breakfast sandwiches

JULY 2014
FoodBytes
BREAKFAST SANDWICHES
LATEST TRENDS AND RESEARCH
A TOPICAL TREND REPORT FROM
TRENDSPOTTING
Flatbreads, Croissants, Sweet Breads, Ciabatta,
:
CARRIERS Texas Toast, Buttermilk Biscuits, Waffles
JULY 2014
FoodBytes
Dominique Ansel Bakery | New York
Although known for their cronuts, the miniature Perfect Little Egg Sandwich at Dominique
Ansel Bakery features steamed farm fresh eggs with herbs and gruyere. It’s available before
noon on weekdays and 2pm on weekends, though it often sells out well before.
THE NEW BREAKFAST STAPLE
Operators, manufacturers wake up to this versatile customer favorite
Breakfast sandwiches are as adaptable as, well, sandwiches. They can be found at every type of operator, from
QSRs to fine dining brunch menus, showcasing any type of bread, cheese, egg, protein, sauce, and vegetable.
Breakfast sandwiches can exemplify macro trends (Southern, ethnic) and value-driven trends (health, local) and
can speak directly to both consumer needs and wants (price, portability) and operator desires (Dunkin’ Donuts
recently told the Wall Street Journal that the chain is focusing more on high-margin breakfast sandwiches, which
are selling better than doughnuts). And as more operators enter or focus on the breakfast daypart, almost all are
adding some type of breakfast sandwich option to the menu.
In this month’s edition of FoodBytes, we take a look at breakfast sandwiches across the country. We seek out both
healthy and decadent options at major chains, show you what’s happening on food trucks and at chef casuals, and
bring you notable examples of some of the most attention-getting breakfast sandwiches in the U.S. We also bring
you a look at some of the breakfast sandwich data you’ll find in our brand new, in-depth MenuTrends Keynote
Report on breakfast, the first in our new series combining the power and detail of MenuTrends with extensive
operator and consumer survey data.
If TrendSpotting matters to you, whether it’s breakfast sandwiches or any flavor, ingredient, or dish, subscribe to
Datassential’s entire TrendSpotting Report series, combining the art of trendspotting with the science of market
research.
Pictured on cover: Egg & Turkey Sausage Sandwich from Lyfe Kitchen.
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TRENDSPOTTING
SAUCES :
Aioli, Savory Jams, Hollandaise,
Shmears, Chimichurri, Syrup Dippers
JULY 2014
FoodBytes
Meet Cheese Bread | Portland, OR
At Portland's Meat Cheese Bread, the restaurant is famous for using slices of their house-made
maple-currant bread pudding for their Maple Breakfast Sandwich, filled with a maple sausage patty,
melted chipotle-cheddar cheese, and caramelized fennel shavings.
HEALTHY TASTES
Egg White, Avocado,
& Spinach Breakfast
Power Sandwich at
Paradise Bakery.
Au Bon Pain offers a healthier take on the breakfast sandwich with the Egg White, Cheddar, &
Avocado Sandwich, served on a skinny wheat bagel with lemon aoli. In May Au Bon Pain also
introduced an Egg White, Sriracha, Bacon, & Cheddar breakfast sandwich on sweet bread as
part of their "Late Spring Menu." Paradise Bakery & Cafe, meanwhile, introduced their Egg
White, Avocado, & Spinach Breakfast Power Sandwich in the same month, with Vermont white
cheddar and tomato on a sprouted grain bagel flat. Earlier this year Denny's introduced the Fit
Fare Breakfast Sandwich Plate, offering "guilt-free dining packed full of flavor" with two strips
of turkey bacon, pepper jack cheese, fresh spinach, tomato, and an egg on a toasted English
muffin with a side of yogurt and seasonal fruit.
BREAKFAST INDULGENCE
Mile High Triple
Decker Breakfast
Sandwich at
Carrow’s.
Last year Dunkin Donuts introduced the Glazed Donut Breakfast Sandwich LTO, a fried egg and
cherrywood-smoked bacon on a split glazed donut, while Carrow's offered up the Mile High
Triple Decker Breakfast Sandwich, on three layers of grilled sourdough with shaved ham, two
eggs, melted cheddar, tomato, bacon, and mayo, served with potatoes or hash browns and
fresh fruit. At Texas-based upscale comfort food chain Max's Wine Dive the Fried Egg Sandwich
features three pan-fried eggs drizzled with truffle oil, applewood smoked bacon, gruyere, butter
lettuce, tomatoes, and a garlic black truffle aioli on artisan bread with Wine Dive truffle chips. At
Seattle's Portage Bay Cafe, the Breakfast Sandwich is served on house-made white bread, with
shallot-tomato jam, local cheddar and Swiss cheese, baby arugula, two scrambled eggs, and
served with roasted potatoes or a green salad.
