Boloco, a family of burrito restaurants with 22 locations throughout the East Coast, announced a few changes for its globally inspired menu. On January 13, Boloco made way for new ingredients and salads and further commitment to improving its environ-mentality. Boloco also announced that with the menu changes, it would take an across-the-board price increase for the first time in nearly two years. Boloco isn’t keeping its reasons for the increase under wraps: The price increase will go toward covering higher ingredient costs as well as its commitment to Boloco team members’ lives and futures. All registered Boloco card holders will receive a free menu item at midnight on Friday, January 17, to give the new menu a whirl.
Boloco added two new salads to its menu: the Kale Cobb Salad, with organic baby kale, romaine, sliced tomatoes, bacon, hard-boiled egg, aged Cheddar, herbed croutons, and blue cheese dressing and the New England Harvest Salad with organic baby kale, warm quinoa, roasted squash with cranberries, chilled beet salsa, roasted garlic mushrooms, Goat cheese, and balsamic vinaigrette. For no additional charge, guests can also substitute quinoa for rice in any burrito or bowl and choose to replace romaine with organic baby kale.
The burrito joint is also changing up one of its key components. Its flour and whole wheat tortillas have been replaced with a new, thinner version that allows for the globally inspired flavor to shine with a bonus of 21 percent less calories, 42 percent less fat, and 13 percent less carbs. While Boloco offers many more culinary traditions than the traditional Mexican burritos, the fan favorite Classic Mexican burrito has also been revamped, offering three new levels of heat via new salsas: mild tomato salsa, verde-style medium, and smoky-hot bold salsa.
Boloco’s last price increase occurred two years ago in February 2012. Boloco sees it as the single most important job to fulfill its mission “to positively impact the lives and futures of our people through bold and inspired food and practices.” A portion of the price increase will directly benefit the staff at Boloco units. It will also, in part, support an increased cost of ingredients, as Boloco is committed to not compromise quality of its offerings.
The time also came to say so long to a few items that have graced the menu for years, including: the Spicy BLT, Memphis BBQ, Chopped Sesame, and Cape Codder smoothie.
“To stay true to the ‘inspired’ part of ‘globally inspired’, changes need to be made from time to time,” says Patrick Renna, CFO and interim CEO of Boloco. “We’re very excited about the new additions to our menu and understand some guests will be disappointed with the departures of a few of our items, but innovation within our menu is critical as we continue to evolve our globally inspired offerings. We hope our new menu items will make up for our departing friends. Yes, our prices are going up, and we’ll most likely receive some pushback, but we felt it was the right time, in order to stay current with our increased costs and help us work on fulfilling our mission.”
Always trying to improve its environ-mentality, Boloco also rolled out two new bowl sizes, replacing its formerly recyclable bowls, with the little bowl and the big bowl, which are fully compostable with 100 percent post-consumer recycled lids. Boloco’s new menus are displayed at most of the restaurants on reclaimed maple wood planks salvaged from barns in Vermont. In another effort to monitor its footprint, the former paper menus have gone digital with easy online access via the in-store kiosks or website, and the menus still in the restaurants have been made more permanent, so they can be used again.
