Quirky Quick Serve

Vegetarian Yukon gold potato and white bean basil burgers were on the menu in February. Last month, the rosemary chicken sandwich served on a freshly baked baguette and topped with rosemary aioli made its debut. These are just some of the limited-time menu offerings being featured throughout 2009 at Burgerville, a quick-serve chain operating 39 units throughout Oregon and southwest Washington.

Knee-deep in the burger business since 1961, the chain has built its reputation on serving fresh food purchased from local businesses, farms and producers at affordable prices. This year, as the competition focuses much of its attention on value pricing, Burgerville is adding more sizzle to the menu by providing two new gourmet items each month. Committed to the company’s tenet of serving food that is fresh, local and sustainable, each of the items will be featured at a time when they are at the peak of flavor.

CEO Jeff Harvey’s goals are to lift the average ticket, attract new and younger customers, deliver gourmet food at reasonable prices and cater to the changing palates of Burgerville’s guests. It appears Burgerville is in sync with the perceptions and pocketbook of today’s consumers, who are choosing quick-serve restaurants more frequently than they did 12 to 18 months ago and are rewarding companies that make a commitment to sustainable business practices.

Expanding the menu is the byproduct of a strategic marketing initiative intended to spotlight Burgerville’s decades-long practice of featuring locally grown ingredients. “Our concept and our commitment to local sourcing are unique and set us apart from the competition, but we needed to do a better job of telling that story,” says Harvey, who notes that about 70 percent of Burgerville’s offerings are sourced from suppliers in the Pacific Northwest.

For years the chain has had items that rotate on and off the menu, including Walla Walla Sweet Onion Rings and milkshakes made with berries grown and harvested only at certain times of the year. Some items are so popular “that guests call and e-mail us regularly wondering when the huckleberry shake, for example, will reappear on the menu,” he says.

More sophisticated palates
Harvey believes that many of the new items will appeal to today’s 20-something customer who has “a more sophisticated taste palate. They’re looking for and accustomed to uncommon flavor profiles, but they’re also finding that their wallet may be more pinched than it was months back. Providing a gourmet experience at affordable prices is our sweet spot.”

New menu items are generally priced between $5 and $5.50; regular-size sides are around $3, and “basket” meals cost between $8 and $9. All of the recipes are developed by local chef Grace Pae and the Burgerville Chef Council — a team of store general managers who also happen to be chefs.

Harvey was tipped off to the “gourmet-at-a-price” trend when he began to notice an upgrade in the profile of candidates seeking GM positions. “We were getting applications from people who had worked at some of the big casual dining chains,” he says. “The candidates were telling us that they were victims of downsizing. We recognized that if business was trailing off in that segment, there was an opportunity for us to innovate and deliver something new.”