July is National Pickle Month, but that’s only one of the reasons Cole Thompson, VP of culinary for WOWorks, produced a pickle-palooza for the company’s Saladworks menu.
“We do a lot of consumer research, look at trend reports and follow social media, and anything pickled is trending right now,” he said. “And we thought it’s perfect timing to align with National Pickle Month.”
Consumers also can’t get enough ranch; it’s the No. 1 dressing in Technomic’s national food trends database, showing up on 45% of menus. At St. Petersburg, Florida-based Saladworks, the ranch dressing is a customer favorite, made fresh in-house at all 91 locations. “We decided to combine it with chopped pickles and fresh dill to amp it up,” Thompson said.
Another pickle piece came in the form of Miss Vickie’s Spicy Dill Pickle chips. “We already offered Miss Vickie’s potato chips as an add-on, but when they told us about this new flavor, it ended up aligning perfectly, so we started playing around with recipes, incorporating the chips,” he added.
Putting all the pieces together, Thompson developed a salad, melt and wrap, adding more pickle power along the way.
Playing up the crunch factor
To start the R&D on the salad, he asked himself “what protein goes well with pickles?” Fried chicken, a classic pairing, was the first answer that popped into his mind.
Pieces of crispy, boneless fried chicken are tossed with cheddar cheese, hard-cooked eggs, pickle ranch dressing and pickle pico, served over a base or romaine and iceberg lettuces and radiatore pasta, then topped with Miss Vickie’s Spicy Dill Pickle chips.
“We like to add a crunch factor to our salads, whether it’s croutons, tortilla strips, crispy onions, whatever. We thought this [the chips] could be the perfect addition for this salad and it goes really well with the other ingredients,” said Thompson.
He knew the potato chip flavor was a winner when his own kids couldn’t stop eating them.
Surprisingly, hard-cooked eggs are Saladworks’ No. 1 topping when guests build a custom salad. “Pickles and eggs go really well together, so we thought why not slice them up and feature them on this salad to make it more premium,” he added.
Back to the pickle pico, which adds another layer of texture and flavor to the salad. It’s a house-made combo of diced pickles, fresh tomatoes and onions. Along with the pickle ranch, it was created expressly for this pickle-centric menu, but guests can add either or both to create-your-own salads.
Saladworks offers a selection of both curated and customized salads, with 60% of salad orders going to the curated ones. The curated Chicken Pickle Crunch Salad goes for around $13.79.
Building out line extensions
It took a few tries to perfect the pickle ranch dressing and pickle pico, Thompson said. “We tried the ranch without the fresh dill at first, but when we brought that in and added it, it took the dressing to another level,” he said. “Then we thought, let’s chop some pickles and see what else we can create, and the result was the pickle pico.”
Once Thompson perfected the two condiments, he was inspired to cross-utilize them in other builds and recipes. “The way we do wraps at Saladworks is that you can make any signature salad into a wrap,” he said. “The Pickle Ranch Chicken Wrap is similar to the salad but has a little less lettuce and is rolled up in a tortilla,” chips and all. It sells for about $12.79.
Saladworks' Pickle Ranch Chicken Melt is generating good customer feedback.
But the Pickle Ranch Chicken Melt is different. It has some of the same components—the crispy chicken, cheddar cheese, pickle pico and pickle ranch, but it doesn’t include the potato chips. It’s layered on sliced white bread and cooked like a panini, turning out a sandwich that’s heartier than the typical grilled cheese. The melt runs about $11.99.
“The melt is actually doing really well for us,” said Thompson, adding that it’s probably one of the better-selling melts Saladworks has done in a while.
So far, response to the pickle LTO lineup has been very positive, and he’s already thinking about more uses for some of the ingredients, he said. Bringing in the fresh dill is even inspiring ideas for some of WOWorks other concepts.
“At our Mediterranean concept, Garbanzo, we just added a new dill feta as a topping option. It’s a mix of crumbled feta cheese, fresh dill and olive oil and customers are adding it to create-your-own bowls and salads,” Thompson said.
Come October, Saladworks’ fall menu rolls out. One of the highlights is a Fuji Apple Crunch Salad with an apple vinaigrette that uses apple chips for crunch. And the chain is once again partnering with Miss Vickie’s, using the brand’s jalapeño chips in a grilled wrap.
The crunch continues.