This Spring, Chicago-based Protein Bar & Kitchen introduced 10 new items to its permanent menu but added only two new SKUs—pineapple juice and date syrup. It’s a story of innovation through constraint, with the culinary team challenging themselves to expand flavor and functionality with minimal disruption.
“We found ways to cross-utilize ingredients that we already had in the restaurants with the goal of hitting on things that people were looking for without adding much complexity,” said Laura Camerer, senior manager of culinary, supply chain & facilities for the 15-unit fast casual. And what those “things” turned out to be were three smoothie bowls—a new menu category—and seven updated smoothies and shakes, fitting with the concept’s “healthy indulgence” focus.
Shaking up the shake lineup
Shakes and smoothies have been Protein Bar’s “bread and butter” since its start in 2009, said Camerer, “but one of the flavors we noticed missing from our shake profile was a tropical shake,” she added.
Strawberry, banana and mango were already in house, but Camerer brought in pineapple juice to bring together the tropical flavor profile. That evolved into the Baywatch, which is also blended with plant-based protein so it’s vegan-friendly, gluten-free and provides 16 grams protein.
The Baywatch boasts 16 grams of protein.
Chocolate was the next flavor to explore on the R&D docket. “We've always had a chocolate peanut butter shake and a chocolate coffee shake, but nothing that was straight chocolate,” said Camerer. The result is the Cocoa Puff shake, a blend of avocado, cacao nibs, cocoa malt, chocolate whey protein powder, date syrup and oat milk.
“We normally use banana as an emulsifier and thickener in blended shakes to smooth out the texture, but for this one we decided to use avocado,” said Camerer. “It's an ingredient we already have in the restaurants, and even though people think it’s a bit weird at first, it doesn’t have a strong flavor profile and is very smooth with a good mouthfeel. The date syrup adds luscious, caramelly notes with the added benefit of a really low glycemic index.”
Rounding out the shake additions are the Very Berry Shake and Big Date Shake, the latter a refresh using the new date syrup instead of whole dates. The syrup blends more easily into the shake, and Protein Bar’s broadliner was able to connect Camerer with a vendor that offered a convenient pack size.
Differentiating with smoothies and bowls
When Protein Bar & Kitchen was founded more than 15 years ago, there wasn’t the proliferation of smoothie and bowl concepts there is today. The competition is fiercer, and when her customers started showing more interest in the bowl category, Camerer felt the time was right to expand it with three more choices that span the dayparts.
The new Beach Smoothie Bowl has a tropical flavor twist.
The fast casual already had a green smoothie bowl and acai bowl. The creation of the new Beach Smoothie Bowl and Power Berry Crunch Smoothie Bowl was low-hanging fruit, so to speak. “The Beach Bowl is very similar to the Baywatch, light, fruity and tropical,” she said. “And the Power Berry Crunch has an acai base and is packed with protein, so it checks off those boxes.” Those ingredients were right on hand.
But the team’s favorite is the Sundae Fundae. It’s a combo of organic peanut butter, avocado, cocoa malt, agave, chocolate whey protein and oat milk topped with cacao nibs, date syrup and house-made granola. Each bowl boasts 24 grams protein, but it’s the combination of indulgence and health that’s the real selling point. “That's what we see a lot of people looking for right now. They want to eat something delicious and then not feel bad about it,” said Camerer.
Rounding out the new menu items is a Mango Acai Smoothie, a cherry-based Sonic Refresher Smoothie with electrolytes and the Out of Office Smoothie with blue spirulina protein. Shakes and smoothies run about $8.99 and bowls, $11.79.
“We also noticed that guests are into boosts, so we now offer bee pollen, a clarity boost and probiotics as supplemental add-ins,” Camerer said. “People are super-excited about the probiotics boost right now.”
Finding the right menu mix
Introducing 10 menu additions means that some long-time items had to go in order to maintain team sanity—and prevent decision paralysis on the part of customers.
The Sonic Refresher Smoothie was similar to the Tropic Thunder, so the latter was axed. During the R&D process, the team tried a date banana smoothie but the texture was hard to nail, said Camerer.
The Sonic Refresher replaced the older Tropic Thunder smoothie.
“I think this is the largest drinks menu we’ve ever had, so it was definitely a challenge for our team just learning to be ‘uncomfortable’ in the drink station. We usually never roll out more than one or two shakes and smoothies at a time,” she said.
At first, the beverage station was more generously staffed as the team got used to the new recipes, but in about a month, operations were going more smoothly. And as in other fast casuals, the new beverages are driving sales.
“We’ve typically divided customers into three buckets—those people who come to us for beverages, those who come for food, and then at the center of the Venn diagram are people who get both,” said Camerer. “When we first started testing the new blended items, the restaurants saw about a 10% sales lift in the category, which was really exciting growth,” she said.
Now that the smoothies and shakes are set, the R&D team is working on steak for summer.
Protein Bar is testing steak in a bowl and burrito, as well as a new salad and wrap. “We are really excited to see how people react to it and which menu items they prefer with steak instead of chicken or salmon,” said Camerer. “It will be a great addition to our breakfast menu too. Steak and eggs is one of the most protein packed breakfasts you could get.”