Culver’s famous Butter Burgers, chicken fingers and old-fashioned frozen custard have built a loyal following for the Wisconsin-based chain, first in its home state and eventually across the Midwest and further afield.
But the popular quick-service brand never had a sauce to call a “signature”—and Director of Menu Development Quinn Adkins long felt that was a missing piece.
“We were working on developing a signature sauce for a number of years, with the goal of introducing something meaningfully different that reflected our brand and how Culver’s approaches menu innovation,” said Adkins. “A restaurant can really carve out differentiation with unique sauces.”
Culver’s Signature Sauce has a “whisper of blue cheese” along with notes of buttermilk and Parmesan.
And it's true: 41% of consumers are more tempted to order a menu item when it is served with an “original” sauce that they can only get at that restaurant, according to a recent Flavor Consumer Trend Report from Restaurant Business sister company Technomic. And 34% consider what sauces and condiments are available when deciding which restaurant to visit.
A signature sauce can not only build traffic, it can also be an effective marketing hook. Just ask chicken finger concept Raising Cane’s.
What makes a signature?
Raising Cane’s continues to play up having the “#1 most craveable sauce” among consumers, a status it gained in a Technomic survey that was done several years ago. That message was lit up in neon for close to two years in New York City’s Times Square before Raising Cane’s flagship opened there in June. And the company has signage throughout its Baton Rouge, La., headquarters touting the sovereignty of its sauce. (Though the recipe is a closely guarded secret, it resembles Russian dressing.)
Zaxby’s, another Southern-based chicken chain, started a petition on Change.org to recognize its signature Zax Sauce with a sauce emoji. The case for a “Saucemoji” spread across social media channels on July 17, World Emoji Day, and Zaxby’s fans were all in.
Zaxby’s started a petition on change.org to get its signature Zax Sauce recognized with a sauce emoji.
Culver’s first signature sauce finally arrived on the menu in July—39 years after the chain's founding. Simply called “Culver’s Signature Sauce,” it’s described as having “a creamy texture and slightly tangy flavor with notes of buttermilk, Parmesan cheese, a touch of spice and hint of blue cheese.”
Sounds simple, but it took 18 months for Adkins and his team to perfect.
“You only get one opportunity to introduce a signature sauce, and we had to believe it would be a home run,” said Adkins.
His goal was to rise above the sense of sameness among quick-service sauces and make it versatile enough to use across the menu. “Our strategy was to add layers of umami that complement each other but shift depending on how you pair it,” he said.
So the team tried it with Culver’s battered onion rings, salty French fries, crispy chicken fingers, Butter Burgers and its popular fried cheese curds to make sure it worked with all the menu mainstays. “We really dialed in on the flavors and how the sauce was going to be applied,” said Adkins. “Blue cheese can be very polarizing, but you don’t really taste it in this sauce. It’s just a ‘whisper’ of blue cheese—a supporting player to the other components.”
Once the recipe was perfected, Culver’s worked with a vendor partner to scale up the sauce production and packaging. It comes into the chain’s 900-plus restaurants nationwide in portion-controlled cups for ease of execution and guest convenience.
Culver’s actually offers about a dozen sauces and dressings, said Adkins, including its proprietary tartar sauce, based on a recipe from Craig Culver’s dad, a founder of the family company. “We also serve a custom ranch and honey mustard, but guests didn’t realize the variety of sauces we offer.”
With the introduction of the Signature Sauce, Culver’s began listing all of its sauces on menu boards and drive-thrus, so guests can see the breadth of the selection and customize food to their preferences, he added. Two other new sauces were launched around the same time as the Signature: Ken’s Boom Boom Sauce, a creamy, spicy condiment enhanced with chili peppers, mustard and garlic, and Della Terra Marinara, a tomato-based marinara.
Menu differentiation without complexity
“The pandemic raised hyper-awareness about introducing complexity and new SKUs into the supply chain and menu,” said Adkins. “The nice thing about sauces and condiments is that they offer innovation that can easily be introduced into operations.”
Brandon Coleman, CEO of Dallas-based TGI Fridays, is on the same page. In his former role as U.S. president of the casual-dining chain, he initiated the launch of Friday's Grilled & Sauced menu in June.
“When I arrived in October 2022, 30% of the menu items used whiskey glaze, which we introduced in the ‘90s,” said Coleman. “This menu update allows us to diversify flavors and create more choice without adding more complexity.”
Grilled & Sauced offers six flame-grilled proteins and nine sauces that diners can mix and match. The iconic Jack Daniels whiskey glaze is still a must-have, but four entirely new sauces were developed: Spiked Orange Glaze infused with garlic, orange and Hennessy cognac; Al Pastor made with chipotles, pineapple and cilantro; Korean Red Chile, a spicy sauce layered with garlic and citrus; and Friday’s own Nashville Hot.
