Restaurants roll out sweet LTOs for the morning daypart.
If consumers can eat breakfast any time of day, they can also eat dessert for breakfast. While sweet, indulgent items have long been a mainstay on many morning menus, some operators are finding new ways to tap into consumer demands for fun, delightful breakfast items. Many are leveraging limited time offers to attract these diners and to drive repeat visits.
Many of the recent sweet breakfast LTOs have a seasonal theme of fall flavors. Eggs Up Grill launched Pumpkin Praline Pancakes after Labor Day, and the menu item quickly rose to be a top 10 overall entrée on the menu and the top-selling sweet item. The Pumpkin Praline Pancakes feature pumpkin spice, cinnamon, and pralines, and are topped with a cinnamon glaze, whipped cream, and cinnamon sugar.
“Pumpkin spice pancakes are always one of our most popular seasonal items,” says Dustin Ellis, director of product development at the Spartanburg, South Carolina-based Eggs Up Grill. “We’ve offered these for several years because guests and franchise partners ask for them each year.” The pralines and cinnamon glaze were new this year.
Ellis says Eggs Up Grill sells about twice as many Pumpkin Praline Pancakes as the second favorite sweet entrée, Caramel Apple Pancakes. In a few locations, the brand is testing house-made croissant style donuts that are fried and topped with powdered sugar and a caramel drizzle.
The new menu items are a result of consumer and franchise research. “Through feedback and reviews, we’ve seen guests comment on the craveability of these dishes,” Ellis says. “We’re offering something unique that guests can’t get anywhere else.” Beverages can also satisfy a sweet tooth, and the Smores Cold Brew Latte has flavors of chocolate, marshmallows, and graham crackers, and is meant to evoke time spent with family and friends around a campfire.
Just as dessert-like menu items can be ordered at breakfast, some breakfasts can be ordered as dessert. Ellis says Eggs Up Grill also worked with franchise partners to develop dessert waffles as local daily specials. The waffles are topped with candies or sugary cereals, and designed to be shared around the table or enjoyed individually.
Sweet sales
Further blurring the dessert and breakfast segments, IHOP launched Waffle Sundaes, which are Belgian waffle quarters topped with vanilla ice cream, chocolate syrup, whipped topping, and fresh strawberries or dulce de leche caramel sauce. Other items on the fall menu announcement included Belgian waffles with sweet flavors like Strawberry Cheesecake or OREO Cookie Crumble. The Glendale, California-based IHOP also offers Pumpkin Spice Cold Foam Cold Brew, Pumpkin Spice Pancakes, and a biscuit menu that includes the Fresh Strawberries & Cream Biscuit, which is split and filled with cheesecake mousse, fresh strawberries, old-fashioned syrup, whipping topping, and powdered sugar.
“IHOP understands guests have an endless list of decisions to make when they are hungry: where to eat, whether to eat in or dine out, and even what to order,” an IHOP spokesperson says “IHOP has been on a journey to rethink its breakfast lineup.”
Even pie can be breakfast. At Ruby Slipper, the fall menu includes Apple Pie Pancakes, which are topped with a cinnamon sugar pie crust, house-made apple pie filling, apple vanilla crème, whipped cream, cinnamon, and powdered sugar. The all-day brunch concept also serves Pumpkin Marshmallow Stuffed French Toast stuffed with pumpkin cheesecake and topped with praline sauce, marshmallow crème, spiced candied pecans, and powdered sugar.
“The inspiration came from two of our favorite pie—pumpkin and apple,” says Marla Chua, culinary operations partner for the New Orleans-based Ruby Slipper. “We really wanted to create the apple pie pancakes as close to eating an actual apple pie as possible. Adding a baked pie crust as a layer on top of the pancakes and adding Apple Vanilla crème is really reminiscent of a warm apple pie topped with melting vanilla ice cream.”
The brand also launched Pumpkin Marshmallow Beignets, which have pumpkin cheesecake, praline sauce, marshmallow crème, and are topped with spiced candied pecans and powdered sugar. “Offering dessert-like items for breakfast is fun and a sweet start of any day, especially if it’s a dessert they enjoy or crave,” Chua says. “People may also choose dessert-like items for breakfast for nostalgic reasons.”
Balancing act
Apple pie is also an inspiration for breakfast at Wild Eggs. The Stacked Apple Pie French Toast, which has apple streusel, whipped cream, powdered sugar, and cinnamon, was the top-selling item in the LTO menu that ran through mid-October. LTOs at the Louisville, Kentucky-based brand always include a sweet item to balance the savory items. “Most of our menu items are savory anyway with the exception of pancakes, French toast and waffles,” says Robert Tyler, corporate executive chef. “It balances the menus, and we have success with that.”
Sweet breakfasts have always been popular, Tyler says, and now the trend is to combine flavors. “People are moving towards combination sweet and spicy, sweet and savory, and sweet and salty,” he says. The next LTO will offer Bacon Caramel French Toast for the sweet breakfast item.
Customers at Snooze, an A.M. Eatery, can satisfy their desire for a sweet and savory breakfast with the Pancake Flight, which features three pancakes including Pineapple Upside Down, Blueberry Danish, and Sweet Potato. For five or six weeks during the fall, the Denver-based brand offers Pumpkin Pecan Pie, which contains vanilla cream cheese filling, caramel sauce, sweet cream, and candied pecans, instead of Sweet Potato.
“Pancakes serve as a platform,” says Andrew Jaffe, Snooze’s chief marketing officer. “They have been a canvas for us to be creative, and to dial in the sweet and savory piece.”
For consumers leaning more toward sweet than savory, there is the OMG! French Toast, which is brioche stuffed with house-made mascarpone and topped with vanilla crème, caramel, fresh strawberries, and toasted coconut. The popular menu item fills another consumer demand, for sharable plates. “It’s an experience that guests are seeking,” Jaffe says. “Post-Covid people are wanting to have connections over food, and they want experiences.”
Providing experiences is part of Snooze’s identity. “I think there is a cultural truth around guests wanting unique experiences from the culinary side of the menu, and I also think there is cultural truth of experience as it relates to the vibe,” Jaffe says. “Certainly, the menu reinforces the cultural phenomenon that people are seeking through the vibe and also through food.”
