Upscale items aren’t always a home runUpscale items aren’t always a home run

I’ve got a hormone-free, all-natural bone to pick with a whole bunch of restaurant operations.

I went to a baseball game a couple of weeks ago planning to gorge myself on sort-of-disgusting food that would clog my arteries and raise my cholesterol with just a whiff. I walked around the stadium twice on a quest for some simple nachos with cheese, but all I found were $15 artisan stone-ground corn chips with smoked Gouda. When my friend asked where she could get a corn dog, the stadium employee looked at her sideways and said, “We don’t sell corn dogs in the stadium anymore.”

What has the world come to?

Today’s consumers are supposed to be increasingly concerned with freshness, premium ingredients and innovative dining experiences. And, to an extent, that’s true. Nobody really wants their food to be sitting under a heat lamp for hours before they eat it. And, yeah, it’d be great if those tomatoes came fresh from the farm a day or two before they showed up on my sandwich.

But just because your customers might prefer that your ingredients were locally sourced or sustainably grown doesn’t mean they also want grass-fed free-range bison burgers with a side of quinoa-truffle-oil salad for every meal. There’s a reason almost half of all consumers eat a good old-fashioned hamburger at least once a week, with a whopping 95 percent of them saying they eat them at least once a month, according to Technomic. U.S. consumers love their American classics, and that’s not going to change anytime soon.

Premiumization trends are showing up everywhere from quick-service to casual-dining chains, but I have to wonder how successful these new high-end ingredient menu items are going to be in the long run. Sure, I might try that interesting new sandwich with the organic pineapple-jalapeño salsa once, but — especially at a big chain restaurant whose menu items I’m already intimately familiar with — the next time I go in I’m probably going to revert back to one of my old standbys.

I’m not saying culinary innovation is bad; it’s fairly evident that following trends and rolling out menu items or limited-time offers that capitalize on the latest menu buzzwords can pull customers in the door. And a positive service experience that complements those elements can absolutely make them come back for another visit. But don’t put all your free-range eggs in one cutting-edge, upmarket basket. Make sure your classic items get a chance to shine, too. Sometimes, your customer just wants an order of nachos — even the self-proclaimed food snobs among them.

And for Pete’s sake, leave the corn dogs out of it. 

Contact Vanessa Van Landingham at [email protected].