Content Spotlight
Tech Tracker: How digital tech is capitalizing on the hot restaurant reservations market
Tock and Google now offer experience reservations; Diibs launches as a platform for bidding on last-minute reservations
Artisanal sausage catches the next wave of the farm-to-table movement
Denny's recently introduced Hearty Breakfast Sausage, with a coarser grind to the pork, a snappier casing, a spicier flavor and a sage finish. Photo: Denny's
The old adage about not wanting to see the sausage being made may have some truth. But today’s diners definitely want to see next-level craft sausage on the menu.
Chefs and operators are using a variety of approaches to up their sausage game, from improving the ingredients used, to making specialty sausage in house, to developing proprietary sausages, to creating wild pairings and incorporating sausage into many different menu items.
The result is savory, sweet and spicy pops of flavor in all the right places. And, much like the farm-to-table approach, it’s important to tell the story on the menu.
Upgrading an icon
Picture a plate at Denny’s, and a few sausage links or patties are probably present. Traditionally, sausage has been a part of the core menu, and is available 24 hours a day. It’s part of Denny’s most famous breakfast dish, The Grand Slam. But now, sausage on Denny’s menu is getting bigger, better and spicier.
“We are always working on sausage in some form,” said John Dillon, Denny’s CMO. “Traditional breakfast fare will always be a favorite among out guests, but we’re always looking for new and exciting menu items.”
Denny’s chefs found that customers are looking for “premium quality, natural casings, good snap and texture,” Dillon said. This was the jumping-off point to develop new menu items.
Denny’s recently introduced Hearty Breakfast Sausage, with a coarser grind to the pork, a snappier casing, a spicier flavor and a sage finish. It’s bigger than the traditional sausage as well, “a big selling point,” Dillon said.
“The casing and texture of the meat really help set it apart and make it special,” he said.
Sausage is incorporated into new menu items, like the Santa Fe Skillet with crumbled chorizo, fire-roasted bell peppers, onions, mushrooms and red-skinned potatoes, and the Chicken & Sausage Quesadilla with crumbled sausage, roasted chicken, peppers and onions, cloaked in a melty layer of American cheese and spiked with pico de gallo.
Earlier this year, Extreme Skillets were offered for a limited time, and more sausage innovations are in the works, including sweet and savory sausage paired with Gouda, cheddar and mozzarella cheeses.
The sausage at Cracker Barrel has been coming from the same family business in Tennessee since 1978. Photo: Cracker Barrel
When Bob Evans reintroduced the Farm Boy sandwich, the culinary team revisited its origin: the first Bob Evans restaurant in Rio Grande, Ohio. The sandwich features a sausage patty topped with Cheddar cheese, sautéed onions and pickles on a Kaiser roll.
“Sausage is how Bob Evans started, and it’s still an important part of who we are today,” said John Fisher, president of Bob Evans Restaurants. The Farm Boy’s origin story is incorporated onto the menu, encouraging diners to “experience the same unique flavor” as that original Ohio-born sandwich.
The sausage at Cracker Barrel has a story, too. The sausage featured in many Cracker Barrel menu items, including the Old Timer breakfast and Eggs in a Basket, has been coming from the same place since 1978: a business in Tennessee run by the Purnell family.
Like Cracker Barrel’s founder, sausage maker Fred B. Purnell was born and raised in Tennessee. He started his full-time business in 1944, and moved production to a plant in the ’50s. Purnell’s sausage is made from hams, shoulders, loins and bacon, not trimmings.
Keeping up consistency
At Dog Haus, customers can choose from more than 40 toppings for their dogs and sausages. Photo: Dog Haus International
Dog Haus is a Southern California-born hot dog and sausage concept with the tagline “The absolute wurst.”
The rapidly growing chain has restaurants in California, Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, Texas and Utah. Founding partners Hagop Giragossian, Quasim Riaz and Andre Vener opened the first location in 2010, in Pasadena, Calif., offering a customizable selection of “haus dogs,” “haus sausages” and burgers on grilled King’s Hawaiian Rolls.
Customers can choose from more than 40 toppings to D.I.Y. their dogs and sausages. There are also carefully crafted, signature Haus creations available, like the Pig Lebowski with Polish kielbasa, slaw, barbecue sauce and fries, and Another Night in Bangkok with spicy currywurst, Thai peanut sauce, slaw and crushed peanuts.
Dog Haus got started when the trio was looking for a new concept to open and found that “everybody’s doing burgers, and everyone’s done sandwiches, and now everyone’s doing pizza, and those are all awesome, but no one was doing this,” Giragossian said. “It was the missing link in our food industry.”
The group had previous success with other restaurants, but “we wanted something people could really connect to,” Giragossian said. “Everyone has a memory of eating hot dogs in America. We didn’t think we’d be growing at this rate (20 locations are currently open, but 160 franchises have been purchased), and it’s because of a great connection.”
Dog Haus’ menu has become more complex over the past six years. At first, toppings were simple: peppers, onion and sauerkraut.
“It took time for us to realize you can put anything on a sausage, or anything in a sausage,” Giragossian said.
The flavor explosion on many Dog Haus menu items comes just as much from the sausage itself as it does from the toppings. The culinary team has added different cheeses inside sausages, playing around with fontina, aged American white cheddar and feta.
