Mellow Mushroom’s trademarked tagline is “A Higher Order of Pizza,” playing off the hippie vibe defining the Atlanta-based concept since its founding in 1974. While stone-baked pizzas with (pseudo) psychedelic toppings are at its core, the extensive menu offers munchies (a.k.a appetizers) salads, sandwiches, wings, and even burgers and desserts.
But most of the categories were in need of a serious update, said Dave Woolley, who was brought on as head of culinary last April. “My headline mission was to modernize the menu,” he said of the 160-unit casual-dining chain. “It was a little dated, so basically I’ve taken every single category and deconstructed it to bring it into modern times. We also wanted to simplify things from an operations point.”
Kicking off with salads
Woolley tackled salads early on, chopping down the category and building it back from scratch. He began with the classics, Caesar, Cobb and Greek.
“We took salads that people really liked and gave them a makeover, brightening the flavors and elevating the eating experience,” he said. The lettuce was part of the problem—it was “big and clunky, and you had to carve through everything with a knife and fork.” The revamped salads now use smaller pieces of lettuce from hearts of romaine, easy enough to eat with just a fork.
The Greek Salad, Mellow Mushroom’s best seller in the category, was treated to a new feta cheese dressing that intensifies the flavor. And the Caesar salad, another favorite, got “a facelift,” said Woolley. “We added pickled onions and crispy Parmesan to the mix to amplify flavors. We weren’t sure about the onions at first, but guests shared how much they liked them, so they stayed.”
He also added two new salads to the lineup: Asian Crunch and Apple Harvest. “We had some really great ingredients in house to make the Asian dressing, so that was the impetus for creating the recipe,” said Woolley. The result is a salad composed of cucumbers, peppers, pineapple, crispy onions, wonton strips, cilantro, lime, shredded romaine and cabbage with a creamy Asian dressing. He also introduced crispy chicken to the menu, using a new boneless wing brought in as a base; the Thai chili variation makes a complementary protein addition to the Asian Crunch Salad.
The Apple Harvest salad combines apples, white cheddar, sheep’s milk feta, dried cherries, candied pecans, pepitas and shredded romaine with a balsamic vinaigrette. “We eliminated the original dressing created for the salad because the balsamic dressing we already had in house fit perfectly with the ingredients,” said Woolley. He did add a few new SKUs to the system for the category revamp, including wonton strips and pickled onions, but feels those can be cross utilized in future items. And a Southwest Salad didn’t make it into this rollout but is in the pipeline to possibly launch as an LTO down the road.
Salads and pizza are a natural combination, and when Mellow Mushroom tested the revamped versions and new additions, there was a bump in salad sales, said Woolley. “Now that they’re permanently on the menu we’re still seeing a tick in sales. You can order these salads as an entree or a side.”
Next up: Sandwiches
Sandwiches are called hoagies at Mellow Mushroom, done sub-style. When Woolley arrived as head of culinary, he discovered that nobody really liked the bread; not guests, team members or franchisees. So he set out to find a better bread.
The chef is very fond of the hearth-baked bread and rolls made by Amoroso’s Baking Company in Philadelphia—the same product used on that city’s best cheesesteaks. Woolley sourced that bread and since he personally likes to eat a hoagie that’s toasted, took that extra step. Then he went even further, adding Mellow Mushroom’s signature garlic butter to the recipe.
Sandwiches have been revamped with better bread.
“We use a ton of garlic butter here because when our pizzas come out of the oven, they are all brushed with garlic butter and sprinkled with Parmesan,” said Woolley. “So I thought, why don’t we use that same idea on the sandwiches?” Now the hoagie bread is sliced horizontally in half, brushed with garlic butter and toasted as a foundation for building the sandwiches. Even the cold sandwiches benefit with a little warmth from the bread, he added.
Then Woolley got to work on upgrading Mellow Mushroom’s cheesesteak, a customer favorite. In Philly, people are asked if they want provolone or Cheese Whiz on their cheesesteak, so he thought about using the “incredible” beer cheese the kitchen makes in house. The sandwich build starts with shaved ribeye, onions and peppers cooked on the grill, then layered on the garlic-toasted hoagie roll and topped with beer cheese. “You get the contrast of the richness of the cheese and steak with the acidity and tanginess of the peppers,” said Woolley. “It’s working out really well in test.”
A case of the munchies
Naming Mellow Mushroom’s appetizer and snack section “Munchies” fits with the concept’s vibe, but the selection was lacking in Woolley’s eyes. “As soon as I was hired, I thought that this brand should have garlic knots. I brought the idea to the team and they asked ‘can we stuff it with cheese?’” He didn’t think so, but the question hatched another idea, he said.
Mellow Rollz were the most successful LTO of all time.
Woolley went back to the drawing board—or the kitchen, in this case—and took some of the pizza dough after it had been stretched, cut it into quarters and rolled each piece out. Then he filled it with cheese, adding pepperoni with the cheese in some versions, and rolled it up to partially enclose the filling. “That was how we launched Mellow Rollz,” he said.
Mellow Mushroom doesn’t have fryers in the kitchens, so the rolls are baked and served with a choice of sauces for dipping. “This is kind of our version of what a cheese stick might look like, and it even has a good cheese pull,” Woolley explained. “We had a huge hit with the Mellow Rollz. It was the biggest LTO that the brand had in 53 years and now it’s a core menu item.”
A new sausage variation was introduced in the spring, with another coming up at the end of this month called a Greek feta roll. It is filled with sheep’s milk feta, tomatoes, spinach and garlic. Plus there are more flavors in the pipeline, he said.
And to drink
Bringing the cocktail menu up to speed was also key to the menu revamp. There was no espresso martini or spritz, and the margaritas were limited. While Woolley took part in the initial tastings, the beverage team did most of the developing and refining of the dozen or so new drinks.
Dragonfruit, pineapple and mango add color and flavor to the newest cocktails.
The list now includes a Moondust Margarita with tequila, dragonfruit, pineapple, orange bitters and lime juice, and a Spicy Mango Margarita with a Tajin rim. There’s also a Watermelon Zinger with tequila and Red Bull, a Vanilla Cream Cola spiked with vodka or Jack Daniels for a buzzy dirty soda, and two new spritzes: the Peach Pineapple Spritz and Groovy Berry Spritz. Rounding out the list are a Blackberry Whiskey Sour, Lemon Drop Martini, and the obligatory Espresso Martini.
The Mellow Mushroom pipeline is full of more ideas poised to roll out. “We’re already working on new burgers for next year as well as new pizzas, one of which is probably ready to launch as an LTO in the fall,” said Woolley. “We change the menu twice a year, and the sandwiches in test will come on the November menu.”