| The Best of Everything |
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Each and every day somebody stomps out of bed and, without the slightest inkling of what’s to come, heads over to work and does something that really matters down the road. It could be a new twist on a menu item, or a design change to a restaurant that needs help; actually, it could be most anything at all. The “Best of Everything” report aims to celebrate the hard work of the people and organizations that make this business work, day in and day out. They’ve earned it.
The Best Menu Add-On Strategies 
Chopped Salads from Sauce Pizza & Wine
Customers at this 10-location fast-casual concept, based in Arizona, don’t just come for pizza and wine. Because of strategic menu placement and bold flavor combinations, Chopped Salads account for 35 percent of sales. “They’re friendlier to eat and you get a little something special in each bite,” says Christopher Cristiano, corporate chef and VP of parent company Fox Restaurant Concepts. Customer favorites include Chicken, Pine Nuts, Tomato and Gorgonzola and Spinach, Pancetta & Goat Cheese; prices range from $5.50 to $7.50. The latest to join the lineup: Prosciutto, Salami, Turkey, Red Onion, Tomato & Parmesan—“like an Italian sandwich in a salad bowl.” 
Farmer's Go Bowls from Farmer Boys
Three-egg omelets and generous stacks of hotcakes have long drawn a steady breakfast crowd to the 60 Farmer Boys restaurants. But there was nothing as hearty and satisfying for the growing number of morning take-out customers. Last year, the Riverside, California-based chain carved out a new category on its menu: Farmer’s Go Bowls, which adhere to the menu’s better-than-breakfast-burritos edge. Three variations are now available: Farmhand Bowl (scrambled eggs, bacon, sausage, fresh vegetables and cheddar on a bed of hash browns); Sausage, Biscuit and Gravy with eggs; and Chicken Go Bowl, with chicken tenders, eggs and hash browns. All come in a plastic, heat-retaining bowl with a clear top and sell for about $5 each. 
Emilia Romagna Menu from Bravo! Italian Kitchen
Corporate chef Matt Harding visited Italy’s Emilia Romagna last year and was so inspired he developed a special 15-item menu section devoted to the region’s cuisine that debuted less than six months later. This would be cool if Bravo! was an independent, but it’s downright stunning for a 41-unit, white-tablecloth casual chain. Harding created dishes infused with iconic ingredients like prosciutto de Parma, Parmigiano-Reggiano, balsamic vinegar and truffle oil. Among the best sellers are Prosciutto and Arugula Flatbread ($10.99) and Orzotto with Mushrooms and Prosciutto ($11.99), a dish that subs orzo pasta for rice and cooks it to a creamy risotto consistency. Also on the menu is a roasted tomato basil orzotto served with grilled mahi mahi and topped with fennel and arugula drizzled with a blood orange balsamic glaze ($17.99). “The menu items are authentic yet very accessible,” Harding says.
Qdoba Mexican Grill
ADIR Restaurant Group
Rockfish Grill's Body & Sole
Just in time to help patrons keep 2008 diet resolutions, the Dallas-based Rockfish Grill debuted its Body and Sole menu right after New Year’s Day. Corporate chef Daniel Stewart slimmed down signatures like the Mexican Shrimp Martini, Santa Fe Fish Tacos and about two dozen other dishes and printed them on a separate menu panel complete with calorie, fat, carb and protein counts. “The beauty of these new healthier selections is that they remain true to Rockfish classics in flavor and presentation. We paid careful attention to avoid reduced portion sizes and cheaper products,” Stewart notes. For example, he fills the fish tacos with grilled fish instead of fried, eliminated the cheese and added a portion-controlled dollop of the ancho mayo that customers crave instead of serving a hefty amount on the side.
