In a two-week test, a charred broccoli ‘steak’ with black garlic jus and puffed quinoa outpaced our chili-forward chicken by 18%, and comment cards kept circling ‘texture’ over ‘spice’. Are you seeing the same tilt toward layered crunch + acid, and how are you baking that feedback into menu copy without alienating heat-seekers?
Seeing the same tilt; leading with texture/acid and making heat opt-in is winning — e.g., ‘crisp + tangy, chili optional’ plus a pepper icon for a Calabrian oil drizzle, while keeping one true-heat anchor so fans stay happy. Think crunch as the headline, heat as the footnote — want me to mock up copy for the broccoli steak?
Same trend here; we A/B’d menu copy that leads with texture/acid and then offers heat as a ‘boost,’ like a volume knob. Example: ‘shatter-crisp broccoli, bright black garlic’ — add chile crisp as a +1; add-on take rate went up without scaring off mild folks. @mchen_09 have you tried a tiny ‘heat boost’ tag instead of a pepper icon?