Bold flavors boost B&I's sales

New foodservice concepts at Raytheon Company's Falls Church, VA, location emphasize bold flavors of various ethnic and American regional cuisines. Sales, as a result, are heating up as well.

The most popular concept at Raytheon, a defense and aerospace supplier, is Casa Amigo, a Southwestern cuisine station featuring a variety of quesadillas, burritos and hard and soft tacos and other dishes.

The runner up is Guest Services' newly created Wild Wild Wings concept, introduced for the first time at Raytheon. "The concept is really designed to create as many flavors as possible for the customer," says Sam Ayoub, contract foodservices group vice president.

Mix and match: At Wild Wild Wings, customers choose from several types of chicken—fried wings, roasted chicken, Southern-style tenders and grilled chicken sticklers or skewers. The concept offers a variety of sauces with which customers can coat, or baste, their chicken. The sauces vary in heat and flavor, including Buffalo, Asian, Southwestern jalapeno and lime, Mediterranean garlic and herb, and lemon-pepper flavors. Finally, the concept offers traditional dipping sauces, such as blue cheese, ranch and honey mustard.

"We have side orders—fresh corn on the cob, potato skins, black beans and rice, plus a couple of cold sides. So it's a nice variety," adds Ayoub.

Guest Services, took over the account in February under terms of a five-year contract, installing several of its Choice Cuisine concepts, reports Ayoub. He says the dining facility serves about 1,000 customers daily between breakfast and dinner, drawing from a building population of about 1,500 to 1,800 depending on events and conferences.

The operation, which is open five days per week, has a check average that varies from $3.25 to $4.25, and Ayoub says daily revenue is expected to be in the $3,500 to $4,500 range.

Other concepts at the Raytheon dining facility include the Branding Iron grill, the Egg Skillet, Stackers Deli, Caesar's Corner and Portobello's, which offers made-to-order entrees such as portobello pomodoro, linguini pescatori and grilled Norwegian salmon.