02
Menu Strategy & R&D
Connect culinary creativity to margin reality.
A menu is both a creative statement and a financial instrument. When those two things are misaligned, the result is a kitchen that works too hard for margins that disappoint. We have built and executed menu programs across full-service, high-volume, and fast-casual formats — including pioneering seasonal concepts and developing entirely new culinary visions from financial pro forma through opening day. The food has to work in the kitchen and on the P&L.
The best menus aren't the longest ones. Operators add items to capture the veto vote — a reasonable instinct that compounds into operational fragmentation. Every addition slows the line, fragments training, and raises the floor on food cost. Frequency of visit is driven by craveability, not variety. We work backward from what's actually craveable — and cut everything that's just covering a gap in confidence.
Scope of Work
- —Menu engineering and profitability analysis
- —Recipe costing and food cost modeling
- —Seasonal and LTO program development
- —Kitchen execution audit and throughput analysis
- —Supplier and sourcing strategy
- —Beverage program development and cost structure