What’s New at the Carryout Counter

May 2001

What’s New at the Carryout CounterBy Sarah MinasianContributing Editor

It seems as though everyone is jumping on the takeout-food bandwagon. From casual-theme chains to a full range of independents, restaurants are doing a brisk carryout business. After all, with the demands of today’s high-speed, technology-driven culture, few of us have time left over for meal preparation. Who’s taking takeoutThe Tableservice Trends 2000 survey, conducted by the National Restaurant Association (NRA), Washington, D.C., reports that more people are making takeout meals from tableservice restaurants a major part of their dining experience. This is particularly true among casual-dining establishments, where 57% of operators indicated their customers were ordering more takeout food than two years prior.“Hard-working individuals are looking for ways to make their lives a little easier, and tableservice restaurants are responding by providing high-quality meals in a convenient manner,” says Steven C. Anderson, president and CEO, NRA. “Ordering takeout or delivery instead of cooking allows people to spend more time with family and friends, and less time in the kitchen after a long day.” Customers are demanding convenience, but not just any old bag of burgers will do. They also yearn for variety, quality, value, nutrition and consistency. Rushing to meet these demands, some operators offer their entire tableservice menu as takeout, where others have streamlined it to include only items that deliver on the promise of consistency in quality.Taking it to goAddressing the takeout trend, casual-segment players, such as Chili’s, Outback Steakhouse and Olive Garden, have created special menus. While both Chili’s To Go menu and Outback’s Curbside Take-Away offer the same food as their tableservice menu, Olive Garden’s To Go menu is a streamlined “best-suited for travel” version. “During the work-week lunch hour, 90% of our takeout is for corporate business, with 10% consumer; however, at night and on the weekends, 100% of our takeout is consumer business,” says Terry Doug, general manager, Olive Garden, Madison, WI.Tom Sasser, president and owner, Harper’s Restaurants Inc., Charlotte, NC, opened up ToGoGo in August 1999 to address the growing demand for takeout business lunches and takeout at-home dinners. What began as a brisk carryout business of take-and-bake pizzas has turned into a 1,200-sq. ft. “takeout-a-rama” located adjacent to one of Harper’s restaurants. The ToGoGo concept includes grab-and-go reach-ins, made to order and self-service cold and hot stations. Customers put together their own meal, choosing from a hot-foods bar, pizza and pasta station, salad bar, prepared foods and desserts, and an extensive beverage list. “The biggest sellers are our salads right off the salad bar and prepared entrée salads, like our chicken Caesar, BLT salad, smoked salmon salad and our Asian chicken salad. Comfort foods, like meatloaf, lasagna, mashed potatoes and collard greens, are also very popular,” says Sasser. Hot-bar dishes include chicken potpie, seafood jambalaya, rotisserie pork loin and pot roast; vegetable sides include southern succotash, potato hash, spicy beans and tomato casserole. Aside from two chicken and rib ovenable containers, other hot dishes are packaged in microwavable containers, and prepared salads, such as pasta, potato, coleslaw, fruit and cucumber, are packaged in black-base clear-top plastic containers. Experience has taught them that different foods inside the same container don’t reheat the same, so now ToGoGo packages all of its prepared foods in separate containers. “Takeout sales that generated 2% to 3% of total sales two years ago now account for a little over 10%, and the real neat thing is we are set up to handle it. If you try to do a huge to-go business in your dining room, somebody is going to suffer,” says Sasser. Chef-owner Alexander Smalls, ShoeBox Café, NY, has endowed takeout foods with a marketing hook of southern hospitality. The restaurant features two takeout counters, including an express counter, 35-seat dining room and a hot-food line that offers dining-room entrées to go. The express counter offers specialty baked goods, including corn muffins, peppered ham biscuits, pecan chocolate brownies and coconut black-and-white cake. Based on the southern tradition of packing foods in a shoebox, carryout lunches are packaged in 9 in. by 5 in. by 4-in. rectangular pop-up white-coated boxes. Shoebox lunches, such as bourbon praline ham and southern-fried chicken come with garlic french fries, savory cabbage and sweet potato salad. As reported in a March 2001 issue of Restaurant Business, Smalls says, “When it comes to QSR, the customer is in control. You have about 30 seconds to capture the attention of a customer who has specific limitations of desires. You need to display so it’s enticing, and in a way that people are brought in immediately.”Brad Duesler, president, Food Concepts Inc. (FCI), Middleton, WI, fully understands the importance of visually hooking the consumer. FCI designs and fabricates merchandising food-court systems, mobile carts and kiosks. “The food-court system is like a portal of the modern day version of the automat, but more branded,” he says. “The saturated A+ business locations have forced franchises to look elsewhere for growth opportunity. Our whole concept is taking the food-court mall and downsizing it to fit into smaller, non-traditional venues, like convenience stores, airports, schools, hospitals and corporate offices. What’s great about it is the consumer connects with it in non-traditional spaces as a comfortable visual image that they’ve seen at the mall.” According to Duesler, on the tails of coffee and bakery, sub-sandwich franchises have captured a large share of non-traditional takeout venues beause of their flexibility and willingness to adapt to space constraints. Based on experience, Duesler believes there is a need for more holding-equipment options, as well as recipe development that addresses longer holding times.Choose the best candidates“The biggest problem with takeout is hold time,” says Mark Hill, corporate executive chef, Simplot Food Group, Boise, ID. “What we’ve found in casual-theme restaurants is that they don’t want to change their menu for takeout; they want to offer their same menu, and in certain cases, they’re suffering.” If you haven’t done your takeout homework, you’re bound to end up compromising on quality, and consequently, Hill says, “what doesn’t work for takeout foods is what doesn’t deliver on the product.”Some foods just transport better than others — take the case of the ubiquitous french fry. Generally, the customer will get home, open a takeout box, and see a soggy fry. A slight change will deliver a more appetizing item. “The more batter and more potato, such as a 6- to 10-count battered potato wedge, you will have a lot better holding time on your product,” Hill says. Hill points out other alternatives: “A fried mashed-potato bite, on account of its dense center, is geared to stand up underneath a heat lamp or in a closed container and still maintain it’s crispy quality.” Or how about a whole stone-ground corn fry, a cross between a french fry and tortilla chip? “You fry those puppies up and put them out under your heat lamp for service and they don’t get soggy — they’ll get cold first,” Hill claims. Pack it upDon’t ignore the value of packaging. “We’ve come out with a total of 20 to 30 new products to meet the demands of the customer for different applications, with microwavable containers in highest demand,” says Greg Roder, director of marketing, Anchor Packaging, St. Louis. Aimed at foodservice customers that are targeting the to-go market by offering upscale packaging, Anchor’s line of polypropylene black bottom/clear top to-go containers are microwavable, recyclable and dishwasher safe. One of its microwavable products is a clamshell container with a vented lid to release steam — this keeps the container clear while inhibiting condensation. The containers can be stacked without blocking the lid vents, and are available with either a flat or grid bottom, allowing juices to drain to prevent soggy food. Cold-menu packaging, including sandwich wedges and crystal-clear PVC bakery clamshells, allow customers to close and reopen the container numerous times without cracking it. With increased menu options, more participating restaurants and new packaging strategies, takeout is finally evolving into the convenient, affordable and tasty meal-time option that it was designed to be. More competition between restaurants will surely lead to further developments in this 21st-century trend.

Sarah Minasian, chef and food communicator, is a Madison, WI-based foodservice consultant specializing in writing, recipe development and food styling.

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