The Cravery
Traveling in South Africa, Brian Khoddam came across many shops selling tasty, flaky, handheld meat pies. “The idea of a filling enclosed in a crust is everywhere but the U.S.,” he thought. So he quit his six-figure hi-tech job and enlisted his uncle, a trained chef, to join him in developing a handheld pot pie that could be the focus of a fast-casual restaurant. The result is The Cravery, a four-unit California chain. The menu: freshly baked portable pastries (Classic Chicken Pot Pie, Kicken’ Thai Curry Chicken, Meatball Madness and Cracked Black Pepper Steak). “I call it ‘adventurous comfort food’—an easy meal that travels well, captures exciting flavors from a far off place, yet retains the most satisfying and familiar of elements,” Khoddam explains.
Corner Bakery Cafe's Anaheim Scrambler
Corner Bakery Café’s - Anaheim Scrambler
Qdoba Mexican Grill's Ancho Chili BBQ Burrito
Denver-based Qdoba’s director of strategic product development, Ted Stoner, perfected a slow-roasted shredded pork for a number of offerings. Around the same time his team developed an ancho chile bbq sauce to replace its mole. “I decided to piggyback the pork and the sauce and test it,” says Stoner. “The guest response was very positive.” Now the ancho chile sauce is being tested on other menu items.
McCormick & Schmick's
While most dinnerhouse chains offer just a dozen or so of the most popular cocktail standbys, often relying on preprepped mixers, McCormick & Schmick’s has delved into the classics to come up with 50-plus cocktails, all prepared fresh to order, for its Celebration of the American Cocktail program. Rolled out chainwide in 2007, the American cocktail program resurrects 50 classic recipes. The list is arranged according to key cocktail historical periods: Early Days & Golden Years, Prohibition & Beyond and Modern Creations. Each featured drink is put into perspective with intriguing facts about its origins as well as the provenance of the ingredients. The menu reads, for example: “Gin Delicious was originally crafted in 1948 by Maison Charles, first reference to this refreshing concoction can be found in the bar book ‘The Fine Art of Mixing Drinks,’ by David A. Embury. Fresh lime and mint shaken with Beefeater gin is served up in a superfine sugar-rimmed glass.”
Taco Mac by Tappan Street Restaurant Group
A name like Taco Mac doesn’t promise much in the way of beer selection—until you see the 100 taps lining the bar at most of the 20 Taco Mac restaurants around Atlanta. To put it in perspective, most casual chains offer only a handful of draft choices; chains with 10 taps are deemed to have a great selection. Taco Mac raises that by a power of 10.“I’m a beer lover,” says Fred Crudder, beverage director at parent Tappan Street Restaurant Group, “and all my bosses are beer lovers.” The restaurant’s Passport Club, where members swipe a card to track every brew they try and earn rewards, has a whopping 15,000 members. And last year, the chain introduced beer dinners, complete with brewmasters leading a tasting of special beers during the meal. Says Crudder, “We’re driving the stake deeper into our claim to be the place to drink great beer.”
Jennifer Contraveos, La Madia
Jennifer Contraveos has worked in the industry since she was 17, studied under some of mixology’s top stars and graduated as valedictorian of the United States Bartenders Guild. She’s also won a number of prestigious competitions, including the 2007 Marie Brizard Cocktail Challenge in New York. Contraveos is among mixology’s fastest-rising stars. The 26-year-old is currently mixing it up at Chicago’s La Madia, a contemporary pizza, wine and cocktail bar. As beverage director, she created the cocktail list and helped put together a 250-label wine list, including 63 wines by the glass. Contraveos also trained all the bartenders and runs a weekly educational seminar for the staff. She just added a new cocktail to her list, with more planned for spring focusing on seasonal produce. For inspiration, she says, “I like to walk through an organic market to see what’s new and fresh.” Contraveos prepares all of her juices, syrups and infusions from fresh ingredients. She also reworks the classics. The Moscow Mule originally was made with ginger beer and vodka, garnished with a cucumber slice. This bar chef infuses vodka with cucumber and ginger as the flavorful base for her popular Modern Mule.
