We are fortunate to be exposed to a broad range of research and strategic marketing strategies that enable our clients to out maneuver the competition. This year the focus seems to be on the Gen Z’s–the population of those 21 and under who tend to be dreamers, consumers and world saviors. What is fascinating about this generation is that they’re obsessed with all things culinary.

The research is telling us that Generations Z demands WOW food and beverage presentations as a form of indulgence, and they’re are using eye-catching food and beverage offerings and onsite experiences to express their creativity and distinguish themselves from their peers. While Millennials do share this passion for food, the Z’s are taking this trend to the next level.

If you’re scratching your head trying to figure out how to grow top-line food sales you might consider connecting with this overlooked market of obsessed foodies.  Gen Z’s want restaurants to WOW them with new indulgences and over-the-top food presentations to they can share them via social media. They want epic food that they can talk about and with the rise of video-based sharing platforms like Instagram and Snapchat, they now enjoy taking videos of presentations being made tableside.

If you’re not attracting this generation it’s a huge missed opportunity that could be remedied. Don’t let menu fatigue drive this generation of spenders to your competitors. Don’t forget about Gen Z– they enjoy

Synergy offers affordable menu development and culinary support that can help you raise the bar on your food and beverage strategy.

When you think of a delicious and juicy hamburger, several components need to be spot on—fresh vegetables, delicious bread, and first and foremost, a delicious patty (preferably a hand-pattied blend of beef). The star is certainly the meat—but what if there is no meat? Can a non-meat burger still be craveable and sought-out by consumers?

With shifts in attitude and preferences for healthier and even animal-friendly (think veganism and vegetarianism) meal options, it’s no wonder that more plant-based burgers are making their way on menus. While many veggie burgers are made from a combination of legumes like beans and lentils, new varieties are trying to come as close to a true meat flavor as possible.

Take the Impossible™ Burger. The company the produces it utilizes “ingredients with the precise properties needed to deliver the taste, texture, flavor and juicy sizzle that meat lovers crave ” In fact, these burgers even “bleed” like the real thing (heme is the key ingredient to produce this effect). Its primary ingredients are wheat protein, coconut oil, potato protein, and their meat is sold in restaurants across the country. So does it live up to the hype? You may have to try it yourself to determine this, but in the meantime, check out this review from The Spoon.

Meanwhile, some fast casuals are going 100 percent animal-friendly. Plant Power-Fast Food, based in San Diego, has a large menu featuring all your favorites like bacon cheeseburgers, chicken sandwiches, breakfast burritos and more. Everything served is plant-based and non-GMO.

If you are thinking of revitalizing your menu to include plant-based options, contact Synergy.

Snacks—it’s not just bagged chips or veggies and dip. According to Technomic’s 2018 Snacking Occasion Consumer Trend Report, 39 percent of consumers changed their idea of snacks in the last two years. Moreover, the Millennial and Gen Z cohort are increasingly replacing meals with snacks.

As restaurants struggle to find new revenue streams to combat higher labor and operating expense a great way to drive top-line sales and frequency is to be known as a place to find great, innovative and affordable snacks.

Case in point: Yard House has a dedicated snack menu with unique items such as shiitake garlic noodles, hot and spicy edamame, and buffalo cauliflower. If you’ve tuned into your favorite show recently, you may have noticed Taco Bell’s commercial for “Nacho Fries” made to look like a real dramatic movie trailer. This Nacho Fries snack menu offering has prompted two new spin-off test items — Rattlesnake Fries and Reaper Ranch Fries. Still not convinced that snacking is a fast-growing trend? Check out Jack in the Box—they serve up “Munchie Mash-Ups” on the Late Night menu. These include different styles of hash with fun names like Wakey Bakey Hash, Jack’d Jalapeno Hash, and H’angry Chicken Hash all priced at three dollars each.

It’s not just bars or fast-food chains that can serve up snacks—casual and even fine dining eateries can offer affordable, small plates or “bites.” A happy hour menu with discounted snacks is a simple way to offer value to consumers as well. Cafes, juice bars, bakeries, and delis also have ample opportunity to sell snacks—think prepared foods (single-portioned fruit, cheese, and nuts for example) that customers can grab and go.

It’s clear that snacking is a trend not to be dismissed. Make sure your menu is catering to this new demand, and you’ll be sure to drive more traffic and increase sales.

Cauliflower—a vegetable once typically found in salads, stir-frys, and as a side dish—is now making a big name for itself. Perhaps even hotter than the avocado toast trend, many people are flocking toward menu items and recipes that use cauliflower in innovative ways. Pizza with a cauliflower crust. Cauliflower rice. Cauliflower crust grilled cheese. Cauliflower Couscous. Cauliflower tater tots. The list goes on.

