Beyond the Basics

Executive Chef Luke Belsito enhances Red Robin's signature burgers while adding creative and ethnic accents.

Chain Leader

Monica Rogers
Contributing Editor

Red Robin is one persistent bird. Like Old Testament Moses beating at the rock 'til it yields sweet water, Red Robin Gourmet Burgers has never stopped hammering on industry basics: great food, fun atmosphere, excellent service.

Serious intent to deliver on all fronts has increased comparable-store sales; at press time, they are tracking 6 percent over the prior year. And Red Robin's core audience of teens and tweens and their moms didn't bat an eye when the chain raised prices 3 percent.

"Red Robin's success at tapping into the teen/tween market has meant they've been able to take a fair amount of price increases without detriment," says Jonathan Waite, vice president of equity research and a restaurant analyst with KeyBanc Capital Markets in El Segundo, Calif.

Now managing the food piece of the food-fun-service triad, Red Robin's new culinary pilot is Executive Chef Luke Belsito. On board at the 254-unit, Greenwood Village, Colo.-based chain since June 2004, Belsito has gotten over initial trepidation about tinkering with a machine that's far from broken.

"This concept is so strong and does so many things well, I was almost hesitant to scrutinize or tear things up to make room for new ideas," he confesses. Still, "[Executive Vice President of Operations] Bob Merullo's charge to me was to make the food better, and when you dig down deep, there's always room for improvement."

Belsito's goal is to stay straight on course with the basics, "consistently offering fresh, relevant and operationally achievable dishes," looking for new opportunities along the way. The first four items he launched on test menus in November illustrate how he hopes to take classics in new directions.

New Bowl of Red

Chili, for example, has been on and off menus since the '60s, but past versions didn't stick. Guests were interested in chili, but geographical preferences ran hot. That's all changed with Belsito's new version: Red's Homemade Chili Chili, $2.99 cup and $4.99 bowl. The medium-heat chili includes red beans, beef, tomato, onion, garlic and a three-pepper seasoning blend of chipotle, poblano and chili powders. Finding just the right mix of ingredients took several focus groups and hours in the kitchen, Belsito says.

"One-hundred percent of the customers—young, old, men, women, all U.S. regions—that sampled it in focus-group testing said they loved it and would purchase it if offered on the menu," says Vice President of Marketing Dwayne Chambers.

Test menus also feature chili in the appetizer section: Chili Chili Nachos, $7.99, 12 house-made white-corn tortilla chips topped with cheddar and pepper Jack cheeses, chili and jalapeños, on a bed of lettuce with fresh guacamole, sour cream and salsa; and Loaded Chili Chili Cheese Fries, $6.46, chili, cheddar and pepper Jack cheeses, bacon, jalapeños, green onions and a side of ranch dressing.

At first the idea of a more contemporary, plated presentation for the nachos met with some resistance from top brass. "We didn't think it would work," says Chambers. "We'd had a lot of success with our nachos—a huge pile of chips with toppings on top." But preliminary focus groups showed that "customers actually preferred the plated idea, which ensures that everyone gets everything on each chip," he says. "That's where we're so thankful for Luke's fresh vision. He can look past our preconceptions to take us to a new place."

Chili also comes on the chain's newest signature burger. Meant to be tackled with a fork and knife, the Chili Chili Cheeseburger, $7.99, is 6 ounces of fresh grilled beef served open-faced on a chipotle-mayo-slathered bun with chili, cheddar cheese and red onion.

Healthful Wraps and Patties

Belsito is testing two more dishes with classic tastes, these with a creative, healthful spin: the BBQ Chicken Wrap, $7.99, and the Turkey Club Burger, $7.99. While it's too soon to release sales figures, Chambers says focus groups gave the products 100 percent scores for presentation and scores in the upper 90s for taste, with 70 percent saying they would definitely purchase the burger again and 80 percent saying they would definitely purchase the wrap again.

The BBQ Chicken Wrap has temporarily replaced the Caesar's Chicken Wrap as No. 2 in its category. The sandwich wraps charbroiled barbecue chicken breast, ranch dressing, crisp tortilla strips, cheddar cheese and shredded lettuce in a fresh spinach tortilla.

"We've done some other wraps in the past," Belsito explains. "But we're still trying to find the right flavors to make a new burrito classic. This may be it."

Inspiration for the BBQ Chicken Wrap came from unit-level workers. Says Belsito: "Team members are always playing around with ingredients. You've got to pay attention to that. This was one of those combinations team members were making for themselves to eat on their lunch breaks."

The Turkey Club Burger, a seasoned fresh-ground turkey patty broiled and topped with sliced avocado, hickory-smoked bacon, Monterey Jack cheese, tomatoes, lettuce and mayo, represents Red Robin's first alternate to its standard grilled turkey burger. "The club version just gives them an alternative—one more way to enhance the brand's healthful offerings," Belsito says."

