Breakfast menu items, generally low in food cost and high in popularity, are getting makeovers at a number of chains.
Family-dining restaurant Shari’s Café and Pies, based in Beaverton, Ore., serves breakfast all day, but is now offering a series of limited-time offers of breakfast items that are popular at dinner. It has even given the concept a name — “brinner,” for breakfast and dinner.
The first brinner is Joe’s Scramble, a breakfast item popular in San Francisco featuring ground beef cooked with spinach and eggs. It’s served over hash browns and sprinkled with Parmesan cheese for $8.99.
Family-dining chain Cracker Barrel also has introduced two limited-time breakfast items available all day, through Feb. 29.
The new items are:
• Sweet potato pancakes topped with brown sugar cinnamon butter and served with a side of syrup, two eggs, and a choice of bacon or pork or turkey sausage patties for $7.69. The pancakes alone are $6.19.
• Blueberries and raspberries in low-fat vanilla yogurt, topped with honey-oat granola mix and almonds, and served with a multi-berry muffin, two eggs and choice of breakfast meat for $7.19.
Hardee’s has added a country fried steak and gravy breakfast platter to its menu. The quick-service chain is offering breaded steak in sausage gravy served with its signature Hash Rounds, eggs and buttermilk biscuit, starting at $2.79.
LaMar’s Donut’s, a 28-unit chain based in Denver, has introduced two whole-grain doughnuts — one cake style and one glazed. The items were introduced for customers looking for more healthful options, the company said in a press release. They are paired with the chain’s “Skinny” beverages, coffee-based drinks with sugar-free flavorings. They are available until March 31; prices vary by location.
Contact Bret Thorn at bret.thorn@penton.com.
Follow him on Twitter: @foodwriterdiary
