Giving customers freedom of choice rings up increased sales

Nation's Restaurant News, August 20, 2001 by Ron Ruggless

Allow them to build it, and they will come.

Such "Field of Dreams" thinking has caught on as an operational philosophy among a growing number of casual-dining chains that offer guests the supreme freedom of choice: They allow customers to serve as their own chefs.

From the "designer-stir-fry adventure" at five-unit Stir Crazy cafe of Oak Brook, Ill., to the "create-your-own" menu at 26-unit B.D.'s Mongolian Barbeque of Ferndale, Mich., the customer-customization trend has found an audience of educated patrons who want control of their menus and a quick, convenient experience that offers a variety of affordable options.

"The restaurant arena is so competitive that you have to give the customer what they want," says Jeff Sinelli, chief executive of the three-unit Genghis Grill-The Mongolian Feast in Dallas. The concept allows diners to place their selected meats, vegetables and sauces in a bowl. Cooks then stir it up on a grill. "And there is no better way to give the customer what they want than letting them have 100-percent choice in what they choose to eat."

That flexibility in menu-making is showing up both in smaller chains, such as the seven-unit Flat Top Grill, owned by the Happy Valley Corp. of Oak Park, Ill., and in the portfolios of large-scale players. Brinker International's Big Bowl, for example, offers guests the opportunity to select their vegetables from a fresh bar in front of the kitchen and then to leave it with the chef for stir-frying.

Certainly, the marketing of design-your-own meals isn't new in foodservice. Fast-feeder Burger King long ago offered "Have It Your Way" and fine-dining players such as Nick & Stef's Steakhouse of Los Angeles and Craft in New York stake their concepts on consumer choice. Col. Lee's Mongolian Barbecue even brought the "do-it-yourself" philosophy to diners in Southern California in the 1960s.

But the growing group of flex-menu players offers customers unprecedented autonomy and appeals to patrons who have endured something akin to actor Jack Nicholson's infamous restaurant scene in "Five Easy Pieces." In that memorable piece of cinema, Nicholson plays a pianist in a diner trying to order toast from a waitress. Frustrated, he orders a tuna sandwich without the tuna and rudely tells her what she can do with the fish.

Billy Downs, president of BD's Mongolian Barbeque, explains: "I think people love to control their own food. And their needs are more and more controlling as they understand the chemistry of their bodies and how they can eat properly. Controlling everything that you can put in your meal is a huge selling part of this concept."

Downs predicts that restaurateurs increasingly will need to accommodate customers' need for control.

"People like to know what's in their food," he says. "I think we have a very well educated customer base."

Consumers' desire for variety also figures into the equation, Downs theorizes. "The other thing that makes 'create-your-own' exciting is that you can make an infinite number of combinations," he says. "It's always something different."

BD's Mongolian Barbeque now has locations in California, Colorado, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Maryland, Michigan, North Carolina, Ohio and Texas. Half are company owned and half are franchised.

Typical BD's units cover 5,800 square feet and boast 175 seats. Check averages are $9 at lunch and $17 at dinner.

"From the operator perspective, the concept is certainly very simple," Downs says. "But because there are so many interaction points at the buffet, the grill, the waitstaff and the hostess, it's not as simple as it looks. We don't have a big kitchen hidden in the back. There's still a considerable amount of labor. It's all over the place."

Average labor costs per unit are slightly less than 30 percent, he says. "It's not the dramatic savings that people think. We still have significant costs."

However, other operators who employ the "create-your-own" menus do find savings in labor costs.

FiRE iCE founder and chief executive Jim Miller says, "Labor costs do come in below the norm, because we have no kitchen. Prep happens in the morning and basically the cooking is done on the grill, so we avoid a lot of the back-of-the-house costs. Because people get their food themselves at the grill, the wait staff is able to handle more tables. We are actually getting some precut vegetables in, so that helps as well."

Sinelli of Genghis Grill agrees: "We displace the labor onto the customer. And the customer, by participating, actually has an enhanced dining experience and gets exactly what they want."

But while involving customers in their own service can reduce labor, it increases the need for a well-trained staff, FiRE iCE's Miller notes.

"We've changed the model in the sense that we have no menu," he says. "You take a tour of the market area and the grill. You talk to patrons next to you either in the market when you are choosing your food or at the grill while you are standing and waiting for your food to be cooked. And people can even cook their own [food] on the grill. It's a lot more engagement with other people than a normal meal.