030713 New Restaurant Menus Please Low-Carb Customers

New Mexico Business Weekly - You've heard the tales of losing weight while eating piles of bacon and eggs for breakfast, huge pork chops for dinner. Maybe you're one of the storytellers yourself. Whether called "Atkins" or one of its dietary siblings, high-protein, low-carb diets are changing food habits in a meaningful way, and the results are trickling into menus around Albuquerque.

The low-carb movement's impact has been felt in everything from convenience store sales of pork rinds (way up according to a report in the National Association of Convenience Stores magazine) to national flour sales (wheat consumption was down 4% between 1997-2001 according to the Food Industry Newsletter). Fueling growth was a study in the New England Journal of Medicine that said the Atkins diet was twice as effective as other diets in reducing weight in the first six months of implementation.

About two weeks ago, Miguel Dias and his staff at Monroe's Restaurant on Osuna in Albuquerque introduced a low-carb menu, featuring items such as Hamburger Steak (no bun, naturally) smothered in green chile, onions and cheddar cheese. Manager Desta Lucero estimates that the new menu, marketed so far only through the store marquee and word-of-mouth, is resulting in approximately 20 new customers a day. Monroe's is also beginning an ad campaign on Radio KIOT 102.5 highlighting the new menu.

Other local restaurants report mixed impact -- more positively at steakhouses and BBQ places. Business is very good at Great American Land and Cattle Co., reports General Manager Jerry Wright, and he says the restaurant created a special sides menu including low-carb friendly mushrooms and green chile. He notes numerous diners are avoiding the steak's starchy long-time partner, the baked potato, and choosing low-carb alternative sides instead.

BBQ places are doing brisk business as well. Brian Snyder of Quarters BBQ, Thomas Weintrich of County Line BBQ and Pam Decktor of Ribs BBQ all report that people don't seem to eat as much bread as they used to, and Snyder notes that diners often ask for "little or no sauce on the side" (BBQ sauce tends to have sizable amounts of sugar, i.e., carbohydrates). Quarters has also introduced a salmon dish to cater to low-carb mavens as well, presumably those who have tired from daily plowings into other forms of flesh.

But what of restaurants with more carbohydrate-centered dishes? Nothing says carbs like pasta, and Rick Camuglia of Paisano's Italian Restaurant in the Northeast Heights is offering gluten and wheat-free pasta choices with fewer carbohydrates. On the other hand, pasta houses say that without pasta you don't have Italian food and that sales didn't seem to be affected by the recent dietary trends.

Dietary fads come and go, so for restaurant owners it's hard to figure out when a fad has become both popular and long-lasting enough to warrant change, say the experts. For example, it wasn't too long ago that dieters flocked to pasta houses in search of low-fat offerings.

Still, says Carol Wight, of the New Mexico Restaurant Association, "now many people are seeing the diet's success and coming up with new menu items." Wight notes that the beauty of the restaurant industry is that it can be flexible in handling the dietary whims of consumers.

At the same time, as Wight points out, "more protein and less starch means more money." Food costs for meat, guacamole, bacon and other low-carb diet staples are higher than the dinner roll on the side. In general, she says low-carb diners can expect to pay a little more for these offerings.

Dias of Monroe's reports that its new menu is designed to keep food costs down by "using materials we already have on hand" such as hamburger, guacamole, and, of course, green chile.

As many New Mexico diners individually fight the "obesity crisis" noted by dietary professionals, Monroe's and a growing number of New Mexico restaurants are focusing sizable energy on redirecting offerings to reflect the low-carb lifestyle.

At least until another new diet comes along.

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