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Why the breakfast bowl isn’t just a gimmick

Breakfast is hot. But not just any breakfast. It’s gotta be freshly made, seemingly healthy, served in a bowl and available to go.

What’s an appealing breakfast bowl? Make the item stand out on the menu. Take Hyatt Times Square’s T45 restaurant’s bowl, featuring scrambled eggs, chicken sausage, spinach, quinoa, farro, tomato and mushroom — it’s the only time the trendy ancient grains appear at breakfast. Or the La Jolla, California-based Omni La Costa’s breakfast burrito, which comes with three tortillas, allowing guests to fill their own or share. Chefs at each restaurant say these are both top sellers and higher-margin items.

The Talbott’s Green Smoothie Breakfast Bowl
The Talbott’s Green Smoothie Breakfast Bowl

Contributed by Debbie Carlson 

Breakfast bowls can offer guests compelling options versus local fare. “It’s about providing a much higher-quality product” than the coffee shop around the corner, says Toni Stoeckl, global brand leader and vice president, distinctive select service brands for Marriott International’s Aloft brand, about its Re:fuel breakfast pots. The chain offers several items such as freshly poached eggs, avocado and quinoa. Aloft created them to cook in a rapid-cook oven so they don’t need a full-service kitchen.

At Chicago’s Talbott Hotel, 20E Executive Chef Ariel Bagadiong says they can make several servings of their Green Smoothie Breakfast Bowl at once since ingredients can be prepped in advance, and use items like overripe bananas, which improve the taste by increasing sweetness. Bonnie Riggs, restaurant analyst at Port Washington, New York-based NPD Group, says breakfast meals have the strongest consumer growth and people love breakfast bowls that have unique flavor profiles, fresh ingredients, are freshly prepared and portable.

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