Perkins fills a menu gap with launch of quesadillas

When Scott Rodriguez was brought on as head of culinary last year for Perkins American Food Co., he took a hard look at the chain’s menu, analyzing places where he had “license to play.”

He noticed a gap in handhelds, appetizers and items that could span the dayparts. “Quesadillas hit all three,” he said. “There’s a breakfast version, shareable versions and they can be geared for portability.”

He didn’t have to look very far to find a starting point. Since the pandemic, Perkins had been operating a virtual brand called Papa Corazon’s Quesadillas (PCQ) under Atlanta-based parent company Ascent. That menu offered everything from All-American Breakfast Quesadillas to Chicken Bacon Ranch and Steak Fajita.

“We were doing some good transactions there but we found the quesadillas were a bit operationally complex,” said Rodriguez. “They were almost ‘taco-esque’ and I wanted something that looked more like a traditional folded-over quesadilla. So we revamped that platform, taking the learnings we had from the PCQ world and applying them to Perkins’ innovation.”

The revamp began by streamlining the builds. Perkins was already using tortillas for its Strawberry Cream Cheese Crispers breakfast item and dessert, but it was a different size than the eight-inch product sourced for PCQ’s quesadillas. Rodriguez now brings in the same six-inch flour tortilla for both, which works well for the Perkins platform. “Two six-inch tortillas are cut into four pieces for each serving of quesadillas,” he said.

Two additional SKUs were brought in to launch the quesadilla platform. Salsa is served on the side, but some locations didn’t have it in inventory, so a supply had to be ordered for those restaurants. And the team developed a new Cheeseburger Quesadilla that required Worcestershire sauce.

The Cheeseburger Quesadilla was a "wild card" that won fans.

There’s a story behind that Cheeseburger Quesadilla, Rodriguez said. “We put that up as a wild card. During the innovation process, we were kind of messing around a little bit, and there’s an old California taco place that does a cheeseburger taco,” he said. “We played around with the idea, and that quesadilla turned out to be a team favorite.”

The Worcestershire goes into a house-made burger sauce that flavors the filling of seasoned ground beef, onions, tomatoes, American cheese and pickles. It was popular in test, too. “People come in and think, “I don't want to a six-ounce burger with a bun, but I want a burger experience,’ and this [lighter] quesadilla does it,” he explained.

The top seller in test was the Chicken Bacon Ranch Quesadilla, a combo of grilled chicken, bacon, ranch dressing and melted American cheese. Coming in at No. 2 was the Breakfast Quesadilla filled with scrambled eggs, melted American cheese and a choice of bacon, sausage or ham.

Rounding out the launch is a Steak/Chicken Fajita Quesadilla with fajita-seasoned protein, onions, green bell peppers and American cheese. All the variations are served all day and targeted to any meal occasion.

Rodriguez didn’t want to tie up Perkins’ griddles with quesadillas since pancake orders can come in at a fast clip at certain times of the day and griddle space is precious. So originally, he minimized the amount of cooking on the line, moving some quesadilla steps to prep.

But feedback from the restaurant teams revealed it wasn’t hard to actually cook the quesadillas to order and it eliminated some of the preparation time of reheating fillings, reforming and assembling. “We evolved the recipes so everything's cooked to order, right on the griddle and then assembled,” he said, “and our flavor scores actually went up a bit because everything tastes fresher. That was really good feedback from our franchise partners and our corporate stores.”

Currently, Perkins is offering the quesadillas in a limited-time window, priced between $12.99 and $18.19 for a platter with a side of potatoes.

The R&D pipeline is filled with other options, including some that didn’t make the cut the first time around. A Buffalo Chicken Quesadilla rated high with consumers, but internal taste panels were not as keen on the idea, said Rodriguez.

The culinary team also developed a vegetarian option that didn’t get to the launching stage. “We might have to do some things differently, maybe bring in a different vegetable to accomplish this,” he said. “We also tried a couple of breakfast quesadilla variations, but the final one—cheesy scrambled eggs—is very straightforward and people really liked it,” he said.

Perkins is fine-tuning its cold brew platform.

Although the quesadillas are targeted to different dayparts and all-day items continue to be a focus, Rodriguez admits that breakfast is still Perkins’ sweet spot. “If we’re not great at breakfast, we’re not going to be great at anything,” he said.

He’s leaning into breakfast innovation with items like the Pie Pancakes introduced earlier this year in Wildberry, Caramel Apple and Chocolate French Silk flavors. Rodriguez also has a new lineup of Benedicts and omelets set to launch in test in about a month. And evergreen seasonal items are a priority, such as Strawberry Pancakes in late spring, Key Lime in the summer, and Pumpkin Pancakes in the fall.

To stay competitive in the segment, Perkins is also in the process of fine-tuning its cold brew platform to put in test. “Quesadillas and coffee are probably not something I would think of introducing together, so that's why we broke it up a little bit,” said Rodriguez.

Pat plans and executes menu, food and drink stories for Restaurant Business and hosts the weekly Menu Talk podcast. She provides in-depth coverage of chefs, trends and menu innovation.