To serve on the skewer or off is an issue. Baggs remembers skewers as a big sticking point when, as the representative for a Greek food company, he tried to sell the souvlaki idea to some national restaurant accounts about six or seven years ago.
The operators at Moby Dick’s and Kabob.a.Licious have come to the conclusion that, while medieval Turkish soldiers might have been skilled at munching their meat right off their swords, most Americans would rather not have to wrestle their food off of pointy metal sticks.
“With metal, there’s also a big safety factor, particularly when children are involved, and wood tends to dry out when exposed to high grilling temperatures,” Baggs says. “It would be great if someone could come up with an edible skewer, maybe one that has a built-in core of sauce. That would really be something different.”
Metal skewers are best for kabobs because they hold and distribute heat better than other materials, yet Javan’s company has been experimenting with a number of skewer possibilities including bamboo and sugar cane. His plan is to offer a selection of preassembled kabobs for at-home cooking.
For a true taste of Middle Eastern tradition, the signature dish at Moby Dick’s and Kabob.a.Licious is served with steamed basmati rice or salad greens. As a nod to the American penchant for portability, both offer their skewer-grilled specialties as sandwiches on tandoor-oven-baked naan bread.
“It might be curiosity that brings customers to our restaurants, but it’s the taste they can’t forget and that brings them back,” Javan says. “We definitely have an opportunity to create our own niche in this country’s food culture. After all, who would have thought a hundred years ago that Chinese food would become such an American staple?”
“It would be great if someone could come up with an edible skewer, maybe one that has a built-in core of sauce.”
Just about every culture around the world has its version of meat on a stick. But none could be more all-American than Chick’N Stik’Ns, a summer season LTO available at Krystal’s more than 400 restaurants across the South.
Although this fried item does not fit the category of kabob as the grilled product we know today, it does capture its original ancient meaning.
“The word actually means ‘fried meat’ when translated from the Arabic and Persian languages,” explains Chicago, Illinois, foodservice consultant Charlie Baggs.
But it wasn’t the budding kabob craze that inspired Krystal to get on the stick.
“Food on a stick is just plain fun,” says Brad Wahl, the Chattanooga, Tennessee-based chain’s vice president of marketing.
Described by the company as a “one of a kind product,” these lightly breaded, fried chicken fingers are made from the same all-white breast meat as the best-selling Krystal Chik sandwich.
“Just about everybody offers some form of chicken tenderloin product, but we think the addition of the wooden stick … [makes] it totally unique to us,” Wahl says.
Sold three to a carryout cup (with a side of BBQ, ranch, honey-mustard, or buffalo dipp’N sauce), the Chik’N Stik’Ns also fit right in with Krystal’s philosophy of merchandising in multiples. During the year-long test that preceded the July debut and in the early weeks of the LTO, they produced strong incremental sales both as an à la carte snack item (priced at $2.99) and as part of a combo meal with fries and a medium drink ($4.99), Wahl says.
If the trend continues, Chik’N Stik’Ns might earn a permanent place in the Krystal product lineup or at least in its regular LTO rotation, Wahl says.
This is not the first time Krystal has featured meat on a stick on its menu. Cornbread-battered Corn Pups have been a brisk-selling item for the brand for years—and there may be more to come.
“We’re looking at all kinds of similar products, including some beef, pork, fish, even some nonmeat items,” Wahl says. “For a company like Krystal that’s all about fun, food on a stick is a natural.”