FSR July 2023

“There’s a whole lot of fried goodness on that plate, and that seems to be something people crave late at night... Appetizers have always proved to be popular with this crowd.”

the clock for labor purposes, they could still go and whip things up themselves.” He says the good news for a concept like Big Whiskey’s is late-night custom ers typically aren’t looking for heavy plates with large portions—which is why the company is leaning into popular appetizers with featured discounts for shareable options. “Old-school staples” like beer cheese pretzels and nachos resonate with late-night guests, Sundy notes. Another standout item on the updated menu is Bu alo Chicken Won ton Nachos, which features crispy won ton chips topped with bu alo chicken dip, melted mozzarella cheese, and gor gonzola cheese crumbles. “Wonton chips are wildly popular at our stores, so we’ve taken those and turned them into nacho appetizers, which is a great nontradi tional spin that gives it a little more of a gourmet twist,” he says. Big Whiskey’s is also leaning into craft cocktails like its Blood Orange Whiskey Sour, which combines bourbon with sweet and sour mix, blood orange fruit puree, and simple syrup, garnished with an orange wheel and a Filthy Black Cherry. “With late-night in the summer time, people are looking for drinks that are a little bit nicer, but still approachable and cost e ective,” Sundy says. “What’s worked really well for us is adding a happy hour price range with discounted beers while still featuring a gourmet cocktail.” For Norms Restaurants, a new late night menu is part of a broader strat egy to get more stores back to 24/7 ser vice. e diner chain—founded in 1949 in Los Angeles, California, by used-car salesman Norm Roybark—is known for staying open around the clock, but a restrictive labor pool made those hours unfeasible during the pandemic. David Cox, executive chef and director of pur chasing at Norms, says stores that o er late-night service outperform those with limited operating hours. Getting more of its 22 restaurants open around the clock has been a key priority for the company. It’s also proved to be a signi cant chal lenge in the wake of COVID-19. “Coming out of the pandemic, it’s been increas ingly di cult to sta our restaurants,

NORMS IS TRYING TO GET ALL ITS STORES BACK TO BEING OPEN 24/7, AND IS USING ITS NEW LATE-NIGHT MENU TO ATTRACT MORE CUSTOMERS.

NORMS RESTAURANTS

especially for the late-night and grave yard shifts,” Cox says. “As we’ve been catching up on our hiring, we realized we needed to simplify things.” Typically, with late-night, Norms is down to just one or two cooks. “Instead of three di erent stations on the cook line, we tried to think about ways we can close up one of the stations and execute everything from the remaining two sta tions, which limits the amount of steps and the amount of movement,” Cox says. e company revamped its late-night menu using a Dog Star report, which segments menu items into stars, work horses, and dogs. ose insights led to an updated program centered around what Cox calls “the greatest boots.” ere’s classic breakfast items, like omelets, French toast, and waffles, along with the Lumberjack Breakfast, which comes with three hotcakes, three eggs, three strips of bacon, and three sausage links. “We also included things that we felt would appeal to the late-night customer

base, which includes a lot of people com ing out of bars and clubs,” Cox says. “Over the top” menu items like a Jala peno Bacon Cheeseburger and a Double Bacon Cheeseburger resonate well with those late-night customers, as well as comfort bites like Cajun Tots. “ ere’s a whole lot of fried goodness on that plate, and that seems to be something people crave late at night,” Cox says. “Appetizers have always proved to be popular with this crowd.” Norms has been returning to 24/7 service on a store-by-store basis, and Cox believes the streamlined menu will help speed up that process. e company has two new restaurants slated to open this year that will o er the late-night menu from the start. “We’ve been around since 1949, and we’re known for being that place that you can go when nobody else is open,” Cox says. “We’re the place you can go in the middle of the night or early in the morning, and we’ve always taken pride in that.”

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FSRMAGAZINE.COM

JULY 2023