission to grow our sauce categories and LTOs that use sauces,” said Bartlett. Right now, McKinney is working on more colors and flavors but staying true to Moe’s Southwest direction. “We try to stay away from anything too far out, like Asian sauces,” he said.
Saucy stats
Sauces are menu differentiators and are showing up with more diverse flavor profiles, according to Technomic Ignite Menu data. These are the five fastest-growing sauces on chain menus over the past year:
The refresh continues
Back to Project Victory, we’re going to brush over “O”—which stands for “optimize the omni-channel guest experience—and focus on the menu. “R” refers to “redesign the menu board”—a major goal in the brand refresh.
The menu architecture is simplified, with the customer’s eye going first to the chef-curated Greatest Hits, then the customized build-your-own section. The protein choices have been edited down to four, with pork removed as an option. “We’re planning to do a rotational protein instead, but pork may come back in an LTO.” said McKinney. Chicken tinga is a protein that proved popular, and beef birria is in development. Chimichurri steak didn’t fly; the sauce was difficult to execute and it was hard to manage the waste, he added.
Moe’s sauces are a point of differentiation in the Mexican fast-casual space, so now they’re showcased in a special menu section with their colors and flavors clearly visible.
The “Y” in victory sums up Moe’s refresh; it stands for “yield a brand that is built to grow.” “This year is a foundational year for growth,” said Bartlett.
One Focus way
Taking one last look at those seven kitchens in a row begged the question: Do the brands ever share (or steal?) ideas, products and tips?
The scale of Focus Brands allows its concepts to leverage volume to streamline purchasing and better manage the supply chain.
And there’s a good deal of collaboration. “We cracked the code on packaging,” said McAlister’s Freeman, “and we shared that with the other brands.”
And when seven chefs work side by side, there’s a lot of back and forth between the kitchens, exchanging ideas and tastes. Employees get involved too, with frequent “Taste and Tells” to give their feedback as consumers.
There’s always an opportunity to dip a freshly fried chip into a new sauce at Moe’s, sample a McAlister’s cookie or fill a small cup with Carvel soft-serve.