NRN senior food editor Bret Thorn says both upscale-casual and fine dining restaurants performed well.
Well Nancy, I’ve been sitting here, typing away for the past year, only to look up and realize it’s time to reflect on 2014.
The year seemed to fly by, and it certainly doesn’t feel like it has been 12 months since I made my last predictions.
But it has been, so it’s time to look back, take stock and see how cloudy or clear my crystal ball was last year.
“An increasingly diverse, gastronomically experimental and financially cautious population will drive food and beverage trends in 2014,” I began.
I think I got that mostly right, but I might have over-stated the financial cautiousness.
Although it’s true that Americans weren’t exactly freewheeling with their money, they splashed out enough for upscale-casual restaurants to perform surprisingly well as a whole, and fine dining also showed robust growth.
I predicted growing popularity in protein, driven by Paleo diets and others that shunned carbohydrates, as well as the rising tide of people avoiding gluten.
I think I got that right. Arby’s scored a homerun with its Mega Meat Stacks. Firehouse Subs reduced the calories in its Hearty and Flavorful sandwiches by shrinking the buns and reducing the fat in its sauces, but keeping the same amount of meat. Fatburger copied KFC’s Double Down with its Thinburger that featured two beef patties and no bun.
Even plant-based proteins got more play as Chipotle Mexican Grill launched its tofu-based Sofritas nationwide.
I also expected to see more sour flavors, and I did, somewhat.
Independent chefs expanded their pickling efforts into fermenting, and there was a fair amount of action in the realm of lemonade. Friendly’s Ice Cream, for example, launched a strawberry lemonade (and a Sour Patch Sundae). Orange Leaf Frozen Yogurt introduced a strawberry lemonade smoothie. Sizzler introduced a ginger lemonade; and IHOP introduced a line of iced tea lemonades.
But I think the real story, when it comes to that level of primal flavor in 2014, was spiciness.
There was Applebee’s Fireball Whisky Lemonade, which is sour, sure, but also spicy. Sriracha sauce was the breakout condiment of the year, and chiles were all over hamburgers.
In fact, chiles appeared on more than just burgers – one thing I hadn’t expected.
Marco’s Pizza started adding spicy Chicago-style giardinera to its Spicy Fresco Three Cheese and Spicy Double Pepperoni Fresco pizzas. Beef ‘O’ Brady’s introduced spicy garlic chicken on flatbread, and IHOP put roasted poblano peppers on its Spicy Chicken Ranch Sandwich.
At the end of 2013, I was seeing what I called “a new appreciation for a certain slimy unctuousness,” at the high end with ingredients like pork belly fat and see urchins, and at the lower end with bubble tea.
I definitely overstated that one.
I predicted we’d see more tea, and indeed we did. Starbucks expanded its version of the Teavana Tea Bar concept. Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf introduced some new tea lattes, and, as I mentioned before, IHOP had its iced tea lemonades.
But I think the real hot beverage story of the year was coffee, which reasserted its dominant position.
Dunkin’ Donuts continued its westward expansion. Chick-fil-A upgraded its coffee, which is now purchased directly from farmers. “Third wave” independent coffee houses and micro-batch roasters continued to test the limits on how much a person might be willing to spend on a cup o’ Joe. Even Starbucks launched a super-premium micro-roast brand called Starbucks Reserve.
I also predicted an uptick in root vegetables, and there was some of that.
We saw more beets at salad specialists such as Sweetgreen, and a lot of beets in smoothies and fresh juices, as that trend continued. There were plenty of carrots, but there have always been plenty of carrots.
I guess we’re going to have to wait awhile yet to see more of those parsnips, turnips, rutabagas and kohlrabi I was expecting.
Instead, kale extended its run as the standout health-trend vegetable.
So I guess I did all right with my predictions. I was only genuinely wrong about our new appreciation for slime, but I also failed to predict the big stories of spicy food, coffee domination and the seemingly unstoppable juggernaut (in independent restaurants, at least) that was kale.
How about you, Nancy? I know you don’t predict trends, but what did you see as the standout food-and-beverage trends of 2014?
Beef was everywhere
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The following is Kruse Company president Nancy Kruse’s take on 2014 in food.
You’re right, Bret. This year has really flown by, and gauging by the steady onslaught of 2015 predictions, it’s obviously on the downslope. It seems I can’t turn on my computer most mornings without falling over another list of fearless forecasts, and they’re arriving earlier and earlier every year.
Menu prognosticating has become very much like the seemingly endless Christmas season, kicking off now in October and plugging right along to December 31. It’s enough to make me want to drown my sorrows in some of those hyper-seasonal, biodynamic, artisanal, hand-crafted savory cocktails that many have been bruiting.
Amidst this plethora of prophecies, I truly look forward to yours. Your crystal ball is clearer than most, and your track record is pretty darn good.
I like that you actually give yourself a report card, and, of course, I especially love that you ask my opinion. This gives me an excuse to take a look back at a most interesting year on the menu.
From my perspective, the past 12 months have been all about protein.
Barreling headlong out of 2013, the trend toward protein enrichment picked up serious steam on menus. Despite reams of publicity regarding beef supply and cost issues, it appeared that restaurateurs never got the memo.
Beef was absolutely everywhere.
