Overnight Success?

By The Editors -- Restaurants & Institutions, 5/15/2003

Quiznos Sub challenges the adage that change can’t happen overnight with an aggressive redesign initiative for its more than 2,000 locations nationwide. Beginning in February, the Denver-based sandwich chain began renovating all its restaurants, with construction and installation crews arriving at stores after closing and completing the conversions in time to open for business the next day.

“There’s nothing like the morale of a franchise owner the first day in their new store,” says Brooksy Smith, Quiznos executive vice president. “They and their crews are so excited ... and that really translates to their customers.”

Developed in response to customer feedback, the changes aim to improve store ambience and operations. Lower counters allow customers a better view of Quiznos’ fresh ingredients and made-to-order sandwich preparation, while updated menu boards offer easier-to-read, more-detailed descriptions. New beverage stations feature soda as well as premium iced tea and lemonade products, while glass cabinets showcase the chain’s artisan breads, cut fresh to order.

Diners also can customize sandwiches at new pepper bars (far l.), which include jalapeños and banana peppers as well as horseradish, honey-mustard and red-wine vinaigrette sauces.

Quiznos corporate is covering all renovation costs for both company and franchised stores. As part of the initiative, the chain also introduced a new Quiznos Sub logo that drops an apostrophe and an “s” from its former Quizno’s Subs name.

Menu Focus

One of the culinary world’s most anticipated rites of spring is the migration of Alaskan and Pacific salmon. With their deep-orange-red flesh, king, sockeye and other varieties from Alaska’s Copper River are landing on menus for a limited time.

CHICAGO AREA
North Pond: Salmon escalope, mustard gnocchi, fava beans, asparagus, green garlic and lemon-beurre fondu
Rosemont Restaurant: Miso-glazed Copper River salmon with baby bok choy, shiitake mushrooms and sweet soy sauce

ORLANDO, FLA.
Seasons 52: Sesame-glazed salmon chop salad with gourmet greens, chilled asparagus and citrus-soy dressing (above)

PORTLAND, ORE.
Higgins Restaurant and Bar: Lemon-and-ginger-cured Chinook salmon with radish salad and sauce gribiche

PULLMAN, WASH.
Washington State University: Baked salmon with mustard glaze, stir-fried vegetables and white rice

SEATTLE
Chandler’s Crabhouse and Fresh Fish Market: Grilled smoked Copper River salmon with onion marmalade and Asian honey glaze

SOUTHAMPTON, N.Y.
The Plaza Cafe: King salmon with warm frisée salad, red potatoes, haricots verts and mustard-seed vinaigrette

WASHINGTON, D.C.
Nora: Sautéed wild salmon with wild-mushroom spring-pea ragoût, yam fries and basil pesto

Milk Money

Marketing milk as an alternative to soft drinks and sports beverages is attracting customers in restaurants and schools. Customers ordering Happy Meals at the 153 McDonald’s units in Sacramento, Calif., will be asked “Got Milk?” by servers. In tandem with milk marketers, the Oak Brook, Ill.-based chain is testing a three-month program, ending in June, that is aimed at boosting milk consumption.

The QSR’s use of the “Got Milk?” tagline is the first time the trademarked phrase has been employed in restaurant marketing. Special logos, advertising and buttons support McDonald’s effort to raise awareness of healthful beverage choices in their units.

At Lowell (Mass.) Public Schools, Foodservice Director Robert Deignan boosted milk sales by installing reach-in coolers—the kind used to sell soft drinks and juices at retail—decorated to look like spotted cowhide. He added colorful plastic containers of milk to vending machines and to the à la carte choices in the school’s cafeteria lines. His efforts have paid off, with overall milk sales jumping by 18%. Best of all, lunch attendance by secondary students rose 4.8%.

7-Eleven Keeps Pushing

Already a formidable competitor for quick-service restaurants, convenience-store champ 7-Eleven is fighting even harder this year. The Dallas-based chain last year upgraded and expanded offerings of what it calls fresh foods—sandwiches, breakfast items and baked goods—and has extended daily deliveries of those items to 4,750 stores, or 80% of its North American operations. Sales of fresh foods were $480 million in 2002, up almost 7% from 2001.

Further augmenting its fresh-foods line is one of two core goals the company recently announced for 2003. The other is to increase the availability of financial services in stores by expanding its stored-value 7-Eleven Convenience Card program and adding kiosks where customers can pay phone bills.

Additionally, the home of the Slurpee in June will begin selling a private-label beer brand (brewed in El Salvador and priced at $5.99 per six-pack). The chain follows with the August introduction of private-label chardonnay and pinot grigio wines from Australia priced at $4.99 per 375-milliliter bottle.

Fishing for the Facts

The California attorney general’s office has filed suit against nearly 20 restaurant chains, charging that they are not posting required warnings about mercury levels in certain fish species. The defendants reportedly requested the action by state authorities as a preemptive move after learning that an environmental group planned to sue them on the same grounds. Chains named in the suit include Orlando-based Red Lobster, Dallas-based Brinker International and Calabasas Hills, Calif.-based The Cheesecake Factory, among others.

Filed April 10, the lawsuit accuses the chains of knowingly selling swordfish, ahi yellowfin tuna, albacore tuna and shark without posting warnings required by the state’s Proposition 65 law, which states that no “person in the course of doing business shall knowingly and intentionally expose any individual to a chemical known to the state to cause cancer or reproductive toxicity without first giving clear and reasonable warning to such individual.” The suit asks that defendants pay $2,500-a-day fines until they post warning signs and seeks a permanent ban on the sale of the fish by operations that do not comply.

California Attorney General Bill Lockyer earlier this year filed a similar suit against five supermarket chains, which in February agreed to post mercury warnings at their counters.

Celebrity Chefs Check In

Despite a soft economy, hotels are booking high-profile independent chef/restaurateurs to create new business opportunities. Norman Van Aken, chef-owner of Norman’s in Coral Gables, Fla., (Ivy ’01) inked a deal to open a Norman’s unit in The Ritz-Carlton Orlando, Grande Lakes, scheduled for a July opening in Orlando, Fla.

The offer surprised Van Aken. “A table of customers dined at the restaurant and they complimented me on the food and service. Later, they suggested talking business,’’ recalls Van Aken. “I didn’t know who they were.’’ Weeks later, the deal was done. “It’s a first for me,’’ he adds, and a significant departure for Atlanta-based The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Co., which has not previously linked with outside restaurateurs at its properties.

Other prominent operators working with major hotels include chef and author Emeril Lagasse (above), whose Emeril’s in New Orleans was an Ivy winner in 1994. Lagasse recently announced his ninth restaurant, a 180-seat operation set to open this November in the Loews Miami Beach Hotel.

In Seattle, Todd English, chef-owner of Boston’s Olives (Ivy ’97), last month opened The Fish Club restaurant in the Seattle Marriott Waterfront Hotel, his first Pacific Northwest venture.

Ivy Idea

Bryn Mawr College (Ivy ’89) in Bryn Mawr, Pa., attempts to cure homesickness with its Taste of Home contest. In addition to asking students for recipes of home-cooked favorites, BMC Dining Services posted a link on its Web site and sent letters and colorful brochures soliciting recipes to parents. Students with winning recipes, which included Chicken La Paloma and Sweet Potato Crunch, received gift certificates and were honored with their parents at a special ceremony. Best of all, many of the recipes are now on the BMC menu.

Contributors: Scott Hume, Allison Perlik, Margaret Sheridan, Laura Yee.