Iron Hill Brewery
Menu Evolution | Culinary & Operations
Tapping in: To a More Focused Menu.
70
BPS REDUCTION IN LABOR
COSTS ACROSS ALL UNITS
Menu Masters
NRN’s AWARD FOR BEST
MENU REVAMP OF 2025
33%
FEWER UNHAPPY GUESTS
AFTER MENU EVOLUTION
After 25 years as the East Coast’s most awarded craft brewery, decades of culinary exploration led to an oversized menu that was difficult to navigate and challenging to execute. As Iron Hill planned for growth, they sought to streamline their offering and operations to allow their hard-working staff to hit the bullseye more often, more easily.
The challenge.
The insight.
Anticipating that operational challenges and consumer expectations would only increase, TCE saw an opportunity to return to the brand’s roots. Old school favorites could be forged with new school flair to provide an experience both comforting and contemporary. By applying TCE’s menu engineering principles, Iron Hill could sharpen its focus, improve execution, increase guest satisfaction and reclaim its trailblazer identity.
The work.
Working with Iron Hill’s culinary, operations, and marketing teams, TCE and Iron Hill took the menu from 11 categories to 6, and from 86 dishes to 47; a concise lineup of reimagined classics and 14 new dishes. This not only delivered prep and pantry efficiencies, but also made room to highlight a newly established “Iron Forged” category of favorites from the grill. The smaller menu improved consistency and execution, through streamlined workflows and training. Ingredient cross-utilization reduced waste and complexity, and prep list reduction reduced system-wide labor by 70 basis points.
The evolution was executed in record time - from kick off to roll out in under 16 weeks. Direct leadership engagement ensured fast, effective decision making and execution.
The results.
This transformation paid off with major improvements in guest sentiment and operational performance:
Menu Masters Award – Earned the Nation’s Restaurant News MenuMasters Award for Best Menu Revamp 2025.
33% fewer unhappy guests before/after the evolution, reflecting a dramatic rise in guest satisfaction from better menu clarity, execution, and food quality.
Net neutral unit level food cost despite rising ingredient costs, with no price increases.
70 basis point reduction in labor costs across all units, and removal of 18 hours per week of BOH labor per location.
“The words “collaborative effort” get thrown around all the time, but in the many, many change initiatives I’ve been involved with, this makes it to the top of the list. Imagine going to a new client and telling them, “we’re going to cut your menu down 40%, add some new items to make it more on targeted brand, save 100bps in waste and BOH labor, while coming up with recipes that will improve consistency and thus help you retain more guests - and BTW - We’re going roll it to all of your restaurants within three months of signing the contract.” After their jaws drop, drop the mic with, “well, we just did it so…”
Our revamp will always be one of my most cherished career successes. ”