Fast Casual Nation

On this episode of Fast Casual Nation, we talk to a concept that has quickly established itself as a loved brand in Miami.

Consumers today are demanding much more from restaurants. They expect clean, locally sourced ingredients, quick service and affordable prices. While many restaurants try to offer all of these things, few can successfully execute without sacrificing their margins.

American Harvest Co., a concept started by Grove Bay Hospitality Group in the Brickell City Center, seems to have found the right balance.

With a menu focused around clean eating, American Harvest serves up minimally processed foods. They use words like ‘GMO-free’, ‘grass-fed’, and ‘organic,’ to support their commitment to sustainable practices and sourcing local.

With decades of experience combined between the top three minds of the leadership team, the Grove Bay Group has perfected every aspect of American Harvest Co. and now they market it as their growth brand.

Watch the episode above for more expert insights into fast casual!

Los Angeles-native Vanessa Jerolmack has been making traditional Mexican tacos all her life, but it wasn't until she moved to Philadelphia that she thought to open up a shop dishing out the craveable bites. Now, on a lot on Baltimore Avenue, Taco Angeleno serves customers fully customizable tacos, burritos and quesadillas with an array of options, even catering to the vegan crowd.

“We make a homemade seitan here, and that's from my vegan days,” Jerolmack explains. “Like, I wanted something meaty tasting that I could eat with all the normal toppings that the other people with a meat taco were eating.”

Using a commercial kitchen 10 blocks away, Taco Angeleno preps all its ingredients before bringing them to the food cart to be served. Customizable toppings like Salvadorian curtido, and staples like onions, cilantro, and lime take the tacos to the next level.

Being an outdoor restaurant, Taco Angeleno is only open from May through October to avoid the cold and rainy Philadelphia weather, but you can visit Taco Angeleno year-round by watching the episode above!

Aside from earning the prestigious title of Iron Chef in 2009, Jose Garces has many other claims to fame such as his many restaurant brands in Philadelphia. Volvér, Distrito, and Amada are just a few of his successful concepts. But you don't have to pay an arm and a leg to get a taste of the chef's famed fish tacos.

The Garces Group’s only fast casual concept, Buena Onda, takes Garces’ culinary excellence and serves it up at affordable prices. Take, for example, their 5-dollar margaritas available on Taco Tuesdays! The Vice President of Culinary Operations for the Garces Group, Gregg Ciprioni, helped Foodable understand how Buena Onda is able to create top level dishes keeping costs low.

“We featured mahi-mahi when we first opened here but there was an issue with overfishing in the past year and so it became prohibitively expensive,” Ciprioni explains. “You have to be really flexible with what you’re serving. You have to find what works right in this concept and we found that [Perch] is super consistent, it’s sustainable and delicious.”

Taking tips from its upscale big brothers, Buena Onda makes its flour tortillas from scratch daily. The tacos are topped with delicious garnishes like pickled purple cabbage, scallions and chipotle remoulade. With all this flavor, Greg also gave us some tips on retaining freshness for delivery. Watch the episode above to see how they’re doing it!

Coming from a number of fast food chains, Kathleen Richardson knew a thing or two about the business, but she wanted to do something a little different. So she dove back into her hometown of Richmond, Virginia and opened a fast casual of her own, The Urban Farmhouse Market & Café. Founded in 2010, the mission behind The Urban Farmhouse is to bring the farm to the city and suburbs while providing customers with local, wholesome food. Though their menu is not outrageously unique, the way each menu item is made is what makes them stand out.

Poké 305 started as an idea by Founder Victoria Chediak. As a food blogger, Victoria was always in tune with food trends and was intrigued by the traditional Hawaiian dish, poké. Although poké has been gaining a lot of attention in the food world, Victoria noticed there weren’t really any poké options in Miami. That’s when she started thinking about what she could offer to the Brickell community.

Consumers today expect much more from restaurants. They demand clean ingredients that are locally sourced. They demand quick service at affordable prices. Many restaurants have tried to offer all of these things but not without sacrificing their margins. However, American Harvest Co. seems to have found the right balance in order to scale their healthy concept. American Harvest is a concept started by Grove Bay Hospitality Group in Brickell with a focus on “Delicious. Clean. Eating.”

With a menu including grass-fed burgers, cage-free rotisserie chicken, and sustainable tuna, American Harvest Co. is a place you can feel good about eating at. 

Clove Mediterranean Kitchen was inspired by two partners with different experiences in the foodservice industry. Alex Revynthis has an extensive background in the food and beverage industry, most recently at Costa Coffee as their chief financial officer. Spiro Naos opened a number of Miami Subs sandwich shops before getting involved in other ventures. After meeting in New York, the duo decided to partner up on a Mediterranean fast casual concept.