Burger Bailiwick

But Red Robin's bailiwick is still solidly burgers, crucial to the chain's continued success, according to Waite. "They should keep doing what they're doing. Unlike other bar and grill establishments and casual-dining restaurants, Red Robin really owns the burger category," he says. "Their competitors may only have a few burger offerings, compared with dozens from Red Robin. Having so many gives them room to play around a bit with flavors and toppings."

"Playing around" means burgers with American regional, Asian and Italian tastes. The current choices include the Banzai Burger, $7.99, teriyaki-marinated beef topped with grilled pineapple, cheddar cheese, lettuce, tomato and mayo; and the Santa Fe Burger, $8.29, fire-roasted poblano pepper, guacamole, sauteed onions, house-made fried tortilla strips and pepper Jack cheese with ancho-chile mayo and cilantro on a caramelized-onion bun.

The "Adventuresome" varieties include two turkey burgers, a no-bun option and tempura-battered cod. The chicken burgers, which use charbroiled or breaded breast fillets, include Southwestern, Californian, Asian and Italian options.

Beyond variety, Belsito says food safety and quality are also important factors in ensuring that Red Robin continues to "own" the burger category. The 20 million pounds of fresh, never-frozen meat the chain uses each year is tested microbially at the grinding operation, distributed on refrigerated trucks, monitored electronically during shipment, and held for review of the temperature-data log for compliance before being accepted.

Nearly as important, burger buns such as onion rolls and yellow-seeded buns have been an obsession with the concept's founder, President, Chairman and CEO Mike Snyder. "He grew up in the bakery business and has inspired an unbridled passion not only for best burger buns but for quality ingredients throughout the system," Belsito says. "It's part of our culture operationally to inspect the quality of our products and ingredients multiple times a day in every restaurant."

No Silver Bullets

As solid as Red Robin's burger basics may be, Belsito is plotting new ways to cancel veto votes. "We're going to explore every menu trend and hot flavor trend out there. We're not looking for the next silver bullet, just trying to find ways we can stay close to our customers' needs and wants."

Following the success of items such as the $9.29 Baja Fish Taco entree that Red Robin tested in spring 2003 and again last fall, new items will include regional American flavors and ethnic accents from Asia, South America and Europe.

Others may come as Red Robin leans toward bringing ovens into the equipment lineup—a significant move for the chain, which has primarily relied upon its customized conveyor broiler and deep-fat fryers. "We've been trying to figure out a way to be competitive with barbecue ribs, a staple in casual dining," Belsito explains. "We've tried to sell them in the past but with our current kitchen design, just didn't have the tools to deliver."

Ovens would also allow unit staff to prepare the chain's pot roast, "as well as opening up the possibility to do everything from rice to toasting our own croutons to brownie desserts," he says.

Belsito also looks forward to continued beverage development, augmenting popular selections such as Prickly Pear Limeade, $3.79, pear-flavored syrup mixed with lemon-lime soda, lime syrup and fresh-squeezed limes, and drinkable desserts. "When I first came, I thought dessert sales seemed low," Belsito says. "But then I saw our huge sales of Monster shakes and malts, and everything made sense."

Longstanding Affinities

Belsito says his move to join Red Robin was a "welcome step" in a career that has included a wide variety of independent and chain concepts. A 1987 Culinary Institute of America grad with grandmothers who were "great at throwing parties," a grandfather who enjoyed fishing and a father in the meat industry, Belsito says he grew up "rolling Swedish meatballs and helping grandfather skin flounder and shell crabs."

His culinary background has included chef jobs at independent restaurants and resorts as well as numerous product-development positions at chains including Shoney's, Perkins, Bennigan's and Brinker International's Cozymel's.

"From the start, I absolutely loved the restaurant environment," he recalls. "Lots of people, lots of noise. Everything from working in the busy kitchen to talking to servers and interacting with guests in the bustling dining room."

Belsito develops new dishes for Red Robin's 60-plus-item menu at a unit near headquarters. About 30 dishes are mainstays, leaving room for Belsito to incorporate potential new items or limited-time offers. The company has four test menus each year and introduces new menus as needed, usually about twice a year.

To keep close tabs on customer preferences, Belsito uses Red Robin's "E-Club"—several hundred thousand guests who receive e-mails from the company. "We used that group to send out questionnaires on potential new menu products," he says. "Would this be something your family would eat? Questions like that."

Along with recipe development, Belsito is eager to mentor his team, which consists of a culinary manager and four regional kitchen managers, as well as unit employees, just as chefs such as Anthony Seta mentored him. "Tony was my supervisor at Perkins," he says. "He's an extremely gifted chef who believes in food that is pure, flavorful, simple, vibrant and classic—all beliefs that I share. He taught me how to bake and influenced me greatly in teaching me new ways to teach people to cook.

"And the best way is the old-fashioned way: getting out in the field with people, doing lots of show-and-tells," Belsito says. "If we're going to be able to continue to execute every day, that's the way it's going to happen."