Another Broken Egg Café, like many experiential restaurant brands, was caught flat-footed by the pandemic. CEO Paul Macaluso joined in late 2019, just in time for a panicked race to figure out delivery for the brand’s 92 locations as packed dining rooms emptied.
“Revamp is a good word; there was nothing there. I was at McAlister’s previously, we launched online ordering five years earlier, and I did it at Krystal before this. But we had to get it off the ground,” said Macaluso. “We reached out to Olo, launched that in 30 days. We were all shut down so we had nothing else to work on—it was survival. We launched right away with a couple third-party companies, now we have four or five.”
Prior to all that work, the thought of ordering a delicate eggs Benedict or a boozy breakfast cocktail for delivery probably sounded like a fool’s errand, but Macaluso said the team figured it out and, today, off-premises orders account for 15 percent of sales. That’s a dramatic increase from the small mix of catering and to-go items that accounted for 2 percent of sales back in 2019.
Another Broken Egg bounced back quickly after an aggressive push to update off-premises systems and processes, Macaluso noted. Last year, same-store sales rose 24 percent compared to 2019, and the strong performance has continued this year, though inflation has kept growth in the lower double digits.
CEO Paul Macaluso came to Another Broken Egg after stints with Krystal and McAlister’s Deli.
Off-premises channels, however, remain steady even as dining rooms return to full capacity. Macaluso said he’s consistently interested in the delivery customer. Even in this shaky macro environment, they’re not slowing down.
“It hasn’t diminished, which is so interesting; they’re paying additional fees. They can order and pick up, but the majority are ordering delivery. That’s been a little bit of a surprise; it hasn’t increased dramatically but hasn’t decreased either,” he said.
He credits three things with helping Another Broke Egg provide the premium off-premises experience its customers expect: technology, quality packaging and smarter operations.
The right tech stack
Updating the technology stack in the restaurant was essential to off-premises success. The brand switched its point-of-sale system to Revel, and Macaluso called out the necessity of an open API to plug in all the modern tools necessary to get on- and off-premises operations flowing seamlessly.
Getting digital orders flowing into the kitchen was just one aspect, but given how busy dining rooms are, he said it’s important to see exactly what’s going on in the restaurants. He also moved the brand to customer intelligence and engagement platform Wisely, which is now part of Olo.
“It also understands how many online orders are coming into the cafe. Some of our cafes do 20 percent of sales off premises. We now have a more holistic view of all the things that are hitting the kitchen. It’s basically taken us two years to get that all sorted out,” said Macaluso, noting the last restaurant was updated in April.
Improving operations
That brand’s new technology stack allows for better operations, especially connecting with guests. “We can see this person has come four times in the last year, one though DoorDash and three in-person visits,” said Macaluso. “But then it’s how do you operationalize it?”
The team is just starting to do some of that, but already he can see, via a Wisely survey, if someone had a bad experience. The staff can give them a little treat and thank them for giving the restaurant another shot. If a customer always gets the special of the week, the staff can highlight the current limited-time offers or tease some of the new LTOs coming up soon to entice another visit.
On the delivery side, Macaluso said maintaining a premium level of service meant keeping a close watch on platform capacity. He said some markets were turned off on various third-party platforms that were having issues or couldn’t guarantee a certain level of service.
“There are a couple key metrics: delivery times—how long does it take to show up. The other one is acceptance rate. Sometimes they’ll reject an order because they don’t have enough drivers,” said Macaluso.
Monitoring platform performance is especially important because customers don’t always understand who’s doing what. If an order gets rejected, the customer tends to blame the restaurant, so they have an upset customer on top of wasted food and packaging.
Another Broken Egg created a line of cocktail pouches as an enticing add-on for delivery customers.
Experience extends to packaging
Macaluso said the company invested in high-quality packaging for food and beverages, which not only helps with food quality but also better communicates the quality of the brand.
“You have to have really good packaging; we’re a premium brand, so we can invest in packaging. We have a lot of Benedicts. If you put a poached egg on something, it’s going to keep cooking. By the time it gets to you, it’s fully cooked,” said Macaluso. “We have our eggs in a separate container; it’s in the same box but it’s in a secondary container.”
Similarly, the company packages all the toppings for pancakes, waffles and French toast in a separate container so nothing melts and customers can assemble it themselves.
As for beverages, he said 49 percent of locations can deliver alcohol, and a push for boozier brunches has clicked with customers. Fountain drink cups or basic packaging wouldn’t carry the premium branding, so the company sourced what Macaluso calls “adult Capri-Sun” pouches for delivery beverages. More than 10 percent of off-premises orders include at least one alcoholic beverage, a nice margin boost and the boozy punctuation on a premium breakfast delivery experience.
A version of this story originally appeared in Food On Demand, a sibling publication to Franchise Times.