While fast casual is the fastest-growing segment of the industry, the Clove team noticed the lack of Mediterranean options in the space — especially Mediterranean cuisine that focused on the simple, clean ingredients important to traditional cuisine. After being introduced to Greek Celebrity Chef Andreas Lagos, the pair knew he was the right guy to develop their menu.

As a part of the healthy fast-casual scene, honeygrow has already set itself apart from the crowd with its green menu. Founder Justin Rosenberg decided to make touch-screen ordering systems an integral part of his business plan, and the combination was a hit. With 15 restaurants in just four years, customers continuously come back for more.

We decided to stop in and talk to honeygrow Culinary Director David Katz to see what makes their restaurants so popular —and even Chef Katz had to give props to the ordering system.

Green2Go is a fast-casual concept started by two moms who were having a hard time finding healthy fast food that they felt was good enough to feed their children. After discussing their frustrations, Joulia Hantas-Kalah and Anita Allison decided they would open their own restaurant. Serving only clean, healthy ingredients, green2Go has created a loyal following in California.

What exactly is "clean" food? Anita explained what it means to them in just a few words: “Basically, it’s all natural.” Joulia added, "It’s real food! At the end of the day, we feel someone at some point has to draw that line, and that’s what we chose to do and how we opened in 2012.”

Joulia said some restaurants have tried to provide clean food, but they are often hindered by how difficult it can be to keep clean ingredients fresh because of their lack of preservatives. This leads those restaurants creating modified menus serving only the clean ingredients they are able to control. However, the green2Go duo didn’t want to change what people were eating. They simply wanted to make those dishes cleaner. So they took dishes like burgers, tacos, and rice bowls, and served them — just with better ingredients.

Fast Casual Nation acts as your guide as to what makes a successful fast casual concept. Always on the go, today’s consumer is looking for high-quality meals — with just as much speed. This year, we got the chance to see some fast casuals that have found their groove within the segment. Here are Foodable's "Best of" episodes for Fast Casual Nation in 2016.

Keep an eye out for all of this year's "Best of" episodes to learn more about which industry professionals changed the game in 2016!

The idea for Cava Grill stemmed from the full-service restaurant Cava Mezze, which was founded by three childhood friends aiming to provide high-quality Greek and Mediterranean cuisine to the modern consumer. Cava Grill, the fast-casual spinoff of Cava Mezze, has since exploded. Growing to over 25 units, Cava Grill is primed to be a breakout brand in fast casual. Chef Dimitri Moshovitis shared with us some of the tricks to Cava’s success.

Recently attracting attention with its $500 million franchise agreement, Dog Haus is expecting huge growth in the next seven years. The hot dog chain has found success in taking an American favorite and building upon the nostalgia it brings. Founders Hagop Giragossian, Quasim Riaz, and André Vener have created a menu with elevated dogs, sausages, and burgers that seem to have caught on at their 21 locations. Each location has a bold, edgy look to it — but with its own style. Just ask chef or Würstmacher, Adam Gertler.

Rounding out the menu are some other elevated classics including, fries, tater tots, and coleslaw, items that are often combined. Check out how Dog Haus is taking classic comfort foods and transforming them for more grown up palates on this episode of Fast Casual Nation.

A few steps off Washington Avenue in Miami, Spitfire’s Oliver Yasin Freuen and Co-owner Aaron Hyatt turn out a popular German street food known as the Döner Kebab.

Freuen brought the idea over from northwestern Germany where he grew up surrounded by the traditionally Turkish flavors and Hyatt brought to the table over 20 years of restaurant operation experience. The joining of these partners was a match made in döner heaven.

Opened in early November of 2015, Spitfire was inspired by Freuen’s family history of döner kebab restaurants. The sandwiches have become immensely popular overseas and now they have spread to downtown Miami.

Check out how these partners are combining traditional flavors with modern business operation tactics on this episode of Fast Casual Nation.

Marie Capp and Justin Saplosky met at the Wharton School of business, where one of their first conversations centered around their favorite sandwiches. Their passion for sandwiches and hospitality flourished into a catering business, and just a few weeks after graduating, the pair opened their first brick-and-mortar location in Philadelphia, Matt & Marie’s.

It was a match made in sandwich heaven. When the two began brainstorming their menu, they wanted to modernize the classic Italian sandwiches.

The pair turned to Chef Ryan Smith of New York Vintners to help them create a signature menu of sandwiches that hit on all five flavor profiles in every bite: sweet, salty, bitter, sour, and umami. Their elevated Italian classics have really resonated with their customers.  

Check out how Matt & Marie’s is faring in the sandwich city of America on this episode of “Fast Casual Nation.”

What started as an attempt to bring Cajun Country inspired plates to New Orleans has grown into thriving sandwich shop, butcher shop, and wine bar Cochon Butcher. The idea to take an old-world, meat-market-esque concept into the fast casual sphere expanded from its owners', Donald Link and Stephen Stryjewski, traditional, Cajun Southern establishment, Cochon Restaurant.