Do you see a pattern here? Cauliflower has become a huge hit as a low carb, bread, potato and rice substitute. For example, one cup of cauliflower contains about five grams of carbohydrates while one cup of cooked white rice contains approximately forty-five grams. This versatile veggie is also low in calories, another reason people are gravitating toward it. Oprah has even recently launched a line of frozen pizzas that feature a cauliflower crust.

Health-conscious diners are ever-growing and they’re seeking new and innovative ways to satiate their hunger. Don’t be surprised to see more restaurants offering smart, unique, and healthy substitute options on their menus.

PIs there such thing as a perfect pizza pie? With so many options (Neopolitan, Roman, New York style, Chicago deep dish, etc.) there’s no clear answer! However, when it comes to authentic Italian pizza, there is one thing that positively defines the perfect pie— a crispy, light, and chewy crust complete with charred dark spots.

We can break down how to make perfect dough, but the one variable that makes or breaks a perfect pie is the oven. Sorry home chefs, you’ll be hard-pressed to replicate the delicious crust because as science has it, to achieve the same results, you must have a brick oven.

With a brick oven, the bricks slowly transfer heat to the dough (as compared to a steel oven). This simple nuance provides a largely different outcome because now there’s a balance between cooking—the crust can be cooked at a very high temperature while the pizza toppings cook with the oven’s indirect heat simultaneously.

More about this phenomenon here.

Step aside, duck fat, because fatback is stepping into the spotlight. Wait…what’s “fatback” exactly? It is just what it sounds like, fat from the upper back (of a pig) and is a revered ingredient utilized in traditional charcuterie and Italian cooking as well as in American southern cooking and soul food. Lardo is a type of hard fat which is consists of adipose tissue under the skin of the back with or without the rind. What’s does it look like? Think of a slab of bacon without the meat part.

Love sausages like nduja or cudighi? How about lardo? Yup, all made with fatback. Let’s take a closer look at lardo. It’s a kind of salume (Italian cold cut) created by curing strips of fatback with a mixture of salt, spices, and herbs. The flavor of lardo is one of creamy, richness—it tastes porky and buttery. It’s like lard’s fancy, gourmet cousin.

Interestingly, lardo is not something you’ll only find in an Italian kitchen these days. A renewed interest in lardo is forming among various types of cuisines. In Portland, Oregon, a restaurant named Lardo serves up a (surprise, surprise)– lardo-inspired menu. B.S. Taqueria in Los Angeles offers a truly unique clam and lardo taco. Going even one step further with revered animal fats is the use of leaf lard. This kind of lard is the pork fat found around the kidneys. Bakers like those at Sullivan Street Bakery in Hell’s Kitchen use the non-porky flavored fat to create buttery and flaky crusts.

With the nose-to-tail movement being embraced by many millennials today, it’s no wonder that animal fats like fatback, lardo and leaf lard are making their marks in more and more restaurant kitchens.

Though the ever-popular cocktail classics are still leading the charge in the craft cocktail scene, they are now sharing the stage with a new trend: creativity. It is not uncommon to find inventive large format cocktails, outrageous (and instagrammable) garnishes, rich house made syrups, tinctures and bitters, teas and smoke in the most unexpected places. Even big chains like Famous Dave’s are smoking their old-fashioned bourbon in house while Houlihan’s is carving their own block ice for some feature drinks. Putting out the same tired drinks year after year that look a lot like the drinks from across the street, turn drinks into a boring commodity, and commodities are subject to price comparison. The lowest price wins in this situation and everyone fights to sell the cheapest drink while the profits shrink. The less homogenous the product, the more resistant it will be to price comparison.  There is an untapped revenue stream from unique and creative cocktails that can separate you from the pack. Guests do not compare or question the price of something that is of quality and truly unique to your concept.

As you explore new revenue streams through craft cocktails, the biggest error is choosing style over substance. While creativity is key, it must work in conjunction with balance and efficiency. Astounding presentation in a cocktail that is overly sweet or acidic will bring guest back through the door about as fast as a perfectly balanced cocktail that takes 15 minutes to hit the table. Do you measure efficiency in bottle pickups, number of ingredients, components, all of these? What are your thresholds for each? How can you cut steps through batching, infusions, tinctures or flavored syrups and what are the proper applications of each?  What are the labor implications of each? A lot of planning goes in to the creation of a truly successful cocktail program, but returns can be disproportionately large as revenues and reputations surge upward. Alcohol, acid, sugar, ice, bitters, air and dilution must all work together in such a way that the sum is greater than the parts. Bartender training and server education must be on par with the desired quality of the drink, especially in large chains. Everyone coming in contact with these creations must know when to stir, when to shake, when to double strain and how to measure efficiency when developing recipes and identifying guest preferences at the table.

