OAKBROOK TERRACE, Ill. -- Peter Romeo, director of digital content for CSP’s companion publication Restaurant Business, has put forth his restaurant-industry prognostications for the coming year. And if they come to pass, they promise to be very convenience-store foodservice friendly.
- Fast casual will replace gravity as the industry’s fundamental force. Quick-service restaurants (QSRs) are being pulled into fast casual’s quality zone as if they’d been caught in a tractor beam. The just-coined term QSR-plus is likely to become a fixture of the restaurant vernacular. It’s the natural outcome of fast casual becoming the epicenter of the restaurant universe, to which all other brands are drawn.
- Blendedburgers will be the slider of 2016. If you doubt it, get to one of the many college campuses that are mixing proteins with mushrooms, grains, veggies and other highly textured components to deliver a burger that’s more moist, more flavorful, more healthful and kinder to the environment. And the beef-plus burgers already are proving successful for chains. A beef-bacon blend is the signature of the Slater’s 50/50 casual concept. The name of Texas Roadhouse’s new growth concept, Bubba’s 33, refers to bacon accounting for 33% of the burger mix.
- Fried chicken will rival the mixed burger. In addition to the new crop of fast casuals featuring Nashville-style hot chicken, places of all types will feature yesterday’s poster product for clogged arteries. The staple looks, once again, like a perfect restaurant item: something with relatively low food costs and high perceived value that consumers aren’t going to make at home.
- McDonald’s will try beer and wine. It’s a logical next step in the chain’s race to catch up with the public’s tastes. If you can get a beer anywhere from a supermarket to a shooting range, why not let Mom and Dad enjoy a cold one while the kids gnaw some McNuggets? McDonald’s will be the turnaround story of 2016. And its former protégé Chipotle Mexican Grill will become the ICU patient of the year.
Click here for more gravy on Romeo’s full plate of predictions.
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