In just the last quarter, for example, Schlotzsky’s introduced five Hand-Carved Ribeye Steak Entrées. Church’s Chicken promoted a Chicken-Fried Steak Platter; and Au Bon Pain featured Black Angus Roast Beef & Goat Cheese on Rosemary Focaccia as part of a special holiday promotion.
Family-dining specialists like Ponderosa/Bonanza weighed in with a menu update featuring steak selections like sirloin, ribeye and porterhouse, while Ovation Brands’ Ryan’s, Old Country Buffet and HomeTown Buffet proved they were a cut above with the new Steaktastic line of signature entrées.
Papa John’s and Papa Murphy’s both took pizza uptown with the addition of steak toppings.
Beef also became a go-to breakfast ingredient. Over the recent past, it has popped up in the a.m. at Taco Bell, Dunkin’ Donuts and Panera Bread, among other places.
No question about it: Its ubiquity and versatility have made beef the ingredient of the year.
There were plenty of porcine protein pleasures to be found too.
Operators looked beyond the belly to introduce a range of creative items, like the nifty Roman-style Porchetta Street Sandwich stuffed with herbs and spices at Shari’s; the Bourbon-Molasses Pork Tenderloin at LongHorn Steakhouse; and the Fig and Pig Flatbread, with naturally raised, slow-braised pork at Noodles & Company. In late fall, McDonald’s also reportedly began testing a Tender Pork & Gravy Biscuit Sandwich at stores in South Carolina.
Chefs flocked to chicken dishes too. While you’ve reported extensively on new chicken items on chain menus, I’ve been equally interested in the continuing rebound of fried chicken at independent-restaurants. There’s Honey Butter Fried Chicken in Chicago, for example, which gives patrons the bird -- in this case, Amish-raised and butchered in house -- and then totally chickens out with side dishes like Schmaltz-Mashed Potatoes, in which the chicken fat is whipped right in, and Chicken-Skin Cracklings.
While beef, chicken and pork constitute a meaty troika that dominates menus, perhaps more notable was the widespread appearance of formerly overlooked alternate proteins in the mass market.
Duck waddled onto menus, turning up all over the place, including burgers and on waffles. Many operators took a more sophisticated approach, as with the Duck Doughnuts with apple-honey sauce at Eddie Merlot’s, or the Duck Confit Spring Rolls with sweet fig sauce at Chart House.
Brickhouse Tavern & Tap grabbed attention with the Duck Wings appetizer, a fun variation on the omnipresent chicken version that found a spot on the permanent menu last year. This year, the chain pushed the envelope even further with its Goat Burger topped with a light goat cream-cheese sauce and harissa mayonnaise.
Lamb was equally prominent, crossing over from Greek-style burgers to find a home at chains like Not Your Average Joe’s, where the Mediterranean Lamb Kabobs are drizzled with pomegranate molasses.
At Marlow’s Tavern, the Grilled Lamb Wrap was topped with chipotle-tzatziki dressing; and at Seasons 52, Oak-Grilled Rack of Lamb was paired with vibrant spring vegetables.
Operators readily obliged diners who wanted to have it all, protein-wise.
Just prior to Thanksgiving, Burger 21 launched its Turducken Burger on an unsuspecting world. Consisting of a hand-formed turkey burger stuffed with a blend of rosemary chicken inside of ground duck, the sandwich was topped with melted Brie and homemade cherry chutney.
You point out Arby’s Mega Meat Stacks, which are similarly over the top, but you didn’t mention the off-menu Meat Mountain special, comprised of two chicken tenders, roast turkey, ham, Swiss cheese, corned beef, brisket, Angus steak, cheddar cheese, roast beef and three half-strips of bacon -- all on a bun. Too big to fit in a regular clamshell, the sandwich has to be wrapped in paper. Whew.
While the center of the plate has been a real center of attention, chefs have continued to amp up their fruit and vegetable usage.
On that note, I particularly loved the widespread appearance of figs in savory applications like the Pear, Pig N Fig Flatbread at Bar Louie; the Napa Valley Chicken Sandwich with fig jam at Einstein Bros Bagels; and the Prosciutto-Wrapped Pork Tenderloin with port wine-fig sauce at Carrabba’s Italian Grill.
California-based Eureka! offered the Fresno Fig Burger with homemade fig marmalade, melted goat cheese, bacon and spicy porter mustard. Super-trendy ice-cream specialist Coolhaus pulled out all the stops with the Balsamic Fig Mascarpone Ice Cream that took its inspiration from cheese plates.
After all this indulgence, it’s not surprising that operators have been looking to lighten things up a bit, which led many to experiment with agave syrup or nectar, a favorite sweetener of the health-food set derived from the succulent agave plant.
It crossed over to the mainstream in lots of food and beverage items, like the new Hand-Shaken Agave Mojito at California Pizza Kitchen; the Coconut Crusted Paradise French Toast finished with a caramel drizzle and agave at Silver Diner; and LYFE Kitchen’s Baked Sweet Potato Fries served with agave ketchup.
On that sweet note, Bret, I’d like to raise a glass to you and to all the terrific, creative culinarians who make my job such a joy. Here’s to an equally innovative 2015, and may all your own predictions come true.
Contact Bret Thorn at [email protected].
Follow him on Twitter: @foodwriterdiary

Nancy Kruse, president of the Kruse Company, is a menu trends analyst based in Atlanta and a regular contributor to Nation’s Restaurant News. E-mail her at [email protected].