WHEN LESS IS MORE
Restaurant portions shrink as customers watch weight, budget
Diners eat March 6 at Cuba Libre restaurant and rum Bar in Philadelphia.
A Ropa Vieja dish from the GLP-Wonderful menu is prepared for serving March 6 at Cuba Libre restaurant and rum Bar in Philadelphia.
A modified menu catering to the dietary needs of people who use GLP-1 weight-loss drugs is displayed March 6 at Cuba Libre restaurant and rum Bar in Philadelphia.
Diners eat March 3 at Barkeaters restaurant in Shelburne, Vt.
A Ropa Vieja dish from Cuba Libre restaurant and rum Bar's standard menu is prepared for serving March 6 at the restaurant in Philadelphia.
DINING
The biggest new restaurant trend is small.
Special menus with petite, less expensive portions are popping up all over, from large chains to trendy urban eateries and farm-to-fork dining rooms.
Restaurants hope smaller servings will meet many different diners' needs. Some people want to spend less when they go out. Others seek healthier options or to lose weight. Younger consumers tend to snack throughout the day and eat smaller meals, said Maeve Webster, president of culinary consulting firm Menu Matters.
"These are really driven by, I think, changes in the way people are thinking about their relationship with food, the way they spend money on food, what is a good value and what's not," she said.
Looking for value
Beth Tipton, co-owner of Daniel Girls Farmhouse Restaurant in Connersville, Indiana, introduced an eight-item Mini Meals menu last fall after several customers requested smaller portions. It includes daily specials like a half piece of meatloaf with green beans, mashed potatoes and gravy for $8, and now accounts for about 20% of the restaurant's orders, she said.
Older adults make up about half of the restaurant's clientele, Tipton said, and some customers told her the regular menu was a stretch for their budgets. As someone who underwent weight-loss surgery, she also knew that many restaurants won't allow adults to order from their children's menus.
"We wanted it to be available to all without the word 'kids meals' attached," Tipton said. "With the rising costs all around us we wanted to help in any way we can, and this is a great option."
Eating out and GLP-1s
Some restaurants added menus to court users of GLP-1 weight-loss and diabetes drugs like Zepbound, Wegovy, Ozempic and Mounjaro.
Last fall, two friends told restaurateur Barry Gutin that they take GLP-1s and struggle to find restaurant meals that met their dietary needs and smaller appetites. GLP-1 users tend to eat less, so they need nutritionally dense foods that are low in fat and high in protein and fiber.
Gutin, co-owner of Cuba Libre Restaurant and RumBar locations in Philadelphia, Washington, Atlantic City, New Jersey, and Orlando, Florida, reached out to a doctor who specializes in weight loss and to Cuba Libre's culinary director, Angel Roque. They developed the chain's GLP-Wonderful menu, which is available during dinner.
The menu has five classic Cuban options. Roque said the pollo asado on Cuba Libre's regular menu has nearly 1,000 calories; on the GLP-1 menu, that's slimmed down to 400 calories, and it's heavy on protein and fiber. He said it also was important to keep the GLP-1 meals flavorful and colorful to stimulate appetites.
"Many times when people are on those kind of regimes, they feel that they can't do the same as everybody else," Roque said. "So we wanted to show them, yes, at Cuba Libre, you can."
Gutin said the menu increased business. He estimated 10 to 20 groups at each location every week have at least one person who requests the GLP-Wonderful menu.
"People say, 'Thank you for serving us,'" he said.
Big chains go small
Olive Garden, whose seven-item Lighter Portions menu rolled out nationwide in January, said GLP-1 users were one consideration. The Italian-style restaurant chain also wanted to appeal to patrons pursuing healthier diets or more affordable meals, said Rick Cardenas, president and CEO of parent company Darden Restaurants.
The Asian fusion chain P.F. Chang's began offering medium-sized portions last fall. The Cheesecake Factory added smaller, lower-priced Bites and Bowls to its menu last summer, while TGI Fridays recently began testing an Eat Like A Kid menu with smaller portions.
Long-term change
Smaller portions aren't a new concept but, to Webster, today's scaled-down dishes feel like a longer-term shift. For one thing, the trend is not tied to any particular cuisine.
Webster also thinks consumers think more about food waste than they used to as restaurant portions grew large, and smaller portions can alleviate some of their concerns. "Sure, it sounds great to take leftovers home," she said, "but they never taste as good."
During a recent visit to Shelburne, Vermont, from his home in North Carolina, Jack Pless was delighted to see the Teeny Tuesday menu at Barkeaters Restaurant, which specializes in locally sourced food. Pless, who's in his 60s and used to own a restaurant, said he can't eat as much as he used to at meals.
He noted, "we'll take home a box and it'll sit in the refrigerator for two, three days and start to grow a beard."
Julie Finestone, co-owner of Barkeaters, said she introduced the Teeny Tuesday menu to bring in more weekday business during the winter. She was concerned about the cost of offering lower-priced food options, like $12 Reuben sliders, but the decision brought in more business than she expected and she's pretty confident it will become a year-round fixture.
