- Plant-based foods have hit fast-food chain menus like KFC, Pizza Hut, and Chipotle over the years.
- A Florida steakhouse chain is joining the fray by selling a $69 plant-based steak by Chunk Foods.
- But sales for plant-based meat substitutes have slowed down.
A Florida steakhouse chain is introducing a sizzling, wood-fired plant-based steak filet for $69 – $14 more than a larger, 8-ounce center-cut filet mignon.
Charley’s Steak House is billing itself as the first steakhouse chain in the US to add a plant-based steak to its menu. The 6-ounce fake steak by Israeli startup Chunk Foods debuts Wednesday at the chain’s Orlando outpost.
The plant-based steak is so good that some staffers were fooled during blind taste tests, company Executive Vice President Clark Woodsby told Insider. “It’s so close to meat based that it fooled us, and honestly, you want more and more of it.”
On the menu, the steak is labeled as the “F U Filet Mignon – Freaking Unbelievable Plant-Based by Chunk.”
Charley’s, owned by Talk of the Town Restaurant Group, is so confident in the plant-based filet that it has committed to buying 100,000 units from Chunk. By October, Chunk’s steak alternative will roll out to Talk of the Town’s other dining concepts in Central Florida, including two other Charley’s, FishBones, Texas Cattle Company, and Vito’s Chop House.
“It fulfills that niche that we’ve lacked for so long,” Woodsby said.
Talk of the Town’s Chief Operating Officer Seth Miller said the company, founded in 1974, has been searching for a plant-based option for 15 years – long before plant-based companies like Beyond Meat and Impossible Foods became household names.
The lack of a “center of the plate” vegan option was especially noticeable during private events, Miller said. Charley’s would end up giving that customer a combination of non-meat side dishes.
“We just did a really poor job,” Miller said.
Miller acknowledges the plant-based steak comes with a hefty price tag.
“It’s not an inexpensive product,” Miller said. “To deliver the quality that we want, it’s going to be an added expense to our guests.”
Chunk Foods CEO Amos Golan said the company differentiates itself from rivals because it produces “whole cuts” of plant-based meats made with fermented soy and wheat, beet juice, coconut oil, and fortified iron.
Golan said the fermentation process is almost identical to the technology that’s used to make cheese or sausage. The coconut oil allows the Chunk filet to render fat like a real steak.
“It’s a nice umami flavor,” Golan told Insider. “It really gives a nice texture that’s very different from the texture you would usually get from plant-based proteins and also helps with the juiciness.”
A struggling market for plant-based meats
Chunk, which has raised $17 million, is entering a space that has seen a slowdown in sales.
In 2022, retail sales of plant-based meat declined 1.2 percent to $1.4 billion. The market’s two big suppliers, Beyond Meat and Impossible Foods, have also struggled. Beyond Meat and Impossible Foods sell their plant-based burger patties, sausages, steak tips, and chicken in grocery stores and fast-food restaurants.
Impossible Foods made at least three rounds of layoffs over the past 12 months. Last year, Beyond Meat’s sales slumped as consumers turned away from plant-based meat substitutes. The company said it sold almost 3.3 million fewer pounds of its fake meat products over the final quarter of 2022 – a drop of about 17%.
But Golan said his startup is going after an untapped market. To date, restaurant diners have experienced plant-based foods at fast-food chains like KFC, Pizza Hut, McDonald’s, and Chipotle.
Golan said entering Charley’s allows plant-based foods to shine at a high-end culinary level.
“Fine dining is an exciting channel because these chefs are the ones who are really innovating and dictating what consumers actually eat and want in the coming years,” he said.
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