Getting Inspiration For Breakfast, Brunch And Lunch
A chat with the executive chef for First Watch
First Watch has become one of America’s most visible restaurant chains. It is leading the industry’s push into its hottest category: upscale daytime dining. With more than 500 outlets in 29 states, First Watch is serving breakfast, brunch and lunch in many corners of the United States, from cities to suburbs.
Shane Schaibly, the senior vice president of culinary strategy, oversees what goes on the menu in all those places, from healthy tonics and boozy drinks to flavors you’d normally see at locally owned places. While its menu has traditional diner mainstays, First Watch also adds specials five times annually.
The first 10 weeks of the year are called Jump Start, with items you’ll see if you go into a First Watch now. That’s followed by menus for spring, summer, fall, and holiday, which encompasses Thanksgiving and Christmas.
This winter’s menu includes a Brooklyn Breakfast Sandwich, with shaved pastrami, gruyere cheese, house roasted onions, an over easy cage-free egg, house-pickled red onions, arugula, mayor and Dijon mustard on a griddled everything-seasoned brioche bun. There’s also a barbacoa chilaquiles breakfast bowl, and blackberry lemon cream French toast. (Sorry to torture you if you haven’t eaten yet.)
These items are carefully thought through, Shane told me. Each dish requires a year of testing before it makes its First Watch debut. “We are offering things that are cool and exciting and on trend. We work really hard to do that,” Shane says.
Independents and social media
You might wonder how someone living hundreds of miles from New York City would be intrigued by a breakfast sandwich from Brooklyn, or why a suburbanite in the Midwest would order a Mexican dish.
But by visiting independent breakfast and lunch places, Shane can tell when the time is right. “If you see chilaquiles on a menu in Nashville, it says people are ready for an item like that,” Shane says.
The First Watch culinary staff also keeps a close eye on YouTube, Tik Tok and Instagram videos. Collectively, these are playing a growing role in broadening diners’ tastes. “Because of social media, the general public knows what it is,” he says. “They see it on Instagram and Tik Tok and they trust us” to make a version they can embrace.
That doesn’t mean First Watch races to introduce the latest viral idea. “We’ve passed on things that were a little ahead of their time,” he says. The tipping point comes “when you start to hear more about it” through social posts and recipes being shared.
Incorporating international cuisine
Over the past decade, Hispanic and Mexican dishes have done especially well at First Watch. It has not gone full steam into adding Asian-themed dishes just yet, but it is headed in that direction. “Asian at breakfast is a hurdle that most consumers need a little help getting over. Your timing has to be right, and it’s about the balance,” Shane says.
Last year, it tip-toed into Korean cuisine with the Sunny Seoul Hash, featuring shaved seared pork tossed with freshly seasoned potatoes, diced red bell peppers, kimchi, Cheddar and Monterey Jack. The dish was topped with two cage-free eggs cooked any style, scallions, sesame seeds and gochujang aioli.
It has also offered an Asian Pork Belly Breakfast Bowl, based on a Vietnamese banh mi. This also was made with Asian-glazed pork belly, a quinoa, farro and brown rice ancient-grain blend, two cage-free sunny-side-up eggs, pickled daikon radish and carrot slaw, fresh jalapeño, cilantro and Sriracha.
“The First Watch customer is good with hash, and they’re great with omelets,” he says. “You can incorporate those (Asian) ingredients into those.”
Tropical ingredients are next
Shane says social media means restaurant trends are moving “super, super fast.” He sees the swiftest movement among beverages, where he thinks tropical ingredients are taking the lead. “They’ve been there, but now they are really stepping to the forefront,” he says.
That means flavors such as passion fruit, mango, and yuzu. He keeps an eye on big beverage players, such as Starbucks, to see what they are introducing. “If Starbucks makes a refresher with dragon fruit, now everyone knows what dragon fruit is,” Shane says.
When a major brand embraces an ingredient, that benefits First Watch. “We can get our hands on them at scale now,” he says. Along with alcoholic drinks, served in about 300 restaurants, First Watch serves a variety of juice-based concoctions. One of them, the kale tonic, was part of an order from Taylor Swift during an early season visit to Kansas City to watch boyfriend Travis Kelce play for the Chiefs. (It’s become one of my favorites, too.)
