New "fast food" chain dedicated solely to the Keto diet?

(Dean) #1

Hi there fellow Ketogenic friends! I have been a low carb/keto dieter for over 15 years. I love it and it has made my a much healthier person. I am also an entrepreneur and I am trying figure out if a new restaurant idea has any legs to it. Any feedback you ave would be greatly appreciated.

The problem (from my point of view): I am very very busy and it is very difficult to find the time to shop, prep and cook all of my keto meals. Yes, there are some options here and there at existing fast food placed to get a keto-friendly item or meal but such options are limited and the focus of those restaurants is NOT to provide keto-friendly meals.

The Concept: A “fast food”/drive through type of restaurant dedicated to the keto-dieter that serving ONLY low-carb/keto meals. Think about your favorite keto recipes. Imagine having that recipe made fresh-to-order when ever you want in a very quick and cost effective way. We would have breakfast, lunch and dinner menus. Each meal would created fresh daily and for every item the total calorie and net carb counts clearly shown to the guest to take all of the guess work out of what you are ordering.

Your feedback: If you have the time we would love to get your feedback to the following questions:

  1. On a scale of 1-10 (1 being ‘rarely buy’ and 10 being ‘buy every day’): how often would you see yourself buying meals from such a restaurant?

  2. Which meals would you most likely buy: Breakfast, lunch, dinner, all?

  3. What keto-friendly meal(s) would you want to see on the menu?

  4. Would you be willing to pay more than a standard fast food restaurant for these meals?

  5. What do you not like about this concept?

  6. What suggestions do you have to make the concept better?

If there is enough good feedback from our market testing we hope that this concept becomes a reality someday so that we can all benefit.

Thank you very much for your feedback!

(Deborah ) #2

I personally love the idea. Not sure how often I’d utilize it, would depend on cost.

  • On a scale of 1-10 (1 being ‘rarely buy’ and 10 being ‘buy every day’): how often would you see yourself buying meals from such a restaurant? 5

  • Which meals would you most likely buy: Breakfast, lunch, dinner, all? Dinner

  • What keto-friendly meal(s) would you want to see on the menu? No suggestions atm

  • Would you be willing to pay more than a standard fast food restaurant for these meals? A bit more.

  • What do you not like about this concept? Nothing

  • What suggestions do you have to make the concept better? Make it dine in/drive-thru both if not already planned that way.

Good luck with your venture!

(Lori) #3

1- 7
2- Dinner
3- Main meat staples, Beef, Chicken, Pork with variety of KETO friendly veggies, and condiments.
4- Yes
5- Not sure “enough” people know KETO for it to be successful yet, maybe marketed as Low Carb No sugar?
6- I personally would be all over your place as I hate cooking so if I can buy it ready to go I am ready!!

Happy to help!! Best of luck!!

(Raj Seth) #4

feedback

  1. 5 (not 10 because I like to cook and am a cheeeeep bastard
  2. Random - breakfast unlikely
  3. fathead pizza, porkbelly parmigiana, General Tso chicken, anything crunchy
  4. Yes
  5. Hard to execute as “Chain”, unless you have DEEEEP pockets and vast experience as a franchiser
  6. Start small, be a quality NAZI, Don’t ever ever ever cheat on carb count
(Luca Bakshi) #5

Hi Dean, im quite late reading this so hopefully you’re still able to read my reply, i’m very interested in this idea though. can you email me on LBakshi1@sheffield.ac.uk?

(Karim Wassef) #6

So… as a businessman, I’ll provide a different perspective …

Let’s say that you invest in a fast food Keto business… what do you think the existing fast food giants will do?

If you’re successful, they’ll copy you and use their massive cost structure to provide comparable solutions in addition to their carbage menu. Then what?

It’s already happening with Chick-fil-A and Taco Bell… if it’s a threat and the market is growing, they’re going to offer solutions. Lettuce wraps, bun less meat salads, etc…

Unless you have a defensible value proposition or barrier to entry, you cannot survive. You might eek out a niche position with a small exclusive customer base who reject those giants on other grounds, but that clientele may not be the fast-food types…

So… now what?

You can try to partner with an existing medium business and get things going fast enough to really pose a threat. The endgame here is probably to become attractive enough to be bought out by the giants and selling out…

Hate to be a Debbie downer but miscalculating competitive response is the easiest way to lose a lot of money. :smiley:

(Banting & Yudkin & Atkins & Eadeses & Cordain & Taubes & Volek & Naiman & Bikman ) #7

1- 0? 1? I enjoy cooking, and I am able to navigate restaurants.
2- Lunch. I eat lunch out a lot.
3- Meats.
4- I would pay chipotle prices.
5- I don’t really care for fast food at all.
6- do some market research, and see why various fast food restaurants have not embraced keto. It goes beyond a cost perspective. What experience you do you have in setting up a franchise business model, or an OO chain restaurant? If it is zero, good luck, but time to find a partner who knows how to do stuff. Why brand it keto? And not just brand it as low sugar, low grain, high quality ingredients… Keto being called keto carries the same stigma that Atkins carried a decade ago (funny how that works)… By describing it without using the K word, the potential market expands beyond the members of the keto cult.

#8

The best move would be to aim small. Be like the Vegan restaurants here in Portland, cater to a specific niche. This is all with the understanding of course that the restaurant business is still one of the most unstable business ventures and that most new restaurants will fail.

(Karim Wassef) #9

YThat’s right. It’s high risk. Also, the niche clientele don’t always click with fast food.

(Gabe “No Dogma, Only Science Please!” ) #10

@ketonator did you come to any conclusions about this idea? Low carb is huge now, with the “keto” fad having gone crazy mainstream. My suspicion is that the glut of “keto” junk food (some of which just made me gain 5 pounds rapidly without once spiking my BGL) may really hurt the trend and turn people off it in the medium-long term.

Having said that, people are now understanding that “carbs” aren’t great for them. They get it. So I think there’s going to be a lot of space in the market for restaurants that offer low carb menus.

On the OTHER hand, personally I just order meat and veg at whatever restaurant I’m in. Keto is pretty adaptable, so I’m not entirely sure whether there’s a market for keto-only food places.

TL;DR: what did you learn in your research on this?

#11

Test it out, rent a food truck with an window for a month and try different spots with simple delicious keto foods that are affordable.

(Jay Patten) #12

I agree with Karim. Fast food giants will catch-on very soon (some already are). They can make minor changes to their menus and bam they are low carb. They have the brand power, the distribution systems and the logistics already all worked out.

We have a local keto restaurant here that… well… I just don’t think they are going to make it.

#13
  1. On a scale of 1-10 (1 being ‘rarely buy’ and 10 being ‘buy every day’): how often would you see yourself buying meals from such a restaurant?
    I do not use fast food. However, if a fast food restaurant offered healthy meats such as grass fed / organic I would use them much more often (I know this is a big expense to the owner but being Keto isn’t only about eating low carb. A true Keto lifer (I say that because I don’t believe Keto is a “diet”… it’s a lifestyle) wants good quality meat and veggies.
  2. Which meals would you most likely buy: Breakfast, lunch, dinner, all?
    Eggs, salads, low carb veggies (low on the glycemic index) and good quality meats.
  3. What keto-friendly meal(s) would you want to see on the menu?
    Same as above
  4. Would you be willing to pay more than a standard fast food restaurant for these meals?
    Yes.
  5. What do you not like about this concept?
    I tend to see fast food as cheap and not quality meat and produce
  6. What suggestions do you have to make the concept better?
    Simply good quality meat and produce from a local trusted farm
    [/quote]