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TRENDSPOTTING
Maple-Flavored, Fried Chicken,
:
PROTEINS Chorizo, Steak, House-Made Sausage
JULY 2014
FoodBytes
FOLLOWING THE TRENDS
Chicken & Waffle
Sandwich at
White Castle
Eggs Benedict
Breakfast
Sandwich at
Dunkin’ Donuts
Chorizo, Egg &
Cheese Biscuit at
Carl’s Jr.
A number of operators have taken food and flavor trends found outside of the breakfast menu
and adapted them to breakfast sandwiches. White Castle, for instance, turned to an on-trend
Southern classic with their Chicken & Waffle Sandwich, topped with creamy gravy and bacon
crumbles, while Burger King began testing their own Chicken and Waffle Sandwich. Of course,
waffle carriers are an on-trend option at many QSRs, fast casuals, and food trucks; Taco Bell's
new breakfast menu launched with the Waffle Taco. Operators are also looking to other
breakfast favorites and transforming them into sandwiches -- earlier this year Dunkin' Donuts
added an Eggs Benedict Breakfast Sandwich to the menu, with black forest ham, egg, and a
lemony hollandaise-flavored spread on an English muffin.
HEAT & SPICE
At Bruegger's, the Jalapeno Bacon & Egg Sandwich features a zesty sofrito sauce of green bell
peppers, cilantro, garlic, and roasted onions, plus jalapeno bacon, cheddar, and egg, served on a
12-grain bagel. Carl's Jr., meanwhile, features spicy chorizo in both the Chorizo, Egg, & Sausage
Biscuit (with spicy pepper jack cheese on a made-from-scratch buttermilk biscuit) and the
Chorizo, Egg & Cheese Burrito (with pico de gallo salsa). Einstein Bros. introduced a Chile Verde
Turkey-Sausage Egg Panini in May, with a jalapeno salsa shmear on grilled ciabatta, added to the
menu alongside an Applewood Bacon & Spinach Egg Panini with roasted tomato spread. Earlier
this year Waffle House introduced their WH Sauce, a mild, smoky chipotle mayo that can be
served on everything from breakfast sandwiches to omelets.
Eggs benedict is
up 36% on QSR
menus over four
years ago.
Flour Bakery + Café | Boston
One of Flour's most popular items, the famous
breakfast sandwich features slices of a soufflelike egg filling served with cheese, roasted
tomatoes, bacon or ham, and dijonnaise on a
house-made focaccia roll.
Market Lunch | Washington D.C.
On weekends, lines frequently extend to over an hour for the
"Blue Bucks" blueberry buckwheat pancakes or "Brick"
sandwich at this Eastern Market mainstay. The sandwich
features eggs, cheese, and fried potatoes, plus a choice of
meat, stuffed into a homemade biscuit.
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TRENDSPOTTING
Gruyere, Fontina, White Cheddar, Brie,
:
CHEESES Smoked Cheeses, Herbed Cream Cheese
JULY 2014
FoodBytes
Chicago’s Eastman Egg Company
Red Apron | Washington D.C.
Recently named to Serious Eats' list of the
"Best Breakfast Sandwiches in America," the
Buenos Dias at Washington D.C.'s expanding
Red Apron concept features egg, chorizo,
cheddar, pickled onion, and sour cream on a
tigelle, which Serious Eats describes as a
"delicious, dense Italian flatbread griddled in
lard."
MOBILE MENUS
At Portland, Oregon's Big Ass Sandwiches truck, the Big Ass
Breakfast Sandwich features scrambled eggs, a pile of handcut French fries, and a choice of bacon or sausage, on a
grilled ciabatta roll covered with homemade bechamel
cheese sauce. On the Border Grill Truck, a mobile version of
the restaurant concept from chefs Mary Sue Milliken and
Susan Feniger, the morning menu features everything from a
Honey Chipotle BBQ Pork Breakfast Sammy to the Roasted
Corn Pancake Cone, filling a housemade corn cake cone with
potato rajas, scrambled eggs, guajillo salsa, crack bacon, and
honey. At Boston-based Clover, the Popover Sandwich fills a
fresh popover with mayo, sliced tomatoes, cheddar, roasted
smoky tempeh, and fried leeks. At LA's egg-focused Egg Slut
truck, one of the few breakfast-focused food trucks in the
country, the options range from a classic Bacon, Egg &
Cheese with chipotle ketchup on a warm Portuguese bun to
Pancake Tacos filled with scrambled eggs, bacon, and 100%
maple syrup.
Jack Flaps | Cleveland
Last month Restaurant Hospitality named
the Breakfast Banh Mi at this Clevelandbased "urban breakfast shop" the best
breakfast sandwich in America. The sandwich
features Vietnamese sausage, breakfast
kimchi, a fried egg, house-made hot sauce,
and cream cheese on an everything bagel.
