T.G.I. Friday's

Tom Koenigsberg, vice president of marketing U.S.A. for T.G.I. Friday’s, enjoys the fast pace of the restaurant world.

Tom Koenigsberg, vice president of marketing U.S.A. for T.G.I. Friday's, says the New Island Recipe of tropical coconut chicken fingers, "came on in October and will stay on as long as it sells, which may be forever".

“You put something in front of the customer, and that night or day you see the effect at the cash register,” he says. “That’s what I really like.”

That’s one of the reasons why the New Island Recipe of tropical coconut chicken fingers, a concept developed by chef Calvin Harris and his team, made the casual chain’s menu. “It came on in October and will stay on as long as it sells, which may be forever,” Koenigsberg says. “It’s a limited-time promotion that stuck.”

Koenigsberg explains the philosophy behind the New Island Recipe line, which includes four items: “First we said, ‘OK, we want items that bring not just food but an experience to the guests.’ When you try one of the island recipes, you’re going south of the border; that’s an experience.”

Second, Friday’s wanted a promotion that would maximize beverages. “You can’t go with island recipes without doing some kind of beverage tie-in,” he notes. “It was a natural.” So Swamp Thang, an Oriental-spiced, rum-based drink with blue curaçao, banana liqueur and pineapple juice, became the line’s beverage companion.

And last but hardly least, he adds, “We wanted to make the island recipes fun, like Friday’s.”

With the strategy in place, Friday’s, says Koenigsberg, began talking with customers about the New Island Recipe concept. “It was well received, so we moved ahead.

“Once the consumer says, ‘I’m interested,’ ” he adds, “we put it into the research-and-development group. Calvin Harris was the lead chef on this. He began developing products and did a nice job of doing interesting things that weren’t weird.”

Harris, the chain’s corporate research-and-development chef, joined Friday’s almost two years ago from Bridlewood Country Club in Dallas.

“I wanted to get into a corporate chef position, and Friday’s is an industry leader,” he says. “Sometimes I think I’m cheating because I have a job I love to go to every day.”

The tropical coconut chicken fingers idea was a different twist on chicken that Friday’s customers could relate to. “It’s Friday-ized,” Harris says. “We like to do simple things that people can understand, but with a twist.”

In Koenigsberg’s view that’s what Friday’s does well — deliver items that are familiar and approachable but still interesting.

So what’s the twist on the chicken fingers? “You take a protein and add some extra crunch to it,” Harris says. “Then you add coconut to make it sort of sweet, because people love sweet things, and then comes the Piña Colada sauce.”

A total of four New Island Recipes were rolled out in Atlanta. Feedback was strong for all the items, but the repurchase intent — ‘Would you buy this again?’ — from consumers for the tropical coconut chicken fingers was 87 percent. “That’s a huge number,” Koenigsberg observes. “We wanted to get it on the menu quickly.”

The other three items: Calypso chicken, coconut shrimp and Hawaiian steak also scored well, and Friday’s is evaluating them for possible inclusion on future menus.

Koenigsberg thinks the chicken fingers are doing well because the stores hand-bread them. “They’re done to order and not premade,” he says. “Our guys are really good at that.”

Quality sets the chicken fingers apart, he adds, that plus the fact that it’s a familiar offering. “They’ve had chicken fingers before at Friday’s, but this entrée is a little more interesting.”

A division of Carlson Restaurants Worldwide, Friday’s has 646 stores, and more than 500 of them are located in the United States. The tropical coconut chicken fingers, which are priced at $9.99, are available in all domestic stores and are proving as popular with operators as they are with consumers.

“Just the concept of serving our guests something interesting is what makes this business fun,” Koenigsberg says. “We have some great operators. Sometimes I think we test them a little too much, but they felt good about preparing this item because of its simple prep time and their ability to deliver a quality product to their guests.”

Those people are the heroes, Koenigsberg continues. “Those are the individuals who make this food every day, who run the stores and do all the hard work. They give a little of themselves every day to make this happen.”

The tropical coconut chicken fingers menu item is aligned with Friday’s ongoing effort to offer customers new and interesting reasons to eat at Friday’s.

“There are so many options for customers today,” Koenigsberg says. “We want people to choose our restaurants. When they hear about tropical coconut chicken fingers, we want them to say, ‘That sounds interesting; I think I’ll try it.’ ”

The public first saw the New Island Recipes in television spots last October. “I really can’t talk in terms of dollars about how the chicken fingers are doing,” he says, “but we’re very pleased with it.”