Pacific Catch
Menu Strategy / Recipe & Product Development / Menu Engineering
Co-founded in 2003 with TCE CEO, Aaron Noveshen, we like to think of Pacific Catch not just as a long-time client, but as a sister restaurant.
10%
SALES INCREASE45+
NEW PRODucTS100%
Sustainable seafood“An opportunity for innovation.”
The Opportunity.
From helping pioneer the poke trend to becoming a leader in sustainable seafood sourcing practices, we’re continually innovating and evolving our brand and offerings to keep up with our customers changing tastes. But by our ten year anniversary, we observed that our once highly differentiated offering of poke was becoming ubiquitous and the emerging fast casual competition had begun to erode our market share. To stay relevant, profitable, and delicious, it was going to take more than a few new menu items.
Our Insights.
In 2017, we embarked on a deeper repositioning of the brand and along with it an evolution of the offering. To truly deliver on our “Westcoast Fish House” we needed refreshed forms and ideas and a comprehensive evolution of our sourcing practices. We needed to leverage our capabilities to deliver an offering that would stand out in the marketplace while better delivering on our positioning.
Our Activities.
By balancing familiarity with adventure and on-trend forms, we maximized the appeal of our menu. Among several new category introductions, legacy item optimizations and an evolved fresh catch program, we introduced "Fish Bar"; our Westcoast take of the classic raw bar. This took our poke expertise to the next level with the addition of ceviches, tatakis, and seafood cocktails - presented in show-stopping towers.
“We also overhauled our complete plateware line and re-plated every item on the menu.”
We also overhauled our complete plateware line and re-plated every item on the menu to enhance value and instagramability.
But we didn’t stop there. A pro-active analysis to optimize our margin, vigilance against the creep of complexity, and continual simplification of the operational flow allowed us to balance profitability with guest desirability. Following a thorough analysis of which items and combinations drove business revenue and guest satisfaction, we evolved the menu categories to improve both average check/margin and product quality.
We reduced menu size and complexity by reducing category depth and breadth, reducing unique ingredients, along with low selling and low margin items. Finally, we prototyped a new kitchen design to optimize for maximum efficiency and consistency in execution.
The outcome.
Since the launch of the evolved menu in 2018, store sales were trending at +10% YOY (pre-COVID-19), in the top 90th percentile of industry performance. And we’re still going. This allows for the greatest brand expansion in company history. In addition to the work we’ve done, we plan to increase unit count by 60% in the coming 24 months and enter new markets.