The Hawaiian Breakfast
Sandwich, with spam,
swiss, pineapple, fried egg,
and teriyaki on Portland’s
Brunch Box food truck.
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TRENDSPOTTING
HEALTHY
Spinach, Egg Whites,
: Flatbreads,
Multi-Grain, Avocado, Salmon
JULY 2014
FoodBytes
Portland Penny Diner | Portland, OR
The Portland Penny Diner serves a classic breakfast sandwich, the New Yorker, with sausage, bacon, egg, American cheese, on a fresh parker
house roll, but they also branch out to include the Hipster, with tomato, hazelnut romesco, egg, and pepper jack, and the PDXWT, with duck
bologna, sauerkraut, coffee mayo, egg, and American cheese – and all breakfast sandwiches are available all day long.
FINE DINING & CHEF CASUALS
The Miami Hangover at
Atlanta’s Red Eyed Mule
features the restaurant’s
slow-smoked, chipotle
barbecue glazed meatloaf on
house-made buttermilk
biscuits with cheddar, a fried
egg, and gravy.
At Washington D.C.'s Blue Duck Tavern, the Biscuit Breakfast Sandwich features kale,
suckling pig sausage, and a sunny-side up egg for $18. Chicago's Fountainhead regularly
changes their breakfast sandwich selection with the season; past offerings have included a
smoked ham with cheddar and butterkase cheese, a version with butternut squash
puree, and the current “SLP,” with crispy speck, lettuce, roasted red pepper, mayonnaise,
and a fried egg on brioche, all available with a choice of duck fat home fries or a potato
latke. At Arlington, Virginia's Dominion Deli, the "Strudel for Breakfast" serves the
"traditional breakfast sandwich in a new way," with catering customers choosing between
favorites like sausage, egg, and cheese or spicy ranchero, egg, and cheese stuffed into a
golden brown puff pastry. At Boston's The Gallows, the Donut Breakfast Sandwich
features caramelized onions, American cheese, a sunnyside-up egg, and house-made
orange coriander breakfast sausage on a sriracha glazed donut -- a donut in which an
entire bottle of sriracha has been folded into the dough, which is coated in a sweet-andspicy sriracha glaze. Portland's PBJ's Grilled offers a breakfast version of their namesake in
the Good Morning breakfast sandwich, filling challah French toast with house-made
peanut butter, applewood smoked bacon, 100% maple syrup, house-made blueberry jam,
and an egg.
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TRENDSPOTTING
Jalapeno, Salsa, Chorizo, Pepper
SPICE/HEAT : Jack, Pico de Gallo, Sriracha
JULY 2014
FoodBytes
BRAND NEW
MENUTRENDS
BREAKFAST KEYNOTE
• Details on the current
breakfast landscape
Breakfast sandwiches are a clear winner with consumers,
Millennials and provide a fertile platform for innovation
• Breakfast drivers and
barriers
• Deep dive into breakfast
megatrends
• Extensive menu detail
• Item deep dives
• Operator usage detail
• Retail opportunities
To order, contact
Brian Darr at
312-655-0594.
Released this month, Datassential’s new
MenuTrends Keynote Report is the first
in a series covering key topics in the
industry, each one combining the
extensive detail of MenuTrends with the
opinions and behavior of over 1,000
consumers. In this first in-depth report,
two-thirds of consumers reported eating
breakfast every day, most of it at home.
And most consumers crave traditional
breakfast foods: pancakes, omelets, etc.
But most consumers aren’t able to
choose their favorite breakfast foods,
creating a gap between what’s practical
and what’s most strongly desired. There’s
a clear opportunity for both operators
and manufacturers to offer the breakfast
foods that consumers crave in the
portable formats they need. Breakfast is
also a prime opportunity to capture
Millennials, who are far more likely to eat
breakfast outside of traditional morning
hours (see table below) and who are
more open to new concepts; they were
more interested than any other age
group in every adventurous trend we
tested, from breakfast dishes influenced
by ethnic trends to healthier breakfast
options. Nearly 65% were interested in
elevated comfort foods and 63% were
interested in monster or mini breakfast
sandwiches.
WHEN ARE CONSUMERS EATING BREAKFAST?
WITHIN THE PAST DAY,
I HAD BREAKFAST…
Millennials
Gen X
Boomers
Silent
During breakfast hours
64%
53%
67%
67%
76%
During lunch hours
6%
12%
6%
3%
8%
Afternoon snack
6%
16%
5%
2%
0%
During dinner hours
6%
12%
6%
2%
3%
Late night snack
6%
15%
7%
2%
2%
statistically HIGHER than the total
statistically LOWER than the total
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JULY 2014
FoodBytes
TOPICS COVERED IN LAST MONTH’S
TRENDSPOTTING REPORTS
DINE AROUND
In June’s Dine Around, we traveled to Portland, Maine, a small seaside town with big dining
variety. You’ll find everything from updated oyster bars to scratch bakeries, and plenty of
options that are unique to the city – potato doughnuts, unusual gelato, artisan mead, a
mocktail bar, and a restaurant where everything is 100% local, meaning no chocolate, olive
oil, or even sugar.
