Discover how restaurants from full-service to QSRs are using smart strategy, creative LTOs, and compelling storytelling to craft menus that drive growth and guest loyalty.
In today’s competitive dining landscape, culinary innovation isn’t just about slapping the newest dish you saw on TikTok onto your menu without a second thought; it’s about figuring out what is authentic for your restaurant brand, what makes sense from a value perspective, and what you can realistically pull off. It also involves crafting a curated, multi-sensory experience for diners with storytelling at the center.

This approach requires a delicate balance of creativity, strategic risk-taking, and a willingness to experiment with fresh ideas while staying true to the brand’s identity. It’s a process where trial and error often lead to the most innovative breakthroughs, and limited-time offerings (LTOs) provide the perfect playground for testing these concepts.

The Role of LTOs

LTOs play a key role in culinary innovation for restaurants; it allows corporate chefs to test the waters for their best ideas and find out if the products resonate with customers, and if it doesn’t work out, there’s a natural expiration date. For example, even though Whataburger is known for its gourmet burgers, “We give ourselves permission to innovate on the chicken side,” says James Sanchez, executive chef at the Texas-based fast-casual chain.

By leveraging existing products and responding to internal creativity, Whataburger quickly launched a hit item. “Earlier this year, really by accident, we launched WhataWings, boneless tenders tossed in a sauce,” Sanchez recalls. “And I say by accident because it was me being in a Whataburger unit … We had the breakfast bowl designed for something else, so we had the carrier; we had four existing sauces that were used for other builds; and then we just presented that idea as an innovation topic.”

Whataburger initially launched WhataWings last year as an LTO item with sauces including buffalo, sweet and spicy, honey BBQ, or honey butter wings, but continued adding new LTO sauce drops like Nashville hot throughout the year, and in the spring announced WhataWings would stay on the menu through the end of 2024 due to overwhelming demand. It still remains to be seen whether WhatAWings will eventually make its way onto Whataburger’s All-Time Favorites menu. “Those are the ones that were limited-time offers that did so well that we couldn’t let them go away, so we’ve curated them,” Sanchez says.

He notes part of the product’s success involves the way younger generations enjoy customizing and mixing and matching flavors. “Watching the family members (Whataburger’s term for employees) being present with the folks that are executing for you, that are making their product and allowing them permission to show you what they love to do has really been a lightning rod for us internally from a menu [perspective],” Sanchez says.

He continues, “I wish I could take the credit, that I’m the genius to figure it out. I was just the bold one to take it to senior leadership and say, ‘This is what we’ve got to do,’ and have the courage to do it. And then of course, leadership followed and we launched it very rapidly.”

Sanchez has worked with the brand since 2018, and previously told QSR magazine how the culinary group studies trends, examines its food menu board to find gaps, and works hand-in-hand with sauce and protein suppliers to generate ideas for new menu items. The product development team embarks on a food tour about two to three times per year, traveling to markets—where Whataburger locations are and where they aren’t—to taste food items from higher-service restaurants.

As director of culinary at Velvet Taco, Venecia Willis isn’t afraid to take risks when it comes to menu innovation.
For some concepts, creativity is inherently ingrained in the experience. Velvet Taco, for example, runs 52 LTOs per year in the form of their Weekly Taco Feature, explains Venecia Willis, director of culinary. “They run Wednesday to Tuesday, and really I look at it as the tortilla is just the vessel to give the flavors to someone’s mouth,” she says, “and anything can be a taco.”

That means the brand has close to 500 different tacos it can activate at any moment. Velvet Taco is intentional about “taking those older legacy tacos and looking at them through a microscope and through our current brand lens to see if it still fits the brand and what adjustments need to be made,” Willis says. “A lot of them used to have minimal ingredients, and so they felt underwhelming from a guest value perspective. So really elevating those, adding more ingredients. We had a taco that was called the Chicken Bacon Ranch, of course it sold … Everyone loved it. But from a brand standpoint, we felt it wasn’t who we were.”

Willis’ team swapped out tomatoes for a housemade tomato jam; traded simple bacon for a habanero pork belly; and nixed shredded lettuce in favor of arugula to give the taco an elevated twist. “Another way that we’re capturing value for the brand is we’re testing combos,” she adds. “So to allow the guests to come in, maybe they’re not at that higher price point, but it allows them at a discounted rate to try two tacos on the menu and a small portion of one of our sides.”

The Power of Storytelling in Menu Development

Peter Kiley asks his team members to write a press release anytime they want to create a new menu item to prove out the storytelling and marketing appeal.
Menu innovation today goes beyond the plate; it’s about connecting with diners on an emotional level. Peter Kiley, brewmaster at Monday Night Brewing, emphasizes the importance of storytelling: “One of the greatest ingredients is storytelling—actually connecting with people about what you’re trying to achieve.” A unique approach he uses is “every time that someone on my team wants to create a product, I’m like, cool. Write a press release … If you can’t prove to me or to yourself that it should exist and that it’s exciting, who else is going to believe it?”

When many think of sourcing inspiration for new dishes, scouring the internet on a popular chef’s or restaurant’s Instagram may come to mind. But the more you can play an active role in trying the food of creative chefs in different cities and tasting how ingredients work together, the better, argues Kiley.

“It’s a luxury to be able to go travel the world and to go source ingredients, but that’s also where you create the credibility of your storytelling because if you’re just taking your point of view without being present, then you just have a recycled opinion,” Kiley notes. “You have to have a genuine opinion based off being an actual participant. And then from there, you have these relationships, you meet these people, you find these beautiful ingredients, and you’re able to essentially create a story that results in a product that people purchase.”

