Kids may naturally gravitate toward old favorites like chicken strips, burgers and hot dogs, but chefs increasingly are finding a place for sushi, salmon, and even green eggs and ham on their children’s menus.
At the same time, as young people’s palates gradually become more sophisticated, many adults seem to be indulging themselves with some childhood favorites.
Tampa, Fla.-based Roy’s Restaurants is catering to more gastronomically adventurous kids with a new menu that includes sushi at many locations. At the downtown New York City Roy’s location, a three-course children’s meal priced at $12 starts with crudités or a grilled cheese quesadilla, and includes a choice of one of five entrées as well as a sundae. In addition to sushi, the other main courses include teriyaki-grilled salmon with steamed vegetables, braised short ribs with mashed potatoes and penne with a cheese butter sauce.
With most foodservice marketing mavens agreeing that kids often control the dining dollars by choosing where to eat out, savvy operators are seeking to attract them by offering a wider variety of choices.
“Kids are what it’s about now,” says chef Steve Chiappetti of Viand, which is adjacent to the Courtyard by Marriott Chicago Downtown. “You have to address the market and be there for them. There’s a baby boom going on. We see people coming in more and more with their kids.”
Chiappetti also notes that more kids are joining their parents on business trips at Viand. As a result, he tries to cater to their tastes.
“It’s about kids having fun with food and being interactive with food,” says Chiappetti, the father of a 4-year-old and a 2-year-old. “They want to eat the food they want to eat.”
Kids at Viand have the choice of three kinds of jelly, smooth or chunky peanut butter and at least two breads for the “make-your-own” sandwiches that come with celery fries. To prepare the fries, celery is cut into baton shapes and coated with a tempura batter.
Viand also serves cheeseburgers and fries in a toy dump truck, and fish and chips are presented in a wire basket shaped like a fish.
Since pirates are in vogue, Viand offers “pirates’ treasure,” a variation on shepherd’s pie in which mashed potatoes top hidden veggies and braised ground sirloin. A pirate’s flag decorates the plate.
The kids’ main courses at Viand are priced at $6 each. To appeal to both kids and adults at dessert, Chiappetti offers a popular “junk food cart” that includes house-made renditions of Twinkies, Sno Balls and Oreos, as well as brownies, a cola float, banana-flavored marshmallows and chocolate chip cookies. The desserts, which are served in a mini grocery cart, are priced at $8.
Adults and kids alike request cotton candy at the two-month-old uptown Landmarc restaurant at the Time Warner Center in New York, says chef-owner Marc Murphy, who is a father of two.
The spun sugar “is a big hit,” he says. “One table gets it, and it’s like a chain reaction” as others then request the sweet.
All of Landmarc’s $6 kids’ items include free cotton candy, while adults are charged $3 a cone. Recently, the cotton candy flavor of the day was bubblegum.
Somewhat less popular than the cotton candy is Landmarc’s basil-flavored “green eggs and ham,” a dish developed by Pamela Schein Murphy, the restaurant’s co-owner and wife of Marc Murphy. She first made the breakfast for their daughter Campbell after the 3-year-old discovered the Dr. Seuss classic.
All of the kids’ fare at Landmarc—including brand-name cereals, burgers and pigs in a blanket prepared with cocktail franks and puff pastry—are available all day in house or for delivery. The items also are featured at the older downtown New York location of Landmarc.
“The whole idea of what we are doing is to open a neighborhood restaurant and take care of the neighborhood people,” Murphy says, “and if the kids are eating here, the parents are spending money.”
Murphy’s third Manhattan restaurant, Ditch Plains, appeals to the kid in everyone, according to Time Out New York, which this year presented it with the award for best kids’ food for grown-ups. The menu includes chicken pot pie with cream biscuit for $14, two hot dogs with French fries for $8 and chicken burgers with fries for $10.
“The sad part is people project what kids will eat,” Murphy says.
They may get it wrong, he says, especially when adults pick the items without consulting the targeted market.
That, however, is not the case at Wilbraham, Mass.-based Friendly’s Restaurants, which has more than 510 restaurants across the Northeast. For the fourth year in a row, Friendly’s has relied on advice from their “Fab 50” panel, which comprises 50 kids between the ages of 8 and 12.
“We put the onus on the kids,” says Pete Bell, vice president of marketing for Friendly’s. “We’ll talk to them. These kids are very vocal.”
The Fab 50, all of whom were selected by winning an essay contest, helped to design the company’s current kids’ menu. The menu is divided into three sections: breakfast, “hungry” and “really hungry.”
Although the new items are still under wraps, Bell says products developed with the kids that are more “ethnic,” like salsa, are in the works.
“Kids are more adventurous,” he adds. “You have kids 10 or 11 years old who say they love sushi.”
Will the Japanese rice rolls appear on the next children’s menu at the ice cream-centric family eatery?
“No,” Bell says. “You are not going to see that anytime soon at Friendly’s. It doesn’t quite fit the brand.”
Executive chef Patrick Feury of Nectar in the upscale town of Berwyn, Penn., says, “Sushi is becoming in vogue with young kids, especially vegetable rolls. Our morel roll with marinated and tempura morels is very popular.” Nectar’s morel roll is $9.
Fish of all kinds are swimming through kids’ menus these days. For example, salmon with mashed potatoes and vegetables for $10 is available exclusively for kids at Whist & Cameo Bar in Santa Monica, Calif., where adults dine on such entrées as scallops with cauliflower purée, sugar snap peas, red carrots and pea tendrils. Whist & Cameo Bar’s per-person adult dinner check, without alcohol, averages $73.
A seasonal fish anchors the menu at American Girl Cafe in New York, says the outlet’s director Kamille Adamany. Even though the average age of the guests there is between 6 and 10 years old, she says, the young ladies typically dine with their mothers, who also need to be pleased.
“We’re a children’s restaurant, but that only goes so far,” Adamany says.
The restaurant’s menu includes such signature dishes as flower-shaped “flower power” pancakes and fruit salad cut into playful forms. There’s even a miniature chicken salad boat sporting an American cheese slice sail as one of the tea selections.
Scoring a seat at the doll-focused eatery can present a challenge. Saturdays, especially during holidays, are often booked six months in advance, Adamany says. The 155-seat dining room serves 200,000 meals a year.
The cafe also offers a popular tea, priced at $19 a person. “We kept the tradition, but do it in a kid-friendly way,” Adamany says. “Instead of currants, we’ll do blueberries in the scones.”
Similar menus also are available at the Los Angeles and Chicago American Girl Cafes.
Amanda’s restaurant in Hoboken, N.J., caters to a more adult market, and co-owner Joyce Flinn says she offers no children’s menu and “discourages children to dine after 8:30 on a Saturday night because it is a romantic restaurant.”
She asks guests who request a high chair to come earlier on prime date nights, or she strategically places tots away from two-tops during such peak periods.
“Nothing derails the ardor of daters like a crying child,” she says.
However, at all other meal periods, especially “family time” brunch, Flinn says she welcomes children to enjoy the standard menu. Her staff also prepares kid-friendly dishes upon request.
Recently, she started teaching a manners class for younger diners who may lack social skills or parents who set a proper example.
“Manners are not innate,” Flinn says.