Regardless of the vast differences among the various industries in the U.S., be it restaurant design, technology innovation, new car models, or the latest fashion trends, the one thing that appears to be invariably constant year after year is change itself, especially when it comes to consumer choice and preference. But when it comes to restaurant industry trends, consumers are progressively uniting restaurants and dining to their personal beliefs and inclinations about where or how they choose to dine. This has led to the most reasonable corollary action currently facing restaurant management and executive chefs when it comes to restaurant menu design and restaurant consulting.
The following five trends have once more provided the perennial impetus for restaurant menu design.
1. Sustainability – In this year as in previous years, environmental sustainability has been the biggest influence in restaurant menu design. According to the National Restaurant Association, food waste reduction and management is at the vanguard position in this trend, creating unprecedented challenges to operations and restaurant management, as they try to create strategies for tying sustainability and social responsibility with the constraint of rising food prices, a challenge that has consequently created an ever-increasing demand for restaurant consulting services.
2. House-Made – Another noticeable trend is the movement towards purveying food that was once hyper-local to house-made (National Restaurant Association). House-made is an industry term that refers to farm branded, and artisan items, which local restaurateurs use to fashion their own food items literally from scratch, a local sourcing trend which continues to grow, especially in the more liberal cities like San Francisco.
3. Fading Menu Stars – When it comes to restaurant menu design, nothing prompts more changes than having to eliminate items from the menu that were once hot. With every item that heats up, inevitably, there is that other item that fizzles into mediocrity. A case in point is the rise of hybrid desserts, such as the croissant-donut, which is now beginning to fade away from menus in a descending path, prompting a recrudescent interest restaurant menu design.
4. Children’s Menus – Children’s menus have always been an important component of the restaurant design that wants to foster an atmosphere for the whole family, and children’s menus appear to be drawing an ever increasing level of attention and revision from restaurant management, as the tastes in these menus are progressively becoming more sophisticated and creating the realization that the days of finger foods and hotdogs are long-gone and are now being replaced by a new trend in the era of gourmet food for children in a form derived from adult menu items. Chefs are now trying to incorporate the same flavor profiles from the adult menu into the children’s cart de jour in parallel with adult healthy options that includes healthy items such as whole grains, vegetables, oven-baked foods, and many other traditionally adult healthy entrees.
5. Ethnic Cuisine – A trend that has been evolving for the past two decades is the proliferation of ethnic cuisine into American mainstream menus, with more sophisticated and eclectic offerings from various cultures, e.g., PF Chang’s. Fusion cuisines from different cultures, such as the anglicized Mexican food offered at Chipotle, is also sub-trending in this category, as well as authentic and regional, which stresses the extent and depth of flavors being explored. In addition, other ethnic complements, such as ingredients that include cheeses, flour and condiments are increasingly making inroads into traditionally non-ethnic dishes. For kids, dishes like ramen, ethnic street-food and kids’ entrees are also gaining strength.
For restaurant menu design and consulting contact TRG Restaurant Consulting
