6 Hot Restaurant Trends to Track
By Aimee Harvey on Aug. 30, 2017CHICAGO -- Foodservice consumers are fast-moving targets, and their expectations--and cravings--keep changing. As retailers and restaurants continue to push innovation across dayparts and menu categories, consumers have plenty of choices. Securing their loyalty often means reviving flavors, preparations and presentations in order to keep customers coming back for more.
In this hotly competitive environment, food-focused convenience stores are doing more to stand out, including getting increasingly creative with the menu and adapting quickly to top restaurant trends—especially from independent and emerging restaurant concepts.
With help from our colleagues at Restaurant Business, here are seven newly launched restaurant concepts worth your attention. Click through to uncover some on-trend ideas and gain some inspiration that could spark menu innovation in your stores.
1. Chicken nugget 'flights'
Chicken nuggets, perhaps the ultimate kid-friendly comfort food, gets the upscale treatment at The Kitchen, a "tasting room" lunch counter in Sebastopol, Calif. The Kitchen's menu features flights of Original, Ketchup and Maple chicken fingers, as well as a gluten-free variety.
2. The trailer park trendlet
Independent restaurateurs are marrying the food truck and food hall trends by combining the two and bringing food trailers indoors.
Seventh Street Truck Park in St. Paul, Minn., includes three bars and a rotating lineup of food trucks. In San Diego, there's Trailer Park After Dark, an underground bar that features four vintage trailers. The menu includes comfort foods such as Frito pies, hot dogs and Sloppy Joes.
3. Around-the-world meatballs
From Moroccan lamb to spicy Korean pork to traditional beef, meatballs take center stage at Certified Meatball Company in Boston. The full-service concept also features some unusual meatballs, including turkducken (turkey, duck and chicken), and shrimp n' grits (shrimp balls over cheddar grits with tasso gravy).
The kitchen also puts out meatball sandwiches, along with bao balls, and for dessert, cake balls. Dubbed 'Sweetballs,' the cake balls are available in Chocolate Truffle, Lemon Coconut Meringue and Salted Peanut Butterscotch.
4. Vegan cheesesteaks
Philadelphia-based Wiz Kid specializes in vegan cheesesteak sandwiches and a menu boasting big, globally inspired flavors. Other specialties include a Korean-fried tempeh sandwich and the King Cobb Salad with chickpeas, avocado, pickled cauliflower, tofu and harissa, flavored with lemon-sumac dressing.
5. Caribbean fare—with an off-premise approach
Rock shrimp, jerk ribs and honey-spiced chicken wings make up much of the menu at River Bistro. The Detroit restaurant has a few dine-in seats, but most of the business is focused on prepping its tropical-inspired menu for takeout and delivery.
6. Upgrading build-your-own bowls
New Dallas fast-casual eatery Gather Kitchen caters to a wide variety of specialized diets, from vegan to paleo. However, it's the breadth of Gather Kitchen's ingredients that set its menu apart. Base options for its build-your-own bowl meals include zucchini noodles, quinoa, cauliflower rice, sweet potato noodles and brown rice. There are a dozen vegetable topping options, as well as lemon-poached shrimp, falafel and marinated chicken breast. Bowls can be topped with half a dozen sauces and garnishes, such as toasted almonds, dried cranberries and sesame seeds.