Monday, April 12, 2004 | 8:17 a.m.
Want a cheeseburger and french fries? Try Del Taco.
Hankering for a taco? There's always KFC.
More in the mood for a chicken sandwich? Wendy's has many varieties.
Craving a deli offering, but you don't have the time to wait? Jack in the Box features several sandwiches.
Even the low-carbohydrate dieters have options, from a bunless burger at Carl's Jr. to an Atkins-endorsed club salad at Subway.
Fast food certainly isn't what it used to be. To meet the many demands of time-pressed consumers, fast-food chains continue to expand their menus.
"Today when you look around you are definitely seeing a lot of different items you didn't see even two or three years ago," Kathleen Finn, spokeswoman for Jack in the Box, said.
"Offering customers alternatives and choices, that's the name of the game."
At Jack in the Box, the choices are diverse enough to satisfy almost any taste. The options include: salads, egg rolls, fish and chips, tacos, chicken sandwiches, bacon cheddar potato wedges, stuffed jalapenos, cheesecake and double fudge cake, a variety of breakfast foods, and, of course, myriad burger options.
Most recently, Jack in the Box even ventured into deli territory with its line of Pannido and club sandwiches.
"They're doing very well and they're not that difficult to make, obviously," she said. "A lot of things can be offered in a fast-food setting and do very well."
And having more options is always good for families or large groups, where one type of food often isn't enough for everyone's tastes.
"For us at Del Taco, having the Mexican favorites but also the traditional American grill with the hamburgers and the crinkle-cut fries is great," Randy Lopez, vice president of marketing for Del Taco, said.
"You want to be but you can't necessarily be all things to people," he said. "But you can offer choices ..."
Not to be outdone, fast-food titan McDonald's offers many options beyond its established menu of burgers and fries.
Some items, such as the lobster sandwich and Johnsonville Bratwurst, are sold regionally, on the East Coast and in the Midwest, respectively.
Other products, such as the McRib, are promotional, meaning they're sold for a limited time only.
There are also the occasional test items, such as McDonald's pizza, which was introduced in a few restaurants in the late '80s and never caught on with the public.
Still, no matter how many choices consumers may demand, there has to be a limit. The trick is to find the balance between what customers want while staying true to the "core" menu.
"You can't have everything on your menu," said Walt Riker, spokesman for McDonald's. "One of the hallmarks of the McDonald's menu is its core menu ... you don't want to clutter that and offer so many items people get confused."
Options
Las Vegan Rob Thomson, 67, has become quite a fan of Wendy's healthier menu options.
Before his doctor-imposed diet, Thomson would routinely order a burger and fries. Not any more. His daily lunch routine now is a Wendy's side salad -- usually with fat-free French -- and either a small chili or a six-piece chicken nugget.
"It's convenient and very good," he said. "Otherwise I'd be home making my own."
He also prefers the Wendy's salad to those offered by other burger chains.
"Most of the other fast fast-food places, their salads have too much stuff in them," he says. "So there are too many calories."
Bob Bertini, spokesman for Wendy's, said he isn't surprised that customers wanting healthier choices are coming to the fast-food restaurant.
"Our menu has always been built around giving customers lots of options to meet dietary and lifestyle needs," Bertini said. "It's about variety and options."
Which is why the hamburger chain introduced the salad bar to fast food in the mid-'80s. With the popularity of its salad bar, Wendy's developed a line of portable salads in the mid-'90s for customers too hurried to make their own.
"Its success has led to all sorts of restaurant changes," Bertini said.
In fact, almost all of the major fast-food chains feature a prepared salad on their menu.
McDonald's began serving salads in 1985. The chain had such success it recently expanded its menu to include three "premium salads": California Cobb Salad, Caesar Salad and Bacon Ranch Salad, each with a grilled or crispy chicken option.
Paul Newman was so impressed with the premium salads that he partnered with McDonald's to offer his brand of dressings with the choices.
Ordering a salad at McDonald's may have seemed far-fetched to patrons in the 1960s, but not to one important man.
"Our founder, Ray Kroc, had a saying that he made back in the 1960s: 'I don't know what McDonald's will be selling in 2000, but I do know that we'll be selling more of it than anybody else,' " Riker said.
"That's really the way to look at our menus in the future. We can't predict what we'll sell, but we'll follow our customers and their suggestions about what they want to see in the future."
Healthy choice
The Atkins phenomenon continues, with an estimated 17 million Americans reportedly on the diet, according to Knight Ridder News Service.
Not surprisingly, several fast-food chains are trying to meet the demand.
Carl's Jr. recently introduced the Low Carb Six Dollar Burger, its regular $6 burger -- sans bun -- wrapped by lettuce, and its Low Carb Breakfast Bowl, a combination of sausage, scrambled eggs, cheese and bacon served in a plastic bowl.
And later this year the fast-food chain will introduce the Low Carb Charbroiled Chicken Wrap.
The specialty menu items are the result of "preliminary testing and research that said a growing number of people in our restaurant were interested in a low-carbohydrate diet," said Brad Haley, executive vice president of marketing for Carl's Jr-Hardee's.
"We also observed a lot of people in our restaurants removing buns and throwing them away and trying to eat the products with a knife and fork."
Not to be outdone, Subway also developed its Atkins-friendly wraps and salads.
The wraps include Chicken Bacon Ranch and Turkey Breast & Bacon Melt, while the salad options are the Classic Club with Ranch and Grilled Chicken & Baby Spinach.
Subway even has the Atkins seal of approval, one of only two restaurants with that distinction, the other being Friday's.
"A lot of people are on that diet," Kevin Kane, spokesman for Subway, said. "And it's hard to find something on that diet -- especially if you're on the go and you eat at fast-food restaurants."
Kane said sales of the low-carb choices have sold better than expected.
"An awful lot of people are losing weight on this," he said. "If somebody finds something that works, they're going to go with it."
While other chains, such as McDonald's, Wendy's, Jack in the Box and Del Taco, don't yet offer Atkins-approved items, they say the low-carb diet is easy to achieve.
Simply request the burger or chicken sandwich without a bun -- in the case of Del Taco or Taco Bell, ask for a burrito in a bowl instead of wrapped in a tortilla -- and chow on a carb-friendly meal.
"A lot of (Del Taco's) consumers are pretty savvy right now," Lopez said. "A lot of customers order burritos and basically don't eat the tortilla and we'll serve the beans on the side.
"There are many different things you can do on our menu."
Added Finn: "No matter what you're hungry for, you're pretty likely to find something you'll enjoy on our menu."
archive
