Restaurant chains of all sizes need to decide what’s important to their customers. Do they want lettuce grown locally, or is it more important that it be organic? Should genetically modified ingredients be avoided, or simply disclosed? Fundamentally, what customers are willing to pay for the ingredients they want is a primary factor — and often a difficult balance.

Los Angeles-based Tender Greens, a fast-casual concept built on the promise of better ingredients, includes customers in the thought process driving supply choices. When beef prices skyrocketed earlier this year, the chain struggled with the pricing of the natural, grass-fed, prairie-raised Black Angus beef that it served. Internally, company officials considered a move to conventionally raised beef, as well as a price increase. But, in the end, they decided to use a less expensive cut of the premium grass-fed product, which helped maintain menu prices and margins. Erik Oberholtzer, the chain’s co-founder, blogged about the debate on the Tender Greens’ website.

Varying menus by region can allow for more local sourcing and fresher options driven by seasons, while reducing transportation costs.

For example, Denver-based Modmarket has regional menus. A salad in one restaurant may use strawberries, while another unit may use grapes, depending on what is available.

“We haven’t seen any major revolt if customers find grapes instead of strawberries in their salad,” said Anthony Pigliacampo, co-CEO of Modmarket.

“If they ask about it, restaurant officials simply explain why,” he said. “The universal response is typically, ‘Cool.’ Then they go back and love their salad.”

Smaller chains with progressive menus spend time getting to know their vendors.

Broadline distributors don’t always like dealing with local growers because of smaller volumes, said Marley Hodgson, co-founder of the Denver-based fast-casual chain Mad Greens. That means restaurant operators may be forced to do some of the work themselves.

For example, Mad Greens found a tomato supplier in Arizona that allows the restaurant chain to pick up product fresh from the field every other day. The farm can’t supply the entire chain, but units in Arizona at least have tomatoes picked that morning or the day before.

The notion of going direct to a grower to pick up tomatoes, however, would be seen as unfeasible for most restaurant operators, he added.

“It’s so tempting for us and others in the industry to just say to one-stop shops, ‘We’ll use your whatever.’ But that doesn’t allow for what consumers are expecting today,” Hodgson said.

Menus across the country are changing because consumers are demanding higher quality products. That demand is translating to sales.

Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc. attributed its 2014 same-store sales growth in part to its commitment to ingredient quality. Smaller regional chains with menus built entirely around fresh, natural and sustainable ingredients are growing and stealing market share.

Suppliers will respond to growing demand for better products, but restaurant operators may have to be willing to tolerate certain inconsistencies in price and availability, said Stacie Sopinka, US Foods vice president of innovation and product development.

“It’s really a paradigm shift,” Sopinka said. “It’s finding that sweet spot between what price premium they can afford and what attributes translate to sales.”

Big chains that rely mostly on low prices and convenience to drive traffic will find it difficult to keep up with consumer demand in terms of ingredients, said Oberholtzer of Tender Greens.

“In the case of some of these bigger brands, if it translates to sales or market traction, they’ll do it,” Oberholtzer said. “And that’s good for everybody.”

Supply logistics may be getting more complex, but the tech boom has resulted in a growing number of tools to help operators source, manage and track the types of ingredients their consumers are looking for, as well as measure results.

Chefs and various activist organizations are also creating a growing network of resources to help facilitate a shift to better ingredients.

FoodTank.com, for example, is an online community focused on sustainable agriculture and food issues. Chefs like Dan Barber of Blue Hill Restaurant in New York and Michael Cimarusti of Providence in Los Angeles have launched “Dock to Dish” programs in which participating restaurants receive weekly deliveries of freshly caught seafood, based on species available to local small-scale fisherman, an idea modeled after Community Supported Agriculture.