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Dog Haus, Ike's, Zoup leaders say being trendy is definitely not 'where it's at'

The name of the game now in limited-service menu innovation has less to do with following the waves of trends that regularly sweep through food service and more to do with being the first to catch and ride that wave, while all the other players are still swimming out to the swells.

Photo: iStock

November 5, 2019 by S.A. Whitehead — Food Editor, Net World Media Group

An interesting thing happened when three trend-setting brands took to the stage to talk about menu innovation trends at the Fast Casual Executive Summit in Austin last month: The restaurateurs involved decided that being trendy doesn't cut it anymore in the restaurant business. Instead, they refocused their discussion around setting the trends in the first place. 

Shown left to right are panel moderator, Maeve Webster, as well as Dog Haus' Hagop Giragossian, Zoup's Dan Carberry and Ike's Love & Sandwiches Ike Shehadeh. (Photo by Willie Lawless)

After all, as Ike's Love & Sandwiches founder, Ike Shehadeh put it, "Unless your on the fringe of these trends, it's going to pass you up."

Naturally, staying on the absolute "fringe," when it comes to innovative dining out concepts, as well as food and beverages, is no easy task or everyone would be doing it. But if anyone was going to tell us how to accomplish that enviable feat, the three brands on this panel would do it, with a little prompting and insightful questioning from session moderator, Dataseential Senior Director Maeve Webster. 

The restaurant leaders on the panel included:  

• Dog Haus Partner, Culinary and Operations Hagop Giragossian.
• Zoup Eatery Vice President of Culinary Innovation and Guest Experience Dan Carberry.
• Ike's Love & Sandwiches founder, Ike Shehadeh.

Each brand leader said that they took a slightly different approach to what innovative menu items must be to remain consistent with their individual brand's ethos. For instance, at Ike's, all menu innovations are passed through what Shehahdeh described as a filter of love, as in the "love of feeding people great food." At Zoup, on the other hand, Carberry said they try to get inside customers' minds a little to figure out where the brand's patrons are heading with their habits and the things they like to do. 

But for Dog Haus, Giragossian was fairly adamant that although everything the brand pushes out must first and foremost pass the chain's product quality standards, he prefers not to chase trends. That assertion prompted Webster to push a little further, asking him how the trends that regularly sweep through the foodservice industry actually affect Dog Haus's innovation process, if at all. 

Giragossian. (Photo by Willie Lawless)

Giragossian explained that the brand has a part philanthropy/part innovation initiative now built in to its regular menu development process through its partnership with No Kid Hungry to bring in famous chefs every two months to create new menu items that blaze trails through limited service. 

"So not only do we raise money for charity, we have some really exciting new stuff happening in our stores. ..." Giragossian said. "And I get to geek out because we're working with top chefs."

The panelists really latched on to that idea that pushing out trendsetting menus is less about following existing trends than leading the market into new ones. 

"The world is a very small place now and everybody knows what's going on everywhere at every time," Carberry said. "The concepts that are winning are owning their territory — like Ike, they own that (sandwich) space. ...People are just looking at trends to be able to get them out of that rut. ... So you've got to own that particular (brand specialty) product and just dig really deep into it."

Shehadeh agreed, allowing him to elaborate on what he meant by passing his menu items through a filter of love. 

"For me, it's about what I love and what my customers love to eat," he told the packed session audience. "It is my tastebuds that need to love it ... so if I make an plant-based (sandwich) I love ... I know someone else will too."

As far as overall trends outside the restaurant industry — in areas like societal music preferences and clothing styles — affecting menus inside a restaurant, all the panelists seemed to agree that these kind of set the tone that a menu developer works within. But Carberry said it really doesn't matter what's happening even there if, as he put it,  "It's not natural to you." In those cases where what's hot culturally is not a natural fit with a brand's persona he said, "You shouldn't do it." 

In that regard, Giragossian suggested that restaurateurs really hone in most around what they and their teams are really passionate about as extensions of the brand. That, he said is where great things tend to spring from — the kinds of things that really catch fire. It's as if passion in menu innovation begets passion in diner preferences. 

"Like when I hear 'Dutch crunch roll,' I think of Ike's," Giragossian said, referring to Ike's Love & Sandwiches use of the bread in sandwiches. "That's where somebody did something first and it was fun and exciting ... something you believe in that you think will resonate with your guests, then I think it's worth doing it.

"But the base core of this business is about creating something you're really passionate about and then you can grow from there." 

Carberry and Shehadeh agreed, with Shehadeh pointing out that, in his view, following trends is really more a function of the marketing side of restaurant businesses, rather than menu innovation per se. 

