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Few food items in the restaurant kitchen work as hard or please as many patrons as flatbreads.
These savory crusts are found everywhere from quickservice eateries to casual dining spots and even upscale restaurants these days. Operators can top them with creative ingredients and bake them for appetizers, snacks and light meals or use them to envelope a variety of savory fillings in signature wraps and sandwiches.
With versatility like that, it is not surprising that flatbreads are high-profile offerings on more and more menus. Here are some prominent examples:
Seasons 52, the Darden Restaurants concept dedicated to light and delicious eating, has a number of brick-oven-baked flatbreads on its menu. They include the Grilled Steak and Cremini Mushroom Flatbread, which is topped with fresh spinach and Wisconsin blue cheese and the Spicy Chipotle Shrimp Flatbread, with grilled pineapple, feta cheese and roasted poblano peppers. New this summer is the BLT Flatbread, which features applewood bacon, organic arugula and tricolored organic tomatoes, finished with basil sour cream.
At the Napa Valley Grille in Westwood, Calif., the summer menu sports Zucchini Flatbread, with arugula pesto, local petite zucchini, smoked mozzarella and dry black olives and the Pancetta Flatbread, with La Quercia Iowa pancetta, charred sweet onion, sautéed summer greens and local goat cheese.
In the quickservice segment, Quiznos menus a line of Flatbread Sammies with less than 500 calories. Examples include the Bistro Steak Melt, made with roast beef, mozzarella, lettuce, tomatoes and mild peppercorn sauce and the Smoky Chipotle Turkey, with turkey, cheddar cheese, lettuce, tomatoes and chipotle mayo.
At Anthem Kitchen & Bar in Boston, wood-grilled flatbread pizzas “sell like mad” throughout the day, said Todd Bennett, general manager of the American comfort food restaurant, part of the ten-unit Briar Group based there. “On a busy day, in the summer with the patio open, we were selling probably 250 per day,” he said.
The five flatbreads on the Anthem menu include Meat & Potatoes, which is topped with grilled steak, shaved bacon, truffled mashed potatoes, blue cheese and fontina cheese, Margherita, with mozzarella, San Marzano tomato sauce and fresh basil and Prosciutto, which has prosciutto, poached figs, tomato, arugula and grated parmesan. A single flatbread, which ranges in price from $12 to $14, serves one patron with a good appetite, Bennett said, or two people sharing it as a starter course or snack.
Apart from its core lunch and dinner flatbreads, Anthem has also succeeded with dessert flatbreads and breakfast flatbreads. An example of a sweet creation featured hazelnut-cocoa spread, caramelized bananas, marshmallows and toasted hazelnuts. Breakfast flatbreads have showcased familiar morning fare like fried or scrambled eggs, bacon and sausage as well as ethnically inspired ingredients like Colombian-style black beans.
At TeaFuse Teahouse in Atlanta, menu offerings include the Asiago Flatbread, which is grilled and topped with pesto, asiago cheese and sundried tomato, priced at $5, and the TeaFuse Muffaletta, a flatbread with turkey, provolone and olive spread, priced at $5.25.
Thin-crusted flatbreads are an important part of the menu at the Hubbard Inn in Chicago. Billed as a Continental tavern, the restaurant is known for its small plates of relatively light, flavorful and moderately priced food, reported executive chef Bob Zrenner.
Current flatbread offerings are Asparagus & Mushroom Ragout, with caramelized onions, ricotta salata and gremolata, Merguez Sausage, with almonds, herbs, blue cheese, sumac and pear chutney and Three Cheeses, with fresh mozzarella, pecorino toscano and Monterey jack. Each is priced at $11.
Zrenner observed that the term “flatbread” seems to give the chef a free hand to be innovative, more so than “pizza,” an item which customers tend to have expectations about.
Flatbread “allows us to get away from what everyone has grown up with, so preconceptions are left at the door,” said Zrenner. “I doubt a lot of people would want asparagus on their pizza, but they love it on their flatbread.”
For more information on Schwan’s Food Service’s flatbread products, please call 1.877.302.7426 or click here.
