Global Good Mornings

August 3, 2012

In the last few years an increasing number of restaurants have broken into or expanded their offerings at breakfast, leaving many operators scrambling to find new ways to differentiate their egg-laden menus from the competition. So how can operators better compete for consumers hungry for restaurant-made breakfast? The answer, some are finding, is to go global.

Traditional items, including eggs, turkey bacon, breakfast sandwiches and omelets, are still morning menu favorites; however, ethnic items and flavors are a top trend on breakfast menus according to Datassential MenuTrends, which tracks more than one million items on menus at chains and independent restaurants.

Mexican cuisine has the most prevalent influence on a.m. menus, followed by Mediterranean. Breakfast burritos are the most popular and appear on a quarter of all breakfast menus. Burritos, huevos rancheros, chilaquiles and tacos have been the fastest growing breakfast items in the last four years. Chorizo, a Mexican sausage, is a fast growing ingredient, appearing on 10 percent more breakfast menus than just four years ago. Top Mediterranean items menued at breakfast include crêpes, quiche and frittatas.

While consumers want ethnic flavors, they don’t want Americanized ethnic fare. Research reveals that when buying ethnic fare, the majority of consumers say authentic or traditional flavors are important to them.

The growth in popularity of ethnic flavors and foods is largely due to Americans’ increased exposure to diverse cultures over the last two decades. Ethnic foods and ingredients—everything from chorizo to feta cheese to sushi—that were once exotic are now more mainstream. Mexican items are popular because the cuisine is so familiar to consumers. Mediterranean items are also growing in popularity due to their perceived health halo. Menu watchers predict that as consumers continue to be exposed to more diverse cultures, additional ethnic cuisines will begin to migrate to morning menus.

With the demand for ethnic fare on restaurant menus expected to continue to increase, operators who want to capitalize on the trend will need to spice up their morning menus. Some chains have seen success by offering consumers global good mornings:

• Go with tradition. An easy way to infuse ethnic flare is to menu an already popular authentic dish, like a Mexican-influenced breakfast burrito or taco. Among the chains currently menuing these items are Texas-based Steak n’ Shake, which recently started offering sausage, egg and cheese breakfast tacos; and coffee and donut giant Dunkin’ Donuts, which in late spring added a Southwest steak burrito and a Southwest veggie burrito to its menu. Burritos and tacos are great vehicles for ingredients that are already on the menu, such as eggs, turkey bacon, sliced pork and veggies.
• Spice up menu favorites. Some chains are swapping American cheese in their breakfast dishes for authentic ethnic varieties, such as feta, mozzarella or queso fresco; or topping their egg favorites with ethnic sauces such as pesto, salsa or pico de gallo. Mimi’s Café, a California-based bistro chain, offers a quatre fromages quiche with swiss, Brie, feta and Parmesan cheese; and the Daily Grill offers an egg white omelet with mushrooms and scallions, served with an avocado-tomato salsa. Give traditional proteins, such as turkey or ham, an ethnic twist by rubbing or marinating them with exotic spices, like chipotle or cumin.
• Explore up-and-coming cuisines. Mama Fu’s, a Pan-Asian fast casual chain, recently added a Vietnamese Banh Mi to its menu that has been a huge hit at lunch and dinner. The hero-style sandwich features pork, sausage, tofu, chicken or fried egg and is topped with cucumber slices, pickled, shredded carrots and daikon along with cilantro. Easily adapt this for a breakfast menu by using traditional breakfast proteins, such as bacon or sausage, and topping with a fried egg.
• Offer healthier options. Other operators are infusing better-for-you favorites, like turkey burgers, with Mediterranean flavors as a way to appeal to consumers looking for healthy, good-tasting fare. Newt’s Burger’s in South Carolina, for example, offers a Greek turkey burger with tzaziki sauce, lettuce, tomato and feta cheese served on a warm pita. Consumers’ desire for healthier fare can also be fulfilled by swapping pork and beef products in ethnic dishes with leaner meats, such as turkey bacon and sausage.

The opportunity here is clear: operators who menu the ethnic flavors consumers crave will find more and more consumers waking up to global good eats at their restaurants.