Dive Brief:
- Walk-On’s Sports Bistreaux revamped its menu with new items, enhanced guest favorites and six new signature cocktails, the company wrote in an email to Restaurant Dive.
- The company also refreshed the look and feel of its menu with a new layout that highlights signature items and includes stronger visual elements like logos, fonts and colors.
- Walk-On’s menu update coincides with a growth push. This year, the chain plans to open its first corporate-owned locations in the Atlanta area, marking the first time it is opening new company-owned locations since 2016. It also signed a franchise deal to build 20 units using a smaller prototype.
Dive Insight:
Walk-On’s joins a growing list of casual chains that have remade their menus to boost guest traffic and sales.
Perkins will open a flagship in Orlando, Florida, on March 19 that features new menu items and cocktails. Last year, Maggiano’s added new items like Rigatoni a la Vodka that helped drive sales. Red Lobster, which emerged from Chapter 11 last year, also overhauled its menu, bringing back old favorites like hush puppies and popcorn shrimp, and added seven new dishes.
Walk-On’s menu changes followed a brand study and the creation of a clear definition of its target audience — the sports enthusiast and the team mom/family decision maker — a spokesperson wrote in an email.
The chain also researched what it could add or delete from its menu and how best to organize the menu. This research included a heat map study to figure out the best way to draw consumers’ attention to premium, signature items. Several categories were also renamed to better resonate with guests. For example, the “Louisiana Classics” category was renamed “Seafood Specialties.”
Based on consumer feedback and data, Walk-On’s removed dishes that were not performing well, reengineered some items like Devils on Horseback and Peperjack Boudinand added new items.
Walk-On’s menu includes new cocktails, like the Spicy Mango Margarita and Praline Espresso Martini; the latter is “an ode to Walk-On’s Louisiana roots by combining the sweet and savory taste of Pralines,” the company said. Other new cocktails include Eye of the Hurricane, Strawberry Lemon Drop Martini, The O-Line and the Watermelon Margarita.
“We have spent countless hours in our test kitchen perfecting new items that represent the best of our brand,” CEO Chris Porcelli said in a statement.