“America has diversified since the 1990s and consumers—especially younger ones—are looking for more global, bolder flavors and more heat,” said Coleman. “Sauces offer a quick way into diversification and further menu innovation.”
Orders from the Grilled & Sauced menu have spiked 30% since its launch, and both food costs and margins have improved, Coleman added.
Cross-utilization plays a big part in these improvements, as six proteins and nine sauces add up to a multitude of meal options with fewer SKUs and less labor. “In creating this platform, we also have an opportunity to lower prices on some of our entrees with chicken or NY Strip,” said Coleman.
Global flavors on the rise
Source: Technomic
Wings and the sauce obsession
The competition among wing concepts and the growth of their virtual peers during the pandemic have accelerated the demand for sauce innovation and variety. More than half (54%) of consumers would like a wide variety of dipping sauces to be available at a restaurant, Technomic noted in its Flavor Consumer Trend Report.
With 26 sauces and seasonings in its lineup, Atlanta-based Buffalo Wild Wings is leading the charge. Its latest limited-time addition, introduced in August, is Bulleit Bourbon BBQ sauce, which has a smoky-sweet flavor profile infused with bourbon. And returning for football season is Hot BBQ, a spicy sauce brought back by fan demand on social media.
Buffalo Wild Wings offers 26 sauces, including its current LTO, Bulleit Bourbon BBQ.
Another wing-centric chain, Wings and Rings, has only 65 locations to BWW’s close to 1,300, but sauce variety is just as important in attracting guests, said Dan Admire, corporate chef of the full-service concept.
At Wings and Rings, guests can customize the heat level of any classic sauce to slather on a sandwich or use as a dip.
“Sauces are the defining element for chicken,” Admire said. An unsauced piece of chicken or chicken wing is kind of plain, a blank canvas that can adapt to many different flavor profiles, he added.
Indeed, the menu at Cincinnati-based Wings and Rings instructs guests to pick a base (bone-in wings, boneless wings or cauliflower wings) then a sauce from seven classic choices, including Garlic Parmesan, Buffalo, Bourbon BBQ and Lemon Pepper. The last step is to pick a heat level—mild, medium, hot, extra hot or atomic.
“We also offer six chef-inspired sauces that are not meant to be tampered with,” said Admire. These include Blueberry Chipotle BBQ, Sweet Thai Chili and Ghost Pepper Ranch. Indecisive customers can opt for a “sauce flight” of three dipping sauces to explore with unsauced wings.
“We aim to differentiate our sauces with bigger, bolder, brighter flavors,” Admire added. With 35 locations outside the U.S., he monitors what’s being done with wings in London, South Korea and other locales to see what they can export. But flavor complexity is always a priority.
“We blend sauces in house and increase heat levels with chilies and dried peppers,” said Admire. “We want the heat source to be identifiable. We’ve had lots of success with ghost peppers.”
Turning up the heat
The availability and customer acceptance of chili peppers has changed the way kitchens heat things up. Previously, they might have stirred in ground cayenne or a few drops of Tabasco.
“Consumers are more tolerant of heat now, but the desire for flavor is also there. If you add heat just to add heat, you get a one-dimensional sauce,” he said.
Riverside, Calif.-based Farmer Boys is bringing on some 3-D heat with its Fiery Farmer’s Dipping Sauce. “It has a unique flavor profile from chipotles and other peppers and spices. And it’s not smooth—it’s slightly chunky with visible pieces,” said Joe Adney, CMO of the 102-unit chain.
The sauce first debuted as a condiment on the fast casual’s fried chicken sandwich, introduced during the “chicken sandwich wars” of 2020-21. Now Fiery Farmer’s is being portioned into dipping cups to serve with Farmer Boys’ latest LTO, Kickin’ Chicken Strips Meals.
But like Culver’s, the chain is promoting the sauce’s appeal across the menu—as a dip for Farmer Boys’ signature zucchini sticks, onion rings and fries along with chicken strips. “We keep track of what people request, and Fiery Farmer’s is now No. 2, behind Ranch,” said Adney.
Indeed, ranch is an all-American favorite, with more than 33% of operators menuing it, according to Technomic. Farmer Boys can never take ranch off the menu, but 60% of the chain’s current customer base is Hispanic, said Adney, and guests are asking them to infuse Farmer Boys’ food with more flavor. “A new sauce is an easier way to enhance flavor than reworking a burger or chicken item,” he said.
It can also be a speedier route to bring innovation to the menu. “With our Sauced & Grilled platform, we have a quick go-to-market way to do further innovation,” said TGI Fridays’ Coleman. He hinted that the appetizer category may be next.