Biaggi's, Ristorante Italiano
“We don’t put anything on our wine list for more than $9.95 a glass,” says John McDonnell, president of Biaggi’s Ristorante Italiano, “because we don’t want two digits to the left of the decimal point.” All 21 restaurants in the Bloomington, Illinois-based chain feature the same list of 35 reasonably priced wines by the bottle and glass. Wine as a percentage of gross sales has consistently run about 14 percent for the past two or three years. Dollar sales haven’t increased much, notes McDonnell, because the chain has been so successful in keeping the price points down. But Biaggi’s customers are drinking more wine and volume sales have risen. To keep it fresh and current, every year about a third of the list changes. McDonnell solicits samples from about 160 different wineries, importers and distributors for the types of wines that they’re interested in offering for the following year. For four days in February, a five-member panel samples some 250 to 300 wines, tasting in flights according to price range. After that winnowing, the finalists are tasted blind to pick three from each price slot. McDonnell makes the final choice, basing his decision upon distribution and availability as well as price and taste. “It’s a lot of work,” McDonnell admits. “But we know the wines are great values because we’ve tasted them against other wines in the same price range.”
Blue Spoon Cafe
The fledgling Blue Spoon Café, offspring of parent Culver’s, is putting the kind of focus on quality in its coffee program you’d expect from a high-end java bar, not a fast-casual chain whose top sellers are sandwiches. Working with local roaster Torke Coffee, the company has developed a proprietary blend where select beans are roasted in small batches. “The blend is very much a hand-crafted product,” says director of operations and development Mike Boss. Baristas undergo extensive training, as do all front-of-the-house staff. Espressos, lattes, cappuccinos and other brews are prepared with freshly ground beans, and brewed coffees are closely monitored as to temperature and holding time. All coffees are available either hot or iced. Blue Spoon retails its beans for takeout, too: $7.49 for 12 ounces. Two cafes are open in Wisconsin, each seating about 150.
Pyrogrill
With the opening of its second location, Jupiter, Florida’s Pyrogrill decided on a future prototype that is both customer- and environmentally friendly. “The open design and display kitchen are welcoming and highlight the fact that we have nothing to hide,” explains CEO and founder Michael Curcio. “We have no freezers and no microwaves—everything is cooked fresh.” A long, communal table at the center of the restaurant is geared to the large number of single diners who patronize Pyrogrill. “It encourages interaction,” Curcio says. On the environmental side, green initiatives include reclaimed wood millwork and energy efficient lighting. There are now twice as many seats in the restaurants as well, but the footprint remains the same—thanks to a smaller but more functional kitchen. “We found a better way to situate some of our equipment and everything flows more efficiently,” Curcio adds. 
Souplantation/Sweet Tomatos
The folks at San Diego-based Souplanation/Sweet Tomatoes believe a restaurant space should reflect the menu and brand. When it came time to create a new prototype for the 107-unit chain, they got on board with a “contemporary farmers’ market” look to reinforce the farm-fresh ingredients and from-scratch soups, salads and baked goods the concept serves. The new interior features an exposition bakery and kitchen, a salad bar with selections arranged in a loose farmer’s market style, an exposed ceiling and high, barn-like windows to bring in natural light. The new exterior mixes materials such as wood, stone and cement in rich earth tones to evoke a farmhouse feeling. “As we started this process of developing the prototype, there were two things that were important to us,” says Michael Mack, CEO of parent company Garden Fresh Restaurant Corporation. “The first was to ensure our new look was consistent with the fresh, wholesome ingredients.” The second, he adds, was to rely on guest and employee feedback for input. A separate “to-go” lane at the salad bar emerged as a priority on both sides.
McAlister's Deli's Menu Boards
Ever since McAlister’s Deli opened its first store in 1989, its menu of sandwiches, spuds, salads and more was displayed on a chalkboard. When the 40-location chain rolled out a new store design last year, it wanted to preserve the iconic chalkboard but modernize it with the latest technology. “Guests loved the look and feel of the old menu boards but they were difficult to navigate and read,” says Ian MacDonald, senior director of marketing. “Plus, while the staff was able to erase and change prices, the menu items were permanent and couldn’t be updated without shipping an entire board back to the manufacturer for replacement.”
