As if 2020 couldn't get any weirder: Iron Hill Brewery & Restaurant now has Flamin' Hot Cheetos on its menu.
While Iron Hill's new menu calls the snack a "hot crunch topping" atop its new macaroni and cheese dish, make no mistake: it's actually the popular spicy snack sold at gas stations and convenience stores across the country.
Iron Hill's Senior Regional Chef Dan Bethard, who was the debut executive chef at their first location in Newark when it opened in 1996, knows better than anyone about how a Cheetos-covered macaroni and cheese dish sticks out when it comes to Iron Hill's nearly 25-year culinary history.
PIZZA, PIZZA!: This long-gone Delaware pizza is back & it's helping save a family-owned restaurant
"We were just shooting the breeze in the kitchen and thought, what about Flamin' Hot Cheetos on top? The flavors work," he says. "And when it comes to the look of it — some master chef's must be rolling around in their chairs or graves — but the color popped. It's just fun."
And, yes, not everyone was on board right away. After all, this is the place that used to serve $29.50 ribeye steaks and $27 Eastern Shore crab cake entrees.
"There were some people in the room that kind of rolled their eyes and had to be talked into it," Bethard says.
ALSO NEW: A FRIED CHICKEN SANDWICH
The very un-Iron Hill item is part of a new, smaller menu rolled out last month, which focuses a bit more on comfort foods. Not only is there increased demand for those foods during these anxious times, they are also easier for a scaled-down kitchen staff to prepare.
Before coronavirus, Iron Hill's comfort casual-with-a-twist menu boasted about 65 items. The new menu has about 45.
In addition to the Firecracker Mac & Cheese with its cavatappi pasta and cheese blend ($12.70), all Iron Hill locations now also offer an item that gained major fast food buzz thanks to Popeye's last summer: a fried chicken sandwich ($13.70) on a potato roll topped with IPA Sriracha ranch or Korean barbecue sauce if you want it spicy.
Other popular new items include an array of tacos, including carne asada ($13.30), buffalo cauliflower ($12.70) and chicken fajita-style ($13.30). A new Taco Tuesday night has been launched, allowing taco fans to mix-and-match, along with a special featured taco each week.
Items that got the heave-ho (for now) include soups such as Louisiana chicken gumbo, mesclun salad, chicken pot pie and jägerschnitzel, which will return for Oktoberfest.
BARTENDER STORIES: Tales from the Rail: Bartending stories with Catherine Rooney's Karl Dettbarn
Not surprisingly, the restaurant's longtime most popular item, cheesesteak egg rolls ($12.50), remain on the menu and also remain the restaurant's best seller.
Pizzas and hamburgers are selling best during the pandemic, Bethard says, more so than entrees.
EVERYTHING IS $20 OR LESS
Iron Hill had been offering a slimmed-down take-out menu focusing on pizzas, hamburgers and sandwiches when the dining room was closed in mid-March. Once diners were allowed back in, restaurant officials began crafting the new menu to expand on the easy-to-make, in-demand foods that people want.
Plus, due to the economic uncertainty, they decided to make every item on the menu $20 or cheaper.
A side effect of coronavirus precautions is actually making things easier when it comes to the menu. The chain no longer offers reusable, laminated menus at their tables, allowing the restaurant to be more adventurous with its offerings.
Instead of a physical menu, patrons use their phones to scan a QR code that downloads their menus onto the screen. Without thousands of printed menus out there, officials can experiment a bit and not incur the costs of reprinting menus if something bombs.
"We can pivot and change," Bethard says. "We're not locked in."
And make no mistake, it would be a lot of menus since the chain now has 17 East Coast locations from Philadelphia to Greenville, South Carolina. (Coronavirus has slowed their goal of 20 locations by the end of this year, though Iron Hill is still expected to expand into Georgia.)
The first Iron Hill Brewery restaurant opened 24 years ago on Main Street in Newark and the chain also has Delaware locations on Wilmington's Riverfront and on Route One near Rehoboth Beach.
Getting creative in the age of coronavirus is nothing new for Iron Hill.
CRAFT ALCOHOL: They are the only two Black owners of craft alcohol businesses in Delaware. Nationally, it's just as white.
When restaurant dining rooms were ordered shuddered, Iron Hill brought back their pizzas, along with a two-pizza-and-a-growler deal for $25. And since essential items were hard to come by at the time, they also sold everything from toilet paper and paper towels to milk, butter and eggs.
Make-at-home meal kits were also rolled out, ranging from steak and ribs to pizza and tacos ($20-$40).
COMPETITION GETTING HIT HARD
As USA TODAY reported last week, casual dining chains were already facing the rise of fast-casual competition and increased food costs before COVID-19.
"Now, several of the largest restaurant companies in the U.S. are struggling with capacity restrictions on indoor dining and attempting to lure customers with takeout in a bid to avoid financial disaster," the newspaper reported, noting that the owners of chains such as Outback Steakhouse, Applebee’s and The Cheesecake Factory are on a newly updated list of national restaurants that are facing the highest likelihood of not paying back their debts.
California Pizza Kitchen has already filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection and will close some locations.
While some of those same pressures face Iron Hill, Bethard says the Delaware-born chain is in a good position to weather the pandemic.
"We're really well situated to withstand what is going on," he says, adding that vendors have been understanding about payment timelines. "We're not going to go out of business."
Got a tip? Contact Ryan Cormier of The News Journal at rcormier@delawareonline.com or (302) 324-2863. Follow him on Facebook (@ryancormier), Twitter (@ryancormier) and Instagram (@ryancormier).
"dish" - Google News
August 17, 2020 at 04:03PM
https://ift.tt/2Y7Ir65
Mac & cheese with Flamin' Hot Cheetos is now a thing at this well-known Delaware restaurant - The News Journal
"dish" - Google News
https://ift.tt/2MXZLF4
No comments:
Post a Comment