Fall Foods Making Their Way onto Restaurant Menus

Offering seasonal menu items is a great way to add some diversity, spice, and refreshment to your restaurant’s offerings. As fall rolls around and the temperature starts dropping, people tend to gravitate towards warm, nourishing dishes and robust, hearty flavors. Here are a few food items that will compliment your restaurant’s fall menu nicely.

Restaurants Offer More than just Pumpkin

Pumpkin dishes and pumpkin flavored drinks are the first thing people usually think of in terms of autumn foods. While pumpkin does add a great list of flavorful options, it’s important not to overlook all of the other tasty menu items the squash family has to offer. For instance, butter nut squash can be made into a delicious semi-freddo topped with salted orange caramel or turned into a nourishing butternut and apple harvest soup.

Blue Hubbard squash can be mixed with pureed chestnuts, topped with whipped cream, and served over smoked vanilla ice cream to make a tantalizing dessert. Acorn squash can be stuffed with broccoli, cheese, turkey sausage, rice, and apples to make a delicious dinner entree. Spaghetti squash can be mixed with garlic, onions, zucchini, bell pepper, tomato, and feta cheese to make a stomach-rumbling primavera. The squash family offers an incredible diversity of flavors and options and offers a simple way to easily add fantastic autumnal dishes to your menu.

Autumn Meats to Add to Your Restaurant Menu

There are a number of meats that make excellent fall menu selections. Duck is an obvious one – and a smart choice all around since duck sales have risen 7% between January and June of this year alone. Duck tacos, Peking duck, and duck salad were particular sales drivers for this period. When chicken wing prices shot up earlier this year, a number of restaurants turned to duck wings as a cheaper alternative as well.

Aside from duck, all other types of game meat make fall-appropriate choices as well. Consider such tasty treats as venison chili, bacon-wrapped grilled elk backstraps, spicy orange bison balls, or braised wild boar with sauerkraut. Wild game makes an exotic and taste-bud pleasing menu item perfectly appropriate for drawing autumn eaters.

Think Bold, Spicy, Belly-Warming Flavors for Fall Restaurant Foods

Pretty much anything that has a bold, spicy, or belly-warming flavor is going to be a hit for fall menu choices. Some restaurants meet this flavor craving by featuring lesser known ethnic foods like that found from the Lao or Issan regions. Think grilled meat with sour-spicy dipping sauces, marinated grilled chicken, and sticky rice or som tam, a green papaya salad with rising popularity. Other restaurants focus more on offering comfort foods such as hearty and flavorful soups, chili, and meats with diverse flavor combinations. Think honey-glazed pork chops, grilled bacon jalapeno wraps, or cranberry, sausage, and apple stuffing.

Whichever your choice, make sure to add your seasonal menu items to your marketing messages. People love to try something new and have the opportunity to try something that is only available for a limited time, so make sure to tout your autumn menu selections proudly!

Tags: fall menu items, restaurant management, restaurant menu, seasonal eating