McAlister’s re-do combines the best of the old and new: the menu boards are now designed within a wooden frame with items listed in white on black like a vintage chalkboard, but the beauty shots of the food and the writing are all digitally printed. It costs only $60 to update the menu—inserts are printed, laminated and inserted into the frame, saving staff hours and about $3,000 per menu board. MacDonald reports that the redesign makes for much more flexibility yet delivers the same brand equity and customer appeal.
Efrem Cutler, UFood Grill
Efrem Cutler’s mission as corporate chef and executive vice president of product development for Boston-based health mecca UFood Grill is to make a quick-service menu that’s also healthy and tasty. Many have tried, but Cutler succeeds. Using choice meats, natural and organic ingredients, fresh produce, whole grains and light cheeses and dressings, he’s created such bell-ringers as a Bistro Salad, packed with organic field greens, feta, toasted walnuts and dried cranberries with a blueberry-pomegranate vinaigrette; and USDA Choice Fire-Grilled Sirloin Tips with spicy bbq sauce and a choice of two sides like Sweet Potato Mash and Steamed Veggie. Cutler came to UFood by way of such upscale venues as the Ritz-Carlton and his own restaurant in Roswell, Georgia. In some ways, this background was a plus—used to accepting no compromise, he approached the new menu as an open book, “to keep the ideation flow open,” he says. The biggest challenge: Going from a 17-station French kitchen to a stripped down venue with no fryer, stove or pans. “You have to understand the level of talent in the kitchen. Simplicity is key. But that doesn’t mean you can’t make healthy, delicious food that you can be proud of.” 
Michelle Williams, Richmond Restaurant Group
Michelle Williams finds niches and fills them, a coveted talent in this industry and one that has made her a success. A trained chef who worked in numerous Richmond, Virginia-area restaurants before going back to culinary school and then opening her first restaurant with partner Jared Golden, Williams has created a total of seven restaurants so far. There is The Hard Shell, a sophisticated yet-casual seafood-intensive menu. Right next door is Europa, promoting socializing and grazing with its tapas-style menu. The Hill Café is a neighborhood eatery. Cha Cha’s and Lucky Buddha introduced Richmond to stylish Mexican and Asian food, respectively. And Le Luxe, which opened in December, is a haute diner. As if that weren’t enough, Williams is also the sole proprietor of Michelle’s at Hanover Tavern, which specializes in American comfort food. “I love using the basic culinary principles I’ve learned over the years and applying them to different cuisines and menu concepts,” says Williams. “It’s so much fun getting ideas from brain to paper, to when the doors open.” 
Michael C. Brown, Metro Restaurants
Michael C. Brown holds the reins on 10 different restaurants—covering French, Italian, steakhouse and more—coming up with menus that are both profitable and diverse, trendy yet appealing to a wide range of customers. It’s a heavy lift that requires major multitasking, but Brown has succeeded on the culinary and business side. “There’s a lot of different pieces,” says Brown, corporate executive chef of Metro Restaurants, operating in the Tucson area. A veteran of such well-known restaurants as Citronelle and the Clyde’s Restaurant Group in Washington, Brown has been working with Metro since 1996, when he came on as a line cook. He first stepped up to help the company’s flagging Asian concept Firecracker, which was quickly voted best restaurant of the year by local press. As the company, started by Robert McMahon, continued to grow, Brown stepped into the role of executive chef. “Right now, I’m looking for a source for burrata, which I’d like to have on the menu. Tomorrow it’ll be a menu for 700 or 800 to help promote a local golf tournament.”