When the flavor profile is packed within sausages, the restaurant can control quality and consistency in a quickly growing operation.
“When you’re franchising or going corporate, the challenge is control,” Giragossian said. “But you can be very cheffy and creative within that casing, and it’ll be consistent in all your locations. We can be who we want to be, and some guy in Texas can put that on the grill, and it’s that simple.”
The sausage isn’t made in house, but by a family-run sausage shop, Papa Cantella’s, in Los Angeles that was fine with making small, proprietary batches in the beginning.
Going whole hog
Craig Deihl focuses on quality meat that shows off the wood-burning oven at his Charleston, S.C., restaurant Cypress. Photo courtesy of Craig Deihl
A few years ago, Craig Deihl, executive chef at Cypress and Artisan Meat Share in Charleston, S.C., placed his focus on quality meat that would show off the wood-burning oven at Cypress. This decision led to buying whole hogs, which led to extra scraps, which led to housemade sausage and charcuterie, and eventually a separate meat shop and deli. The progression was economic rather than trendy.
“Once you taste pasture-raised pork, you really don’t want to go back,” Deihl said. “We had pigs lined up every two weeks, and using chops and ribs and loin was easy, but it was hard to move the hams. We thought, how do we use every part of the pig within the confines of fine dining?”
Just learning the art of making sausage wouldn’t be enough, however. Deihl wanted the quality and flavor to be on par with artisan sausage shops.
“If you’re going to make it, you have to make it better than something you can buy,” he said. He uses heirloom breeds and ingredients like roasted piquillo peppers, Korean pepper powder and mash (part of the hot sauce production process) from a local hot sauce company.
Sausage and cured meats are a big part of the menu at Cypress. Even small end cuts of salami are served on a focaccia pizza. Shrimp and grits get another dimension of flavor with ‘nduja, a spicy, Calabrian-style, spreadable salami.
Deihl makes about 90 types of charcuterie in house. The Motherboard is a popular charcuterie board with seasonal vegetables, toast points, chow-chow, olives and more. The heavy-duty board comes with a bottle of wine for $42.
By 2009, Cypress was making so much sausage and charcuterie that the operation spun off into what is now Artisan Meat Share, a separate business that started out as a CSA-style operation where people could place orders for sausage and charcuterie several times a year. Now it’s open every day, and also serves fancy deli sandwiches and housemade condiments.
Cleveland's Banter is known for its sausage made from heritage breeds of pigs. Photo: Banter
Also making sausage in-house is Banter, a new spot in Cleveland’s quickly growing Detroit Shoreway neighborhood for craft beers, fine wine, poutine and sausage made from heritage breeds of pigs.
“The town has really fallen for our sausages,” said Banter owner Matthew Stipe.
“Cleveland is a sausage town,” he said. “They are willing to try anything, but still want a bit of familiarity to what they eat.”
Just as Chicago has the Chicago Dog, Cleveland’s famed meat-in-a-tube is “the Polish Boy,” kielbasa with French fries and coleslaw on top, smothered in barbecue sauce.
New flavor profiles are being invented on a regular basis by Banter’s collaborative kitchen staff.
“Because we make all the sausages in house, it allows for a lot of creativity and experimenting,” Stipe said. “Nothing is off limits.”
Flavors within sausages at Banter include anise, tajín (a Mexican seasoning blend with chili peppers, salt and dehydrated lime juice), curry powder, ground Flamin' Hot Cheetos and more, “as long as it compliments our sausages,” Stipe said.
“It’s really a team effort,” he added. “Anyone with a great idea or even a sick sense of humor can contribute.”
One of Banter’s most popular sausages is The Breakfast, a bratwurst made with maple syrup and sorghum on French toast. It’s loaded with blueberry mustard, bourbon bacon, shaved maple (from a cube of maple syrup in a hardened form) and a fried egg.
Sausage is also used in many varieties of Banter poutines, including the Pogo Poutine, a bed of French fries topped with a housemade corn dog, slaw, sweet corn mustard and ketchup. The name Pogo is a Canadian term, meaning an American hot dog bounced over the border as if it were on a pogo stick.
If it ain’t broke…
A plate of charcuterie at Luca, an upscale Italian restaurant in Denver. Photo: Luca
Frank Bonanno is the mastermind behind the Denver restaurants Luca, Mizuna, Lou’s Food Bar, Osteria Marco, Bones, Russell’s Smokehouse, Green Russell, Wednesday’s Pie, Vesper Lounge and Salt & Grinder.
You won’t find any Flamin' Hot Cheetos inside the sausages at Luca, an upscale Italian restaurant that focuses on the regions of the Piedmont, Tuscany and Sicily.
“My favorite thing for sausage is fennel and a touch of oregano. That’s what I love,” Bonanno said. “What can I say? I’m old. I’m very traditional.”
New Jersey-raised Bonanno also likes the level of customization afforded by making sausage in house. He can highlight his all-time favorite Italian sausage component: fennel.
“If we buy an Italian fennel sausage, does it really have the true fennel flavor? Did they take the time to toast the fennel seeds?” he says. “Or if you like a lot of oregano and other fresh herbs…that can kick a sausage way up.”
So whether you stick close to tradition with sausage or get further out there, customers still appreciated a well-made, specially crafted product.