Bret Thorn, Nancy Kruse discuss secret menus

In a monthly series, menu trend analyst Nancy Kruse and NRN senior food editor Bret Thorn debate current trends in the restaurant industry. For this installment, they discuss the pros and cons of secret restaurant menus.

Secret menus stir up excitement

NRN senior food editor Bret Thorn says operators are smart to accommodate off-menu customer requests when possible.

Nancy, it seems like consumer media has suddenly become very excited about secret menus, those sometimes-legendary food combinations that restaurants will sell to you if you know to ask for it.

In-n-Out Burger seems to owe much of its cult-like following to items like the Double Double Animal Style burger, two hamburger patties and two slices of cheese cooked with mustard and served with extra pickles and sautéed onions. And there are strange tales of things at McDonald’s like the Air, Land and Sea Burger — a Quarter Pounder, Filet-o-Fish and McChicken stacked on top of each other — and the 10:35 burger, which supposedly can be ordered during that magical time when the restaurant switches from breakfast to lunch. It’s an Egg McMuffin and a McDouble, which the guest reassembles into a single sandwich, presumably either jettisoning the English muffin or the hamburger bun, although I don’t really know because I’ve never seen such a thing. In fact, I think the only secret menu item I’ve ever ordered is Starbucks’ short cappuccino, which is like a tall cappuccino, but, well, in a shorter cup. It’s marginally less expensive and contains a little less milk.

Secret menu items have been around for years, although variations on the theme have emerged. For example, Panera Bread earlier this year let it be known via its social media and loyalty program outlets that guests can order an array of low-carb items if they want to.

That seemed to spur the NPR story for which I was interviewed and in which chief concept officer Scott Davis explained that the new items catered to the market of people avoiding carbohydrates or gluten whose business the fast-casual chain was missing.

Mama Fu’s, an Asian chain based in Austin, Texas, has a Black Market menu that it uses both to test new menu items and to let its Funatics — members of its loyalty program — feel special by offering the menu to them and nobody else.

Although in the case of Panera and Mama Fu’s, the not-so-secret menus were started by the chains themselves, it seems to me that many others that have gone viral, such as the Chipotle quesarito, a burrito wrapped in a quesadilla, were invented by customers.

Savvy operators are generally inclined to comply with even remotely reasonable requests by their customers; that’s what hospitality is all about, after all. So if a Taco Bell customer wants a Doritos shell for something other than a Doritos Locos Taco — something that is reportedly happening with some frequency — he or she will likely get it. If guests want to order two sandwiches and reassemble them to their liking, why would you deny them that thrill?

The fact that customers are tweeting, posting videos and creating Facebook pages about the items is certainly to the restaurants’ benefit. Isn’t it the sort of customer engagement that many operators dream about?

Nancy, where do you think this renewed excitement about secret menus is coming from, and what do you recommend restaurateurs do about it?

In with the in-crowd

The following is Kruse Company president Nancy Kruse’s response to NRN senior food editor Bret Thorn’s take on secret menus.

I’m laughing as I write this, Bret. After numerous local and national newspaper accounts, many television reports, your own radio appearance and ongoing hubbub in the Twitter-verse, it appears that secret menus aren’t so secret anymore. The jig is up; the cat is out of the bag; their cover has been blown; and customers have been clued in — and loving it.

It seems to me that all the excitement generated by the secret menu concept derives from the fact that everyone wants to feel like an insider. In restaurant terms, that translates to someone who can snag a table at the restaurant-of-the-moment at 8 p.m. on Saturday night. It’s someone who’s on a first-name basis with the bartender and wait staff. Or it’s someone who can score a dish that’s not even on the menu, just because he or she is in on the secret. It’s pure culinary catnip. Everyone wants to be part of the in-crowd, and secret menus have created an in-crowd of diners whose ranks swell with every blog post and tweet.

From the operator perspective, the secret menu can be a public relations dream come true. When communicated broadly via social media, it drives traffic and creates buzz and excitement. When communicated only to a select audience, like frequent diners, it’s a kind of digital punch card that rewards them for their loyalty. Immediate and compelling, secret menus appear to create winners all around.

The bigger question is whether there are any negatives associated with the concept. I’m not a marketing strategist, but it seems to me that the secret menu is a digital marketing tactic that requires the same sort of thought and planning as any conventional marketing approach relative to objectives, target audience and so on. And the marketing mistakes that derail other marketing programs can bedevil secret menus, too. Undeniably hot now, overuse and under-planning might cause them to cool down.

All that said, secret menus are newfangled, and they’re fun. Maybe we should consider doing these monthly dialogues in secret. Think about it, Bret: It could add luster to our image and would surely cement our status with the in-crowd.  

Contact Bret Thorn at [email protected].


Follow him on Twitter: @foodwriterdiary




Nancy Kruse, president of the Kruse Company, is a menu trends analyst based in Atlanta and a regular contributor to Nation’s Restaurant News. E-mail her at [email protected].