UPCOMING: We travel to Washington D.C. to sample their multicultural favorites.
ON THE MENU
In June’s On the Menu, we looked the adventurous flavors of hyssop and corn in desserts,
trendy cuisines with Belgian Liege waffles and Latin churros, and new twists on favorites
with house-ground chocolate and deviled eggs. And our coverage of new menu additions
and LTOs was packed with summer flavors, from strawberries to shrimp to salads, plus
ethnic-inspired dishes from Thailand, Peru, and the Mediterranean.
UPCOMING: We cover sorrel, elote, phosphates, sorghum, chai, and s’mores.
CREATIVE CONCEPTS
In Creative Concepts, we took you on a tour of the modern kids’ menu, from recent healthfocused revamps at top chains to chef-driven restaurants that are putting more
adventurous flavors on the menu to hotels that are making food part of the vacation. You’ll
find everything from interactive dining options, like build-your-own breakfast tacos and
milk tasting flights, to ethnic-inspired eats, like bento boxes and teriyaki salmon.
UPCOMING: We hop a flight to notable airport operators across the country.
WORLD BITES
At a time when Brazil, host of this year’s World Cup and future host of the 2016 Summer
Olympics, is receiving a lot of attention, we covered the country’s authentic, beloved dishes,
from salgadinhos (salty snacks) to stews to grilled meats to the refreshing caipirinha. We
covered a meat dish that scored high across every demographic and a candy that half of
consumers want to try at restaurants.
UPCOMING: In August’s World Bites we’ll check out the authentic flavors of Greece.
INTERNATIONAL CONCEPTS
At a time when interest in the hearty, craft beer-friendly cuisine of European countries like
Germany and England is increasing, June’s International Concepts headed to the UK, where
we sought out QSR, fast casual, and casual concepts with a British twist, serving up
everything from savory pastries to porridges to tarts and scones at pubs, grab-and-go
concepts, and coffee shops.
UPCOMING: We cover Singapore, the global economic powerhouse.
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FoodBytes
JULY 2014
FoodBytes
HUNGRY
FOR MORE?
This is just a small taste of the research and
data we have collected in order to make
accurate, data-backed trend identifications.
Now let Datassential take you deeper into
the implications of these trends and what
they mean for your company.
We can take you behind the data that shows
how restaurant menus are shrinking and
morphing, show you an in-depth look at the
surprising demographic data on consumers
(including Millennials) that informed these
trends, and show you real-world examples of
every trend covered.
And it’s all backed by the industry’s most
accurate and trusted menu database,
MenuTrends, and the industry’s largest
operator research panel, OPERA.
To start putting these trends to work for you,
contact Datassential today:
1-312-655-0596
info@datassential.com
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JULY 2014
FoodBytes
A MAJORITY OF CONSUMERS SAY
THEIR TASTES ARE SHAPED BY
THEIR RESTAURANT EXPERIENCES
What’s happening on the menu today can
be a leading indicator of tomorrow’s food
trends.
Datassential MenuTrends tracks 7,000 distinct US
restaurants and over one 1 million menu items.
Because the database is designed to mirror the US
restaurant census by segment, region, and menu
type, MenuTrends is the only system that offers true
projectable data. All segments and cuisine types are
tracked extensively – from food trucks to fine
dining.
MenuTrends INSIDER is also updated every month
with Limited Time Offers (LTOs) and other new
menu activity, with product photos that bring the
listings to life. And with thousands of ready-to-use
reports and simple trend detection tools, you can
jump right into the database, identifying,
measuring, and predicting the food and flavor
trends that matter to your business.
Call us today to begin using the food industry’s
authoritative resource for flavor trends.
Call Jack Li at 310-922-6299 or
email jack@datassential.com.
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JULY 2014
FoodBytes
SPECIAL REPORT SERIES
SYSCO – US FOODS MERGER
This upcoming special report series from Datassential and The Hale Group brings
you a comprehensive analysis of how the merger will impact operators’ purchase
decisions. Who do they buy from? What do they buy? And why do they buy? For
more information, contact Brian Darr at brian@datassential.com or 312-655-0594.
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REPORTS
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TIPS | 4 ISSUES/YR | $12,000
CREATIVE CONCEPTS| 12 ISSUES/YR | $1,600
DINE AROUND | 12 ISSUES/YR | $1,600
WORLD BITES | 6 ISSUES/YR | $4,500
INTERNATIONAL CONCEPTS | 12 ISSUES/YR | $1,600
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