The Best Broadliners
Sysco
Distribution’s behemoth might seem the antithesis of a green supply-side company, but its very size and standing almost necessitate that Sysco play a leadership role in this regard. And it’s doing just that. In 2004 the broadliner created the position of vice president quality assurance and agricultural sustainability to work toward educating and encouraging local farmers to participate in Sysco programs. It participates in the Sustainable Food Laboratory, a public-private initiative dedicated to advancing a more sustainable food system; one of the key programs aims to reduce or eliminate chemical/herbicide use among food growers. Seventy-eight of Sysco’s canned fruit and vegetable private-label suppliers were included in the first year of the program. Collectively, they avoided using more than 300,000 pounds of active-ingredient pesticides. Sysco worked with those same suppliers to reuse or recycle 155,000 tons of organic waste material; 6.4 million pounds of cardboard and paper; 2.9 million pounds of metal products and 1.6 million pound of plastic. Sysco is also experimenting with alternative fuels to reduce consumption and emissions among its fleet, and has worked to cut engine idle time and miles traveled via more efficient routing. Portions of executives’ bonuses are now tied to their success in this area, as well as in cutting electricity use by retrofitting facilities with energy-efficient lighting and refrigeration systems. On the product side, the company developed the Sysco Organics produce line and, in partnership with the EPA’s Design for the Environment program, a line of Earth Plus brand cleaning products. 
Cheney Brothers
A new program called “Green Balance” aims to get the word out about this regional broadliner’s large and growing portfolio of Green Seal Certified paper goods, chemicals, takeout packaging and other disposables. Under the program, Riviera Beach, Florida-based Cheney Brothers makes specialists available to work with restaurant operators looking to achieve their own “green balance.” They offer product and merchandising advice, and provide information on strategies like gaining LEED certification. Cheney’s Web site (www.cheneybrothers.com) offers a robust tutorial on the program.
The Plitt Company
The first seafood wholesaler in Chicago to achieve Marine Stewardship Council Chain of Custody certification has developed a set of best practices that form the core of its “Sustainability Statement.” Among those practices, relative to wild seafood species, Plitt uses the document “An Evaluation of Rebuilding Plans for U.S. Fisheries” to determine which species by region it will market, excluding any species that require more than 22 years to fully recover. Plitt maintains MSC Chain of Custody Certification on available species and is vigilant about avoiding species that are threatened by incidental bycatch, giving priority to hook-and-line fisheries. Relative to farmed species, Plitt requires all vendors maintain and update an Integrity and Process Statement that outlines the vendor’s responsibility to report all chemical, synthetics, pharmaceuticals and feed used in the production of farmed fish and shellfish. Farms also have to provide assurances that their operations have no adverse environmental impact on the surrounding areas. The company won’t buy seafood products that can’t provide a living wage for workers involved in their production, and it is committed to educating its staff on issues of sustainability. All sales personnel, for instance, are required to be re-educated and/or updated on the company’s Sustainability Statement and best practices annually. 
EcoFish
Launched in 1999, Dover, New Hampshire-based EcoFish (www.ecofish.com) touts a business model that’s unique in a couple of ways. First, it offers seafood sourced exclusively from sustainable fisheries around the world. Second, it express ships products straight from the source, “eliminating the costly distribution chain and time your fish spends in someone else’s cooler.” All products added to its line must first be unanimously approved by the company’s Seafood Advisory Board, an independent group of top marine conservation scientists representing organizations like Environmental Defense, Center for the Future of the Oceans at Monterey Bay Aquarium and Blue Ocean Institute. And the company helps educate customers, as well as their staffs and patrons, about its products and the importance of sustainable fishing.
