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Our Collective Vision
In 2018, Altitude Hospitality Group came to us with a problem we were born to solve. Can you develop a healthy, plant-forward, fast-casual menu for a restaurant in Colorado Springs? Their goal was to create a convenient alternative to fast food that focused on vibrant, nutritious offerings while still catering to their audience: less of a big-city juice bar vibe and more of a family-friendly bowls and salads joint that would feed weekend warriors and busy families alike. We took on the challenge, and now you can get digestive shots with Kefir water at a drive-thru. Life is wild y’all!
The Scoop
Setting The Table
To start the project, Heart conducted market research in our home turf of Portland, Oregon—while keeping in mind that our “bubble” is a unique one in the vast American landscape. We visited and analyzed 12 juice bars, fast-casual customizable salad restaurants, and smoothie bars to set a baseline, find patterns, and discover opportunities where AHG could do something unique. Then we wrote a culinary framework on which all subsequent work would be based.
To ensure our vision was aligned with client needs, we created and vetted many initial menu concepts for selection. From there, we wrote and tested a complete menu of food and beverage recipes and hosted all key stakeholders for a multi-day tasting where they were able to provide feedback and enjoy the dishes that would soon be served up to thousands.
The Experience
We’re always proactively looking for strategic opportunities to provide valuable insights to our clients, above and beyond their expectations. So for AHG, we recommended a robust drink menu as our research showed that consumers are willing to pay proportionally more for drinks like smoothies and juices than for food items.
Given our years of culinary experience, we were also able to stay mindful of how the recipes we created would ultimately be used in a restaurant setting. For efficiency, we created components that could be used in different menu items, streamlining prep and cutting down on the number of unique ingredients that would need to be sourced. We wrote all recipes with metric and standard measurements so they could be easily scaled. Finally, we always kept aesthetics in mind, knowing that one of the easiest ways for restaurants to market themselves is to create hype on social media with beautiful, Instagrammable food.
The Fruits of Our Labor
Later that year, AHG opened the restaurant, named Sprig, and poof—healthy, fresh eating was now convenient and approachable (and craveworthy!) for the people of Colorado Springs. Immediately, they were able to drive high interest through their vibrant, rainbow-hued menu offerings. One benefit of working with a marketing agency specializing in food is that we have an eye toward flavor but also how the food will be marketed. We were able to make it easy for the client to market their product by creating food as beautiful as it is delicious.
"Wonderful team, highly creative, delicious outcomes. What else needs to be said? Definitely would work with this team again (and again, and again)!"
Mimi Wheeler
Altitude Hospitality Group
