Restaurateurs respond to healthier dietary demands

At Ruby Tuesday, ordering sides of green beans and zucchini with a filet is becoming as typical as piling on french fries.

"Right now, it's a really unique time," says Peter Glander, executive chef at Maryville-based Ruby Tuesday, which has nearly 800 company-owned and franchised restaurants. "The guests are more knowledgeable than they've ever been before. They're challenging us to have more offerings that are unique, high in flavor and filling the needs that they want."

Attention to adult and childhood obesity rates and their associated health-care costs, along with a spike in diagnoses of food allergies, have unleashed a wave of health-focused eating trends: Whole foods. Local foods. Unprocessed foods. Raw foods. The DASH diet. Gluten-free. Vegan. More whole grains and green veggies. Less sodium, sugar and red meat.

Healthy restaurant sales.$1.7 billion - U.S. daily restaurant sales

$2,505 - Average household expenditure on food away from home in 2010

36 percent - Adults who have used the Internet to seek nutritional information about restaurant food

71 percent - Adults who said in 2011 that they are trying to eat healthier now at restaurants than two years ago

Source: National Restaurant Association
And with 49 cents of every $1 Americans spend on food going to restaurants, the Food and Drug Administration has proposed rules that would require restaurants with 20 locations or more to display nutritional information on their menus.

Seventy-one percent of adults in a National Restaurant Association survey last year indicated they were trying to eat healthier in restaurants than two years prior, and four of the organization's top 10 trends for 2012 center on healthy eating

Local and boutique eateries continue to pop up, advertising their fare as appealing to healthier-minded clientele. National chains, such as Ruby Tuesday and McDonald's, have broadened their menus to provide healthier options for their patrons. And other local restaurants, such as Petro's Chili and Chips and The Tomato Head, have seen the changing times align with what they've served all along.

"When we first opened, the offerings in Knoxville were limited, so part of the attraction, I believe, was that we were offering something different," says Mahasti Vafaie, who opened The Tomato Head in 1990 on Market Square, and later a second location in Maryville. "With the recent renewed interest in healthy eating, our menu offerings and commitment to using healthy ingredients is noticed and sought out by our customers."

While some customers are requesting more items tied to healthier diets, many restaurant operators say those are in the minority.

"A lot of people talk about healthy eating, but then when they go out to eat they really want to get away from all that," says Bart Fricks, chief operating officer of Copper Cellar, which owns six restaurant concepts including Calhoun's and Smoky Mountain Brewery in East Tennessee and Nashville.

"Quite honestly," he says, "our No. 1 side item is still french fries."

Fruit cup or ribs?

It's not that Copper Cellar hasn't been impacted by changes in customers' eating patterns.

The company has recently developed gluten-free menus for all its restaurants with the help of celiac experts at Fort Sanders Regional Medical Center, and Smoky Mountain Brewery's offerings now include a wheat-free pizza.

"That's been a big hit with people," Fricks says.

But the demand has not been great enough to merit creation of more custom items, which means healthier menu items are simply pared-down versions of what the restaurants already serve — hamburgers wrapped in lettuce, salads sans croutons.

The Copper Cellar's response to healthy-eating trends has been more nuanced, he says. For instance, customers tend to be more calorie-conscious in springtime, so menus feature more salads, seafood and a fruit cup as a side dish, he says.

Wallet-watching, driven by the recent recession, has inadvertently worked on customers' waistlines at the Chop House and Connors Steak and Seafood, part of a regional chain owned by Connor Concepts and headquartered in Farragut.

The company created a special value menu featuring smaller portions of its staple fare, served at lunch and for both lunch and dinner in some restaurants.

"I think value is critical and it is something that all consumers think about," says Sara Monnette, director of consumer research at Technomic Inc., a Chicago-based food industry research group. "Health and diet concerns are also important but to a slightly smaller subset of consumers. Since value transcends all consumer groups, I think it will always be most top of mind."

Connor Concepts, like many in the industry, also has worked behind the scenes to cut out unsavory ingredients such as MSG, trans fats and preservatives.

But, says Mike Connor, president and CEO, "We're still going to have to serve the items that people want to eat. We still have baby-back ribs."

Fast-food makeover

As American's health IQ has increased, McDonald's has found itself increasingly in the spotlight for its fare — both cheap and loaded with nutritional no-nos.

The company has responded by expanding its salad menu, adding items such as fresh fruit smoothies and offering apple slices and milk as an alternative to fries and soda in kids' meals.

The new items are attracting new customers, believes Tom Cochran, president of Brothers Management, which owns 26 McDonald's restaurants in the Knoxville area.

"We have a variety, and the idea behind McDonald's is to have variety," he says. "Over time we've seen a widening of our menu to accommodate that."

Cochran likens offering healthier menu options to the fast-food giant's entry into other specialized markets.

"A good example of that is the specialty coffees we have now, and our beverages," he says. "Frozen lemonade did absolutely great for us. And to a certain extent I think that's a lot of new customers."

Catering to a niche while offering items with broader appeal has been Petro's mission since its founding some 30 years ago. The Knoxville-based company's specialty, the Petro, features chili poured over corn chips then laden with cheese and other toppings. A vegetarian version has been available since the beginning and a "lite" version — the small size weighs in at 382 calories — for many years, says Petro's president Dale Widmer. Most of the menu is gluten-free.

While Petro's alternative items don't represent a huge number of sales — the vegetarian Petro is about 15 percent of revenues, for example — it's a very important option. "It's interesting that the people who desire those items are very vocal about it," Widmer says. "Most people are very loyal."

Petro's is promoting its healthy offerings as the company sells franchises outside of Knoxville.

"We are trying to educate new markets, so that's part of our marketing," he says.

Southern cooking

Eating patterns vary by region, and the South has been slower to embrace dietary change than other parts of the country, says Ruby Tuesday's Glander.

"You have to make sure the food has feeling, and you have to go back to the cultural heritage of Southern food," he says. "In the North, it's a little more simple simpler preps with better quality and better tasting ingredients. In the South you have to do something to it."

As long as food is familiar, Glander says patrons are willing to give it a try. Spaghetti squash with marinara is popular, he says, as is adding a vegetable or two to a meat offering.

"The guests are looking for something they remember, something they have a connection to but something that's healthy for them," he says. "When people go out they want to splurge, and that's where it comes back to familiar with the twist. Brown rice versus bird food."

The restaurant industry already is looking toward the next trends in health-conscious dining, says Glander, who serves on the Healthy Menus R&D Collaborative, an initiative launched by the Culinary Institute of America for the food services industry.

Reducing sodium is one current initiative, he says, followed closely by increasing vegetable and whole grain consumption and portion control.

Bottom line? Healthy is here to stay.

"It's going to take time," he says, but "I think food culture is changing."