Organic to Go taps into what a survey says is a growing trend: a desire for heal

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Friday, December 30, 2005

It's fast food, naturally

Organic to Go taps into what a survey says is a growing trend: a

desire for healthful food made fast.

By TIFFANY MONTGOMERY

The Orange County Register

Americans spend nearly 50 percent of their food dollars at

restaurants. And as 2006 arrives, the restaurant industry will be

striving to gain even more market share by focusing on important

consumer trends: a demand for healthful food and a need for

convenience, according to a survey by the National Restaurant

Association.

Organic to Go, which recently opened three locations in Orange

County near or inside office parks, taps into both of those trends.

The company has a mostly organic menu of sandwiches, soups and

salads.

In addition to healthful food, Organic to Go's other major focus is

convenience. It will deliver to offices, birthday parties, churches

and homes – and will even do so on Saturdays.

" Compression of time is one of the challenges all of us face, " Chief

Executive Brown said. " If you put together convenience with

delicious food that happens to be organic, we think that is a

formula people will respond to. "

Organic to Go offers breakfast, lunch and snacks. In mid-January, it

will start selling premade dinners that office workers can grab on

their way home.

The National Restaurant Association found that

• 72 percent of adults say they are trying to make healthier choices

at restaurants. Look for more fast-food restaurants to add entrée

salads and bottled water to menus. Panera Bread, with locations in

Orange, Irvine and Newport Beach, has tapped into this trend by

offering antibiotic-free chicken in sandwiches and salads.

• 34 percent of adults say takeout food is essential to the way they

live. As fast-food and fast-casual restaurants thrive on takeout,

expect more sit-down restaurants in 2006 to expand takeout options.

Curbside service – servers bringing takeout orders to customers'

cars – will be more popular, experts predict. P.F. Chang's,

California Pizza Kitchen, Macaroni Grill and Outback Steakhouse are

some restaurants that offer the service at certain Orange County

locations.

• Other restaurants will make picking up takeout more convenient by

adding separate ordering lines and cash registers for to-go food, in

addition to dedicated parking. At Pomodoro restaurants, for example,

a takeout area is clearly marked with its own workers and cash

register. Takeout sales at full-service restaurants totaled $14

billion in 2004, according to restaurant consulting firm Technomic

Inc.

Restaurants know they have to meet customers' needs because it's too

easy for people to make other meal choices, said Jordan Traverso,

spokeswoman for the California Restaurant Association. Grocery

stores, for example, are greatly expanding prepared food options for

families on the go.

" The restaurant industry is an industry of choice, " Traverso

said. " We have to follow the trends in society to meet the needs of

our customers. "

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