He adds, “That’s when you have a really exciting brand, because I’ve seen so many people just try to approach something as another player, and they will slowly or quickly fade. But the people that actually are part of it, they’re like a main actor in the story of their brand.”

Elliot Cusher receives inspiration from what others are doing internationally, especially Europe’s approach to sustainable agriculture.
Elliot Cusher, culinary director for The Indigo Road Hospitality Group’s Georgia-based restaurants including Colletta, Indaco, Oak Steakhouse, O-Ku, and Sukoshi, showcases Kiley’s point. After getting his start in the industry as a dishwasher at 17 years old, Cusher worked at downtown Charleston, South Carolina, establishments S.N.O.B and Charleston Grill, before taking time away to backpack across Europe during his mid-20s.

While overseas, Cusher staged at Michelin-starred restaurants Patrick Guilbaud in Dublin; and Le Gavroche and Maze, both located in London. “It got me into a lot of kitchens and exposure to things I had never seen, be it ingredients or ways that kitchens were run, which I still hold with me. It was definitely a growing experience for me,” he says. “Exposure to so many different types of cuisines and how things varied from the U.S. to over there at a very young formative age was very impactful on me.”

Cusher keeps in touch on Instagram with the chef friends he’s made from all over the world, and is inspired by what they’re doing at their restaurants, which influences his approach at Indigo Road. He specifically notes Europe’s approach to sustainable agriculture. “Animals and produce that have been treated with love, just like food, taste wildly better,” says Cusher, who continues to draw inspiration from local farmers and producers. “Being able to interact with people and have relationships with people that feel as passionate as you do … that’s exciting for me.”

Know Your Audience

Even if a brand has a great concept, great food, and great storytelling, if the message isn’t being seen by the right audience, it can still fail. When Cai Palmiter said yes to becoming JINYA’s vice president of marketing in 2022, the upscale ramen concept had 45 locations. Within a year, the emerging brand grew to 60 units. “It was a three-month buy-in for me to commit. Is this something [worth] taking on the challenge? Specifically, the first thing that was shared to me is that the brand was in existence for 12 years, and it’s still not being captured by the U.S. market,” Palmiter recalls. “How do you bridge that gap?”

Cai Palmiter has played a major role in growing brand awareness around JINYA Ramen Bar in the U.S.
Founded by Japanese native Kazuya (Kazu) Takebe, JINYA features six signature broths, prepared with FIJI Water (because it’s 99.9 percent free from impurities) and whole pork bones that slowly simmer to perfection within 20 hours. The mazesoba noodles are handmade from scratch and then specially aged before cooking and serving. Chicken and vegetables have just the right amount of bonito, dashi, miso, kombu, and other classic Japanese ingredients.

Palmiter, who is now a marketing consultant for JINYA as well as brands including Paris Baguette, Angry Chickz, and more, has played a key role in bringing JINYA’s brand awareness to a new level as it expands across the U.S. and Canada. In the past, the concept has struggled with some people thinking JINYA was targeting an Asian-majority audience when it’s aiming for the greater Western population.

“JINYA in general does not actually try to target the Asian community,” she says. “The CEO wanted to introduce it to the Western palate, and that whole narrative, I knew I had to step it up. I knew I had to craft a different storytelling marketing that will leave a lasting mark in the industry, and it did, I think, because it was the first Asian concept that was a sponsor for NASCAR.”

JINYA partnered up with NASCAR and No. 5 Hendricks Chevrolet Camaro driver Kyle Miyata Larson, whose mother is Japanese. Another driving factor was Palmiter saw that 78 percent of NASCAR fans are loyal to the sponsor of their favorite driver. In fact, NASCAR ranks No. 1 in fan loyalty to sponsors, beating out the NHL, NBA, MLB, and NFL, according to independent research conducted by MarketCast.

One of the ways quick-service chicken chain Bojangles is trying to appeal to a younger audience without alienating its core customer base is by “celebrating menu hacks,” says Marshall Scarborough, VP of menu and culinary innovation. One recent successful example is the Bo’s Bird Dog, designed to be an LTO menu item to get Gen Z in the door and marketed as the transportable, on-the-go food that could be eaten with one hand for a long drive in the car, or for a college tailgate party so you can put a drink in the other hand. Bojangles utilized ingredients already available—chicken tenders, thick-cut pickles, and Bo’s Carolina Gold BBQ Sauce, and put it in a toasted potato bun.

“What we found is that the Bird Dogs, it started out as maybe this is just a way for us to deliver an inexpensive menu item to guests,” Scarborough says, “but then once we launched it, we really found that it was overindexing with Gen Z, and they were coming in and our operators started calling us saying, ‘Hey man, we’re getting new people in the door, this is it.’ And it was music to our ears. Not only did it bring in the younger, newer customers, but it also brought in lapsed customers, which is also a win.”

Whether it’s Whataburger and Bojangles tapping into Gen Z’s love for menu hacks and customization, Velvet Taco’s globally inspired weekly features, or the storytelling prowess of brands like Monday Night Brewing and JINYA, the common thread is a commitment to creating memorable experiences for guests and the art of balancing creativity, strategy, and maintaining a clear sense of brand identity.

Source https://www.fsrmagazine.com/feature/how-storytelling-is-shaping-the-future-of-restaurant-menus/

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