The more casual Butcher breaks down pigs for the main Cochon Restaurant, but don’t let that fool you into thinking it lies in the shadow of its elevated dining brother. In seven years, Cochon Butcher has gone on to receive recognition in its own right as a heightened fast-casual spot. Due to its unique structure, running as a butcher shop, a sandwich shop, and a wine bar all in one, it caters to customers of all types. Its atmosphere varies from bustling sandwich and soda shop around lunch, to a delightful bistro-like setting in the evening.

Their menu offers traditional sandwiches, like the Barbecue Pork served Carolina style, as well as elevated housemade pastas paying homage to Italian salumi and charcuterie. The Butcher specializes in housemade cured meats, terrines, and sausages available by the pound.

In this episode of “Fast Casual Nation,” brought to you by the Foodable WebTV Network, we visit Cochon Butcher where Chef de Cuisine Hank Shackelford assembles a menu with Cajun Country and Creole influences. Host Paul Barron stops in to discuss the diverse menu and how it’s been received by New Orleans.

You'll find watermelon every season at Spring Chicken, the fast casual baby sister of successful South Beach and Vegas conceptYardbird. Created by the 50 Eggs Group and visionary restaurateur John Kunkel, it's no surprise that this restaurant has found quick success and already boasts a loyal brand following. In this episode of "Fast Casual Nation," brought to you by the National Watermelon Promotion Board, we sit down with the brains behind Spring Chicken and discover how the idea for this fast casual hatched up.

The space immediately invites guests in, if its whole wall painted with a sign that says "Welcome Friends" doesn't already spell it out for you. With its unique design — what Kunkel called the industrial version of your grandmother's kitchen — consumers already have something to feast on as soon as they step through the doors Its sleek wood structure mixed with green plants and windmill-esque fans bring the feeling of farm and fresh before the first bite.

While the brand is well-known for its chicken product, the team didn't expect their watermelons to be a fan favorite. While at Yardbird, the fruit wasn't so kid-friendly due to its cayenne and pepper spices, at Spring Chicken, the watermelon is flavored with tones of mint, lemon, and lime.

Spring Chicken's commitment to its dishes is quite admirable. It's pretty much housemade everything, from the sauce in their mac and cheese, to the produce they chop up, carve, and chunk every day, to the biscuits they bake from scratch. What results are delicious grilled or crispy chicken; colorful, rich, cobb salads with avocado, roasted bacon, and roasted pecans; barbecue sandwiches; veggie or gluten-free sandwiches; chicken and waffles, and more!

Want to bite into this creative fast casual? Watch the full episode now!

The fast casual pizza sector has been taking a slice of the industry. With more than 80 unique, Chipotle-line-service-style concepts emerging in the business, how can a brand stand out? In this episode of "Fast Casual Nation," we visit Two Boots in Nashville and chat with the two big cheeses, Phil Hartman, owner and co-founder, and Sam Boyer, manager of the Nashville location, to see how they set themselves apart. 

While most fast casual pizza brands are all about the personal pizza, Two Boots does not focus on customization as much as it does the "whole pizza pie" experience. The brand comes up with unique and quirky combinations, like Hattie B's medium-level heat chicken with housemade ricotta cheese, or the "V for Vegan" pizza, featuring red pepper and basil pesto. All pizzas have a cornmeal crust, which offer a different, white-gold texture and a nutty crunch.

Watch the full episode now and step into the shoes of Two Boots!

The menu of Cemitas Puebla is just as rich and flavorful — and perhaps, a little crazy — as its story.

"I had no money, I had no experience. Everything that I did, you should do the opposite to own and start a successful restaurant," owner Tony Anteliz says in this Fast Casual Nation vignette as he recalled when his doors opened in 2002. "The only thing I had going for me was that I thought 'I had an idea that no one else is doing, and it's gonna be great, and within a a year, we're going to be busy, and everything is going to be fine.'"

So like we said, and as Anteliz admitted that any experienced restaurateur would believe, the restaurant's beginnings were a little crazy. Still, this big risk came with an even bigger reward. What began as what Anteliz calls a greasy spoon or hole-in-the-wall on a shoestring budget, a taqueria or the "equivalent to an American hotdog stand," became a bustling Chicago hot spot.

Uma Temakeria, a fast-casual concept in New York City, specializes in hand-rolled sushi and responsible sourcing, and is known for introducing the first sushi burrito to the Big Apple. We explore the brand in this "Fast Casual Nation" vignette.

Menu development has become one of the most important operational aspects for fast-casual restaurants. But between sourcing consistent ingredients on a scalable level and ensuring top-notch distributors, it takes time, effort, and experience to do so efficiently.

So, we packed our bags for Denver and set out to talk to one of the pioneers of fast casual, who has been in the trenches of menu development for a long time: Tom Ryan, the chief concept officer at Smashburger, a concept that now boasts 350 locations around the world.