Food

Most menu optimization advice focuses on paring down your offerings to what’s most popular and most profitable. For example, a TURF (Total Unduplicated Reach and Frequency) analysis can identify the core essentials: that is, the shortest possible list of items needed to satisfy the vast majority of customers.

But you shouldn’t neglect the second step: expanding the menu to include innovative new dishes. These creative approaches can help you start thinking about how to shake things up — successfully — in the year to come.

Restaurant operators are tired of flat traffic numbers. In the 12 months ending February 2018, lunch traffic was flat, according to The NPD Group, and dinner traffic dropped 1 percent.

The one bit of sunshine: Breakfast. Restaurant traffic for breakfast and morning snacks rose 1 percent in that time period. How can you capture a piece of the early-bird action? The old standbys, like egg and bacon, may not be enough. Here are five creative menu offerings that will attract and satisfy your breakfast customers.

Purple cauliflower. Congee. Skhug sauce. Cajeta. Chermoula.

Are you scratching your head? Don’t worry: Restaurateurs across the country are doing the same. These five foods are among dozens, if not hundreds, predicted to be the flavor trends of 2017. (And in case you, like us, need a cheat sheet: congee = rice porridge, skhug = Yemeni/Israeli hot sauce, cajeta = a sweet, caramelized goat’s milk sauce and chermoula = a green Moroccan marinade made with lemon and herbs). 

But how popular will these, or any other, fashionable flavors really be with your diners? Here are a few tips for identifying food trends worth following.