Two restaurant chains made pretty big additions to their menus over the past week. CAVA introduced its first seafood item — salmon — and Chili’s launched a whole line of fried chicken sandwiches.
The salmon is farm-raised in Norway and Iceland, cooked in CAVA’s programmable ovens, and coated in a pomegranate glaze. The chicken starts with a 5.1-ounce chicken breast that’s breaded, fried, and served in a variety of builds, including the standard combination of mayonnaise, or spicy mayo, and pickles. It can also come with Nashville Hot coating or two other sauces — Buffalo or honey-chipotle — among other options.
But of particular interest to me is the way they launched them, which included throwing parties here in New York City.
CAVA’s party was in an elegant white space, which it called an oasis, with grand views of the Hudson River. There was a DJ, which seems to be almost required at these sorts of launch parties, cocktails (I had the Aleppo sunset, made with tequila, lime juice, agave syrup, orange bitters, and tangerine juice with Aleppo pepper), and a bag charm station, which has also become pretty normal at these events. If you’re not a member of Gen Z, you might not know what a bag charm is. It’s like a charm bracelet for your bag, and I’m told that the kids (by which I mean anyone under 30) love them.
And CAVA CEO Brett Schulman was there, too. He gave a brief speech about how bringing seafood to the chain is a dream come true.
I politely (I hope) confronted him about the fact that, although CAVA’s a Mediterranean concept, salmon’s not a Mediterranean fish.
True, he said, but fish is definitely an important part of the Mediterranean diet and salmon holds up better than a flaky whitefish to the rigors of a fast-casual setting. Also, the supply is sufficient and reliable.
Fair enough, and certainly the pomegranate glaze it’s coated in is Mediterranean.
CAVA has thrown similar parties in the past. In 2024 it rented out a Western-themed bar to celebrate the rollout of its Garlic Ranch Pita Chips — somewhat torturously equating ranch dressing with the American West, I guess. There was a Country & Western band and an open bar with a smart bartender who just looked at me and said “whiskey.” He was correct.
CAVA has a strong presence in New York City, catering to the lunch crowd of office workers, but Chili’s doesn’t really — just one restaurant in a shopping center in Queens — but it does enjoy throwing launch parties here. They range from simply setting up a food truck and handing out its new Southwestern Queso to building up ice bars in a warehouse to showcase its new lineup of frozen Margaritas. It did both of those things last year.
For the chicken sandwich, it set up a pop-up in highly trafficked Union Square, next to a McDonald’s, where it held a mock trial that found quick-service chains guilty of overcharging for smaller portions of food, which has been a big part of Chili’s messaging for more than a year now. Chili’s CEO wasn’t there, but chief marketing officer George Felix and corporate chef Brian Paquette were (that’s how I know the size of the chicken fillet).
And then there’s the swag. CAVA handed out all sorts of beauty and moisturizing products, a nod to the summery, oasis theme of the event, and Chili’s gave me a tote, two t-shirts, and a baseball cap, which I’ll add to my collection of two sweatshirts, a beanie, and a shiny silver Chilli’s jacket, with two ‘l’s, as in “cold,” that was handed out at the frozen Margarita party.
Clearly these chains understand the importance of winning over influencers, hence the photogenic venues and expressive branding — and their presence.
These parties aren’t new, but they do seem to be getting a bit more lavish.
I’ll keep you posted on where this all goes.