The trailblazers have been doing this long enough to have written many game changing, must-read books for the aspiring craft cocktail artisan. For technique, Jeffrey Morganthaler’s The Bar Book is the definitive source on how to. Liquid Intelligence by Dave Arnold dives deeper into why alcohol, acid, ice, etc., do what they do from a scientific perspective. Imbibe! by David Wondrich is a wonderful journey back in time highlighting the history of American bartending and cocktails that serves to familiarize us bar nuts with our roots. There are dozens of others worth seeking out and making available to your staff for some major inspiration and growth. Nothing derails a good training program like the lack of passion and inspiration from the staff. It is important to know what makes all this stuff special.

Whether it is craft beer, craft cocktails or responsibly sourced food, the verdict is in: tastes are changing and guests want quality and meaning behind their menu selections, and they are willing to pay for it. It is worth the effort to create a meaningful cocktail program and it will pay dividends when done right. The demand is there and our goals at Synergy is to guide those who are interested in crafting the supply.

By: Mike Walls, Certified Cicerone®, Operations & Beverage

We often go to bars for comradery, to relax and spend time with our friends while we imbibe together. In years past that may have meant ordering a bottle of champagne or a round of shots, but one of the hottest trends in cocktails right now has us imbibing together in a whole new way. It is no longer a strange sight to see a group of friends at a bar using six 16-inch metal straws to share a giant golden vase filled with a delicious, boozy, handcrafted concoction. Bars and their patrons across the country are embracing these giant shareable cocktails because they are profitable, recognizable, often outrageous and they bring us together.

When deciding how to serve these enormous beverages, bartenders have a whole universe of untapped vessels to choose from, including vases, punch bowls, fish tanks, spigot dispensers, repurposed coffee equipment, and hollowed out melons. The right presentation can be a showstopper where the whole restaurant turns their heads saying, “I wonder what they got?” as the server triumphantly delivers the showpiece across the dining room. These often whimsical and over-the-top presentations also encourage another big trend in the bar and restaurant world: taking pictures that are Instagram-worthy. What better way to spread the word about your offerings than having your own guests feel compelled to show off their experience by plastering social media with pictures of your creations? The spectacle alone drives sales and gives the bar the opportunity to flex some creative muscle that the whole world can see, free of charge.

Much like any drink, these supersized cocktails can capitalize on other trends in a big way like using fresh, herbs, smoke and tea infusions. The size does not limit the quality or creativity of the drink and it can fit right in with the rest of the menu offerings. Many restaurants are even creating scalable cocktail lists from which the guest can order a cocktail from the menu as a single or in a number of shareable sizes depending on the number of guests. These cocktails can be batched, made fresh, mixed tableside or served deconstructed allowing the guest to customize and experiment as they drink.

Prices of $50 to $300 are not uncommon with punch bowls that serve a large group may be made with ingredients like fresh juices, cognac and a whole bottle of champagne. This is a serious increase in check averages similar to selling a high-end bottle of wine, most likely at a better cost; with only a bit more prep. It may sound crazy to charge so much for a cocktail, but the price is generally calculated by multiplying the number of servings by the price of a single drink (and usually comes in a few dollars less). Guests understand the math and don’t mind spending more money sharing in this better-than-bottle service experience with a group of friends.

By: Mike Walls, Certified Cicerone®, Operations & Beverage

It is estimated that around 80 percent of what we perceive as taste comes from smell. The tiny opening in the top of the standard beer can restricts the escape of many of the volatile fruity esters (substance that evaporate quickly at normal temperatures) that brewers and beer enthusiast say is an integral part of the drinking experience. More small brewers are moving towards making their previously draft only product available to consumers in aluminum cans, a more environmentally sound, cost effective and shelf stable storage method of beverage packaging over bottles. However, drinkers often find themselves settling for an incomplete experience when enjoying straight from the can. This great barrier to properly enjoying a fine craft beer from a can has finally been addressed.A company in Illinois called Crown Holdings, responsible for the invention of the bottle cap over 100 years ago, has solved this issue with the “360 End” full aperture can. The “360 End” is a can whose lid can be completely removed, essentially turning the can into a cup. Crown released the “360 End” in 2010 for the FIFA World Cup This can has made periodic appearances in the SABMiller and InBev line ups in China and Brazil until Sly Fox Brewing brought it into the US craft beer world a few years back.