So, what is losing steam? Shane says he believes that plant-based meat substitutes are “on the downswing.” He’s watched the segment come full circle over the past few years. “There was so much excitement and hype around it,” followed by studies showing that ultra processed faux meats might not be healthier than the real thing, he says.
Rather than jump on the imitation bandwagon, First Watch has emphasized fruits and vegetables, which are sent to restaurants from distribution centers around the country. “We have a massive spend in fresh produce,” he says. Using the catch phrase “follow the sun,” his team spends time in California and Mexico, visiting fields where products like strawberries, kale, and other greens are grown. “I take a lot of pride in knowing the manufacturers and the farmers and the growers,” he says.
A good financial calculation
Along with slow business at this time of year, the restaurant industry is facing the added headache of rising menu prices. Recent statistics show that the growth in the cost to dine out is well outpacing the cost to eat at home, despite moderations in prices for both.
Its dayside focus gives First Watch an edge, Shane believes. “Financially, it’s a lot easier (in daytime) to go spend money with your friends. You’re going to spend half the money that you would on dinner with wine,” he says.
Previously, the industry’s breakfast business “was good, even great, but nobody was pushing the envelope,” he says. Now, restaurants focusing on breakfast to lunch are seeing their moment come. “And,” he adds, “people like us humbly have stepped up our game.”
Where To Find A Good New York Bagel
Speaking of breakfast, I’m a lifelong fan of bagels, as readers here know. Many visitors to New York City, including myself, head straight for a bagel bakery as soon as they arrive. Last week, Eater New York published its list of the best bagels on the Upper West Side.
Since I spent lots of time on the UWS when I was a student at Columbia University, I was immediately interested in who made the grade. One of our regular spots was Columbia Hot Bagels on Broadway, an all-night shop that hosted plenty of students on their way home from studying (or the bars).
Columbia Hot Bagels sadly closed in 2004, but Eater says there are plenty of choices for bagel hounds. Its top spot went to Bagels & Co, a kosher restaurant with two UWS locations. Next was Absolute Bagels and the modern incarnation of legendary H&H Bagels, both of which I know.
I asked neighborhood resident Mark Remillard of ABC Radio what he thought of the rankings. He told me his favorite is Absolute and he had high marks for Silver Moon Bakery, which features sourdough bagels.
So, if you’re in the city and looking for some sustainance, bookmark this bagel list. You might even make room in your rolling bag to bring some home.
Why One Host Quit The Great British Bake Off
When The Great British Bake Off switched channels from the BBC to Channel 4 in 2017, there was a wholesale change in its judges and hosts. Mary Berry departed, and was replaced by Prue Leith. Co-hosts Mel Giedroyc and Sue Perkins also departed, and were succeeded by broadcaster Sandi Toksvig and actor Noel Fielding, above.
Three seasons later, Sandi departed, and it now turns out that she wasn’t having a very good time. “To be honest, I left Bake Off because I stopped having fun,” she told Radio Times. “I was literally standing there watching meringues dry and thinking, 'Oh my God, my brain is atrophying.'“
She was not one to prolong her misery, despite Bake Off’s international following. Sandi said, "So after three years, I thought, 'That’ll do, go and do something else!’” Even though Bake Off was “a nice paycheck,” the boredom did not merit staying on.
Since then, Noel has worked with two different co-hosts. Sandi was replaced by Matt Lucas, who left at the end of 2022, to many viewers’ relief. He was replaced by Alison Hammond, who has brought sparkle back to the show.
Keeping Up With CulinaryWoman
Restaurant Weeks are kicking off around the country, including New York, Chicago and here in Ann Arbor. Hundreds of restaurants are participating in those big cities (we have 37 signed up, which is a lot for our college town).
With all those choices, you will need a strategy to get the most out of the opportunity. I wrote up my five tips for The Takeout on ways to approach Restaurant Week where you live.
It’s fun to see bars and cocktail places add their own flair to the menus. In Ann Arbor, Bløm Meadworks is offering “drinks and a nosh for two,” which includes a flight of six housemade meads and ciders, plus snacks like a spinach hand pie and Michigan whitefish pâté.
Nearby, Irish pub Conor O’Neill’s is offering one dessert: a pint of Great Lakes ale.
I’m excited to say hello to our new subscribers, especially fellow Substack authors. I’d love to hear from you, and invite you to follow me on my social media accounts. You can visit my Etsy shop, too. Here’s where you can find me.
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