"I think you can really use it more on the marketing side. ... " Shehadeh said. "I really didn't start doing like vegetarian sandwiches because it was on trend. I did it because I wanted it."

Plant-based is NOT a trend ...

As for the obvious foodservice business evolution today toward adding plant-based offerings to a brand's menu, all three restaurateurs expressed their belief that, while this was overall a very positive new menu emphasis, both environmentally and inclusively, it no longer qualifies as a trend, per se. 

"As far as the more mainstream places, I think you're really going to see it everywhere," Shehadeh said. "But with Ike's, it's really been more of an inclusive thing. So, there's not necessarily going to be a big shift for us, but it's great now that if you go to Denny's you can get plant-based options."

Carberry. (Photo by Willie Lawless)

Carberry added, "I think we can all agree that this (plant-based menu item popularity) is better for us going forward. I'm not anti-meat, but opening up a channel for more customers to use their products isn't just a trend, it's where the world is. ... Is it trend? Not anymore -- it's a real thing."

As part of the industry shift over the last several decades toward more healthful eating and offerings that address that need among consumers, the three brand leaders were united in their belief that taste is actually what really trumps everything. As a result, they said that sometimes the most healthful versions of any menu feature must give a little to accommodate that need to satisfy the consumer's demand for great taste. But all acknowledged the pressure to fill the consumer's demand for both ultimate taste and premium nutritional benefits was palpable in their daily business.

"How Zoup is looking at (menu) development going forward is that there are swim lanes of meat- and plant-based, but also dietary needs..." Carberry said. "So that's how we are looking at menu development: If you have a dietary need, we need to make a place for that."

Giragossian admitted that though Dog Haus puts a premium on ingredient quality with products that are raised responsibly and humanely, as he put it, "I'm not really sure about where we fit on the health side. ... But I know if you're on a diet, you probably shouldn't be coming to Dog Haus."

His response not only evoked some laughter from the audience, but also a question from Webster about whether that increasing demand from the consumer for healthful products put the brand's menu development team's feet to the fire a little. 

"I definitely feel it," he acknowledged. "But we are who we are. And we feel really comfortable in our space." 

Trend fatigue

The discussion — which tended to "trend" toward each restaurateur's insistence that trend-following is just not a

Shehadeh. (Photo by Willie Lawless)

major menu shaper — soon came to a natural resting place around the whole idea of "trend fatigue," as in that point when brands and their leaders just get sick and tired of trying to always be future-forward and funky, so instead reach out for some good ol' tried-and-true. 

So yes, everything from food that fizzes and bangs, to some of the most culturally obscure offerings might be calling a brand's culinary team to respond, but ultimately great food creation always boils down to, "What's my brand's personality?" and "What do my customers want?" 

"We're not attempting to be on trend," Shehadeh said, turning to the matter of Ike's Love & Sandwiches' practice of celebrity-named sandwiches, which some have referred to as trendy. "It's because we own it. ... They're named after celebrities not because that's the cool thing to do, but because they (the namesake celebrity) means something to us. ... "So if you walk into other brands and see all this stuff being pushed, but if it's not in their values somewhere, then why are they even doing that?"

Carberry said something similar is happening with the sometimes-trend of regional or national cuisines. For instance, at Zoup, he said one reason the brand moved away from classifying its dishes by places or regions was simply that the entire restaurant environment now has moved away from following cultural or regional cuisines per se, and toward just more or less "playing" with flavors from all over and even mixing and juxtaposing them. 

"Ten years ago, we used to classify items by certain regions and places," Carberry explained. "But, now it's really no holds barred. ... We've opened the 'box' and now you can do whatever you want. Now you can play with them (different cuisines) and not be called out for doing that. And that's unveiling where we're going, going forward ... with people saying, 'Hey, there's no holds barred — just tantalize my tastebuds.

"Nothing's in a closet anymore — everything is out there ... as long as you don't bastardize or patronize it, then people are open and expect experiences that are different."

Giragossian — clearly not one to mince words —  was in step with that idea as he discussed his "obsession" of late with, as he put it, the "umami that Asian food packs." That quality, he said, inspired Dog Haus to create some of its own takes on the flavors, which he said are "completely untouched in the world that we live in."

"Like we have a Thai red curry sauce that is ----ing amazing!" he exclaimed to equal enthusiasm from the taste-tempted audience. "I mean once you start evolving from the foods you love, that's when you're really getting somewhere!" 

Like to attend great sessions like this one? Join us in March at the Restaurant Franchising & Innovation Summit in Atlanta. 

About S.A. Whitehead

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Pizza Marketplace and QSRweb editor Shelly Whitehead is a former newspaper and TV reporter with an affinity for telling stories about the people and innovative thinking behind great brands.