However, 1970’s restrictive liquor packaging legislation that had to do with removable can tabs becoming litter, has been Crown’s greatest barrier to getting the “360” in the US craft market. A small brewery called Noon Whistle Brewing in Lombard, Illinois wanted to bring the improved can drinking experience to their patrons and supporters.They took their project to State Representative Peter Breen, who reportedly saw this as an easy win and an easy way to help a small local business, a cause which he is very passionate about. With Breen on their team and the Craft Brewers Guild lobbyists by their side, Noon Whistle headed to Springfield to draft a bill that would allow them to distribute their product in the new vessel and open the gates for other local breweries to do the same. Mike Condon of Noon Whistle Brewing said it was an eye-opening experience for him to see how much he could effect change with his local government and how willing they were to go to bat for him. With the help of their supporters the bill was unanimously passed and Illinois became the 13th state to allow the use of the new type of can.

Noon Whistle Brewing has now released their beer utilizing the full aperture tech to the delight of their fans and the reception has been excellent. Condon says the cost of the new can lid is negligible as it attaches to the same can base they have always used. The only expense the brewery incurred was the purchase of a part for their existing canning machine that fits the new lid, an investment that the brewery feels was well worth the cost. Moving forward, all their retail brews will be released with the full aperture can, “a selling point and major differentiator in a saturated craft beer market,” says Condon. The brewery has already seen a spike in sales from curious patrons interested in testing out the new can, though they do predict this leveling out as the market gets used to the idea.

Another perk is that the can could have significant waste reduction implications in venues like stadiums, where the vendor in the stands opens a can, pours it into a plastic cup and walks away with the empty can to be discarded. Picnickers, stadium goers and drinkers on the go in Illinois will now be privy to an unparalleled craft beer aroma experience as this technology (hopefully) begins to gain some traction. Though the Noon Whistle crew believes you should always use appropriate glassware when available, their “360” can is the best option when it is not. Condon’s advice to other breweries and all those who enjoy Noon Whistle’s to-go offerings is to get involved in your government because you might be surprised by what you can accomplish.

As a Certified Cicerone, I have spent years enjoying and analyzing great beers in interesting locations from any number of unique vessels. My first beer with the “360” was Noon Whistle’s Hop Prism Blue IPA, of course drank straight from the can. The way my nose sits just inside the opening when I take a sip sends those aromatic hops just where the brewer intended and brings the whole experience to another level. Without giving a full review of the beer, I can safely say that this is the best straight from the can tasting I have ever experienced.

Last week, we shared about how the “better-for-you” restaurant category is gaining a lot of traction in the industry. We explored different superfoods—nutrient-packed, healthy foods—like blueberries, salmon, and edamame. Other common superfoods include tomatoes, dark chocolate, almonds, quinoa, kale, and lentils. Superfoods provide several health benefits including an abundance of vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, and polyphenols.

If you’re looking to offer healthy dishes, superfoods are pivotal ingredients! Below we explore simple ways for you to incorporate superfoods into your menu.

Salad: Kale remains to be a popular and healthy green leafy vegetable of choice! A simple kale cobb salad (add hard boiled eggs, tomatoes, chicken breast, avocado) dressed with a balsamic vinaigrette is a healthy, nutrient-dense menu option.

Soups: Skip the heavy cream and go healthy and light. Wholegrain quinoa is delicious in soups. Mix in some hearty beef or chicken broth, lentils, veggies like broccoli (another superfood), and tomatoes for a delicious and hearty garden vegetable soup.

Pasta: Pumpkin doesn’t have to be just in pies and lattes! A pumpkin-filled ravioli with spinach pesto sauce is a great way to fulfill that craving for savory goodness. Pumpkins contain cancer-fighting alpha and beta-carotene while spinach is a great source of vitamins and iron.

Dessert: We all know how deliciously perfect chocolate and berries go together. Incorporating dark chocolate adds a wonderful decadent superfood full of antioxidants. Consider serving a dark chocolate mousse topped with strawberries, raspberries, and blueberries. If you want to get a little more exotic, serve the mousse with fresh goji and acai berries. For a breakfast spin, create a Greek yogurt parfait with berries and chia seeds, which are high in omega-3 fatty acids.

Drinks: Sweet iced tea can be very sugary! Try a sugar-free, refreshing iced green tea infused with fresh ginger root (ginger is known to help with relieving nausea, aiding in digestion, and reducing heart disease risk). A no-sugar-added watermelon drink is a tasty and refreshing beverage to add to your menu during the summer season.

There are so many options you can consider when working with superfoods. Next week, we will explore this further as we check out some awesome healthy restaurant menu items.