Duck Delivery
The foodservice division of 70-year-old United Salad Co., Duck Delivery is the first distributor certified by the non-profit Food Alliance for sustainable business practices, including virtually no-waste operations. All paper cardboard and plastic from packaging is baled and recycled (above). Wooden pallets are recycled. All food scrap waste from produce processing goes back to farmers for use in animal feed or is composted. The company, which operates out of Portland and Seattle, is working with suppliers to eliminate waxing of cardboard produce boxes and to have suppliers become Food Alliance certified, as well. Those that do are promoted prominently on its product list. While much of its inventory has come from California, Duck is working on an “all-encompassing local sourcing program” to reduce transportation miles/fuel usage and have less impact on the environment. It’s also converting its delivery fleet to new models that meet strict 2008 emissions and mileage standards. Duck is working with the Portland Office of Sustainability on how to further improve its recycling programs and with the Energy Trust of Oregon to unearth additional energy and water conservation strategies. “A lot of this isn’t cheap to implement, but we don’t choose to see it like that,” says Ernest Spada Jr., president. “Everything we do comes from the land. If that’s gone, we’re gone.”
Big Bowl
The greening of Big Bowl, Lettuce Entertain You’s Asian concept with eight units in the Midwest and Virginia, started with a few food product categories. Chicken and pork raised naturally on small farms were brought in, as were responsibly fished seafood and Fair Trade coffee. To get what it wanted, the company first sourced the items/vendors it wanted and then met with distributors to ask that they carry them. In each market, the distribution scenario varies: In Minneapolis, a produce specialist carries its FreeBird™ chicken; in other markets, Sysco might handle that piece. The effort has since spread to everything from aquatic-friendly dish detergents, to bleach-free napkins imprinted with nontoxic ink. President Dan McCowan notes that many such “green” nonfoods products are now available through existing suppliers. It’s spread also to staff uniforms, made of 100 percent organic cotton, and to its energy-sourcing program. The first restaurant to join the Chicago Climate Exchange, Big Bowl is working toward 100 percent carbon neutrality. It also stopped buying bottled water.
Burgerville
A relative old-timer in practicing local sourcing as a community-centered, eco-friendly business strategy, Vancouver, Washington-based Burgerville didn’t capitalize on the power of that strategy until its business began to slow in the mid-1990s. Since then, it’s been key to the 31-year-old company’s revitalized growth. Its approach reaches beyond simply buying local to encourage and nurture sustainable practices on the part of its business partners and its communities. Case in point: The company’s beef supplier, Fulton Provisions, has fostered relationships with a local rancher, helping to ensure that Burgerville gets fresh, local beef and the rancher’s business is sustainable and growing. Fulton Provisions’ trucks now run on biofuel supplied by a local company that converts Burgerville’s waste oil into the alternative fuel. The chain’s artisan cheese supplier purchases milk from a local dairy and sends all of its waste whey back to local dairy farms to be used as a natural fertilizer. “That’s the kind of cradle-to-cradle partner we actively look for,” says Burgerville’s Alison Dennis. By mid-2008, Burgerville’s goal is to have at least 85 percent of its waste stream composted or recycled. “That goal naturally leads to conversations with packaging suppliers to make sure we’re purchasing products that are compostable or recyclable,” Dennis says.
Pizza Fusion
For a chain to be green, it has to buy green. Fort Lauderdale-based Pizza Fusion has developed its entire business model around environmental issues, from big things like setting up shop only in LEED-certified buildings with features like bamboo flooring, to eliminating the use of water heaters and air heating units by recycling heat from ovens and warm water. Pizza Fusion restaurants’ other eco-elements include purchasing countertops made from 100 percent recycled detergent bottles, bamboo flooring, 30 percent recaptured industrial concrete, ceiling panels made from 74 percent recycled aluminum cans and 24 percent post industrial metals, USG Gypsum Board made from pre-used drywall, insulation made from recycled blue jeans, ceiling baffles made from recycled composite board, low-voltage and low-heat lighting, seat cushions made with soybean oil, furniture made from reclaimed wood and 100 percent post consumer toilet paper. All disposables are biodegradable, all ingredients are all-natural and/or organic, with locally grown organic produce tapped as much as possible. Thye menu is marketed as 75 percent organic. Phew! Saving the Earth one pizza at a time.
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