Faced with a deluge of choices, Michael Michner zeroed in on the turkey Pannido deli-style sandwich during a recent lunch break at a Jack in the Box in Echo Park.
"It looks healthier, so I don't have to feel guilty," said Michner, 45, of Northridge. "I'm health-conscious."
Diners like Michner, who paid $4.75 for his sandwich including tax, are forcing some of the big boys of fast food to focus on far more than bargain burgers. Chains such as Jack in the Box, Carl's Jr. and others are responding to the growing popularity of "fast-casual" restaurants by trying to imitate their fresh, affordable fare served up in festive settings.
Call it the "premium-izing" of fast food, said Bob Sandelman, a Villa Park restaurant consultant. Fast-casual restaurants "have raised the bar for traditional fast food chains by showing [that] consumers are willing to pay a little bit more money for higher-quality, better-tasting food served in a nice, more comfortable atmosphere," Sandelman said.
Not content to merely upgrade their menus, some chains are looking at overhauling their entire concept to match the fast-casual approach, whereby meals typically are prepared to order and there is limited table service.
Jack in the Box Inc. announced last week that in the next five years it may convert as much as 15% of its roughly 2,000 company-owned and franchised fast-food restaurants to a fast-casual concept called JBX.
At JBX, customers can wash down a $5.95 chicken-avocado club sandwich with a $2.55 vanilla bean shake and coat their fries in any of six dipping sauces including wasabi or sweet and tangy barbecue. Food is delivered to customers by servers in a dining room featuring a fireplace, drop-pendant lighting and abstract and contemporary images of the company's fictional mascot, the moon-headed Jack.
Jack in the Box, which also operates the fast-casual concept Qdoba Mexican Grill, has opened two JBX restaurants in San Diego, with plans for additional stores in Bakersfield and Boise, Idaho.
"Clearly Jack in the Box is attempting to segment the market between higher-end and middle-end customers," said Dean Haskell, an analyst with JMP Securities. "The JBX concept appeals to the Starbucks, Panera Bread-type crowd with similar furnishings, price points and a higher quality of food."
In addition to health-conscious diners, fast-casual fare offered by chains such as Pei Wei Asian Diner and Chipotle Mexican Grill has cultivated a following among baby boomers and others who are tired of traditional fast-food offerings.
