With nine locations in Florida, fast-casual Lime Fresh Mexican Grill is David to Taco Bell’s Goliath. But CEO Patrick Fore is a big Taco Bell fan, and he was impressed by the way the Mexican fast-food giant hacked a menu category by developing a pizza, said Jon Pavano, brand director of operations for Miami-born Lime Fresh.
Fore tasked Pavano with creating an elevated take on the Mexican pizza that showcased the small chain’s commitment to fresh ingredients and scratch cooking. “We have no microwaves, no freezers and very small walk-ins at our locations, so everything truly is made fresh,” he said. The kitchens are tiny, too, and not every restaurant has an oven or salamander, he added. Plus, he didn’t want to copy Taco Bell and use a tortilla as the crust.
But the Lime Fresh team rose to the challenge, and eight months later launched two limited-time pizzas that nixed the tortilla base and weren’t baked in an oven.
It starts with a local partnership
The pizza sauce was first on Pavano’s to-do list. “We wanted to do a hot honey sauce, but we try to stay away from pre-packaged ingredients,” he said. “Instead of bringing in a red pizza sauce, we used our house-made roja sauce as the base and tried several different hot sauces to spice it up.”
Tabañero, a local Florida hot sauce company that’s community-focused like Lime Fresh, had been growing its line, and one of the fast casual’s board members connected the restaurant team with the founder. Pavano blended the hot sauce with honey, garlic, paprika and red pepper flakes, and the recipe was a winner. “Aside from the Tabañero, the only ingredient we brought was the red pepper flakes,” said Pavano. For the pizza topping, grilled chicken is tossed with the hot honey sauce and layered with roja sauce, mixed cheeses, house pickled onions, avocado ranch, cotija cheese and fresh cilantro.
A local hot sauce flavors Lime Fresh Mexican Grill's two pizzas.
Instead of a tortilla, Pavano sourced a 14 x 7-inch rectangular stone-fired naan bread for the crust. “During the testing, we layered on the toppings and originally baked it in the oven, but we wanted to develop a pizza that every location could put on the menu,” he said. So they tried it on the flattop, covering the pizza with a 14-inch chef’s cap [like a wider pot lid], creating an environment similar to an oven.
“We can produce the pizzas in 3½ minutes and the flattop infuses the crust with flavor,” said Pavano. “The pizzas only take up 2 inches more space than our quesadillas.”
The resulting sweet-spicy Tabañero Hot Honey Chicken Pizza sells for $13, and “if you’re very hungry, it will fill you up, but younger guests are sharing it,” said Pavano.
A pizza with hometown pride
During the R&D process, Pavano went through several other pizza iterations, including a Cali Barbecue Chicken Pizza that made it to the end. “Then the Florida Panthers won the Stanley Cup, so we changed the name to the Panthers Pizza,” he said.
It has the same base as the hot honey pizza, but the grilled chicken is tossed with a guava barbecue sauce. It’s layered on the naan with chipotle ranch, house-made pico de gallo, bacon, fresh avocado, pickled jalapeños and a garnish of cotija cheese and fresh cilantro. “The chipotle ranch was a later addition, but really complements the guava barbecue sauce,” said Pavano. “And we tried it at first with the avocado ranch, but that was too similar to the hot honey pizza. It’s more vibrant with the fresh avocado.”
Both limited-time pizzas launched July 1 and are on the menu through the end of September. They can be ordered on their own for $13 or as part of a combo meal with a soft drink for $13.99. So far, the Panthers Pizza is outselling the hot honey chicken version.
What’s next?
In developing menu items, Pavano tries to limit ingredients to seven or less and cross-utilize as much as possible. Even though the pizza platform was entirely new, it didn’t require much training. “My goal is to create items that anyone can produce, so I don’t complicate the process,” he said.
In the first week, Lime Fresh sold over 300 pizzas with no marketing, “which is pretty good for a taco stand,” said Pavano. Now the marketing push is on, and there’s a possibility of line extensions if the sales support that move.
As part of an expanded partnership with Florida-based Tabañero, all Lime Fresh locations rolled out a co-branded hot sauce bar along with the two pizzas. The bar spotlights a variety of flavors from the brand’s lineup, including Garlic Habañero, Key Lime, XXX and the all-new Bourbon Peach, in addition to the Original and Extra Hot styles.