The Greene Turtle
Sales & PMIX Analysis / Recipe & Product Development / Menu Strategy
How do you strike a balance between brand legacy and a vision for the future?
5
WEEKS
12
RECIPES
80%
MOVED INTO
SYSTEM-WIDE ROLLOUT
The Greene Turtle’s is a strong legacy brand with a vibrant history, rooted in its original location at Ocean Beach, Maryland. As the brand expanded, it evolved from a rowdy sports bar to a family-friendly casual dining outfit in suburbia. Its menu grew to accommodate both sports fans and families, becoming too large for the kitchen to execute and creating a sometimes-muddled culinary identity. With sales slumping and guest satisfaction at risk, it was time for the brand to commit to a focused vision for the future with a streamlined, cohesive menu.
The Opportunity.
Our Activities.
Our key insights came from careful menu analysis -- understanding where the brand's key menu credibilities lied and what gaps needed to be filled. The offering had a strong differentiator in its handling of seafood -- in particular crab -- and scratch cooking but failed to address contemporary eating habits in lighter, healthier forms like bowls and sandwiches. Additionally, key sports bar platforms like burgers and wings were not being executed in a way that set the brand apart from competitors.
After immersing in several units and tasting the entire menu, the TCE team performed a detailed menu engineering exercise, making recommendations to keep, optimize, or delete each menu item. We evaluated items on a wide range of quantitative measures - ie. food cost, contribution margin, sales mix, and average quantity sold per day -- and qualitative assessments - ie. brand fit, taste, quality, what guest need states the item fulfilled, ease of execution, and operational complexity.
This exercise provided a strong foundation on top of which to ideate new menu concepts, taking into account where additional need states needed to be addressed and where there was space on the operational platform. With this in mind, we explored the marketplace, benchmarking against and drawing inspiration from sports bar & grille concepts, chain competitors, other Maryland-centric concepts, beer-centric dining, and single platform experts.
The outcome.
We collaborated with The Greene Turtle to re-concept key menu categories -- specifically appetizers & shareables, wings, burgers, and sides, redesigning them to drive attachment, better deliver on brand identity, and provide better value for the consumer. Additionally, we developed a range of healthier items that focused on contemporary, vegetable-forward preparations, and lean proteins. This additive health approach generated craveable items that, while lighter, still fit seamlessly alongside The Greene Turtle’s more indulgent menu.
With TCE’s recipes and plateware recommendations thoughtfully designed for their operational platform and supply chain, The Greene Turtle team was able to launch 12 items into a 10-store test in only 5 weeks. These items were featured alongside a reduced-size, “innovation menu” that has helped to propel sales during COVID-19, despite the loss of the sports programming that TGT has relied on for guest traffic in the past. Over 80% of the items designed by TCE have since been launched system-wide, with our Korean Salmon Bowl and Southwest Steak Bowl being actively used in marketing campaigns that signal a new era for The Greene Turtle.
