Close Ad

The Spoon

Daily news and analysis about the food tech revolution

Qdoba

Subway Partners With Beyond Meat for Plant-Based Meatball Sub

Subway joined the growing number of QSRs offering plant-based meat options this week, announcing a new partnership with Beyond Meat.

The two companies will start testing the Beyond Meatball Marinara sandwich, a plant-based take on one of Subway’s classics, in September, according to a press release. The sandwich will be available in 685 Subway restaurants for a limited time in the U.S. and Canada. Subway didn’t specify how limited that time would be or what happens afterwards. Presumably, the Beyond Meatball Marinara will be available as long as supplies last, and its expansion will depend on how popular the sandwich proves during this testing phase.

Subway is the latest fast-food outlet to start offering a plant-based option on its menu. At the end of last month, Beyond added a partnership with Dunkin’ to sell plant-based breakfast sandwiches in NYC. Beyond also has menu items at chains like Del Taco and Carl’s Jr., as well as a strong retail presence in grocery stores. The company even launched a new ground-beef-like product at Whole Foods earlier this summer.

Impossible, meanwhile, is set to do a nationwide rollout of its Impossible Whopper at Burger King this week. The company, who is Beyond’s chief rival, already works with White Castle as well as some non-burger chains like Qdoba and Little Caesar’s. Impossible is also (finally) heading to retail stores this September.

Given the surging popularity of both Impossible and Beyond, we can expect the list of QSRs testing out plant-based options like these to keep growing throughout the rest of the year.

Qdoba CEO: We Chose Impossible Foods for “Its Unique Flavor and Texture”

The world of fast-food burritos has experienced a real shake-up lately, thanks to one thing: plant-based meat.

Now if you’re hitting up the drive-thru at least two popular Mexican food chains, you can opt to replace the beef in your tacos/burritos/bowls with meatless meat. This April, Del Taco rolled out Beyond Meat to all of its menus. Just a month later, Qdoba began serving Impossible’s plant-based beef in all of its 730+ locations nationwide.

The meatless meat lines have been drawn, with Del Taco on one side with Beyond Meat and Qdoba on the other with Impossible. During an email interview with The Spoon, Qdoba’s CEO Keith Guilbault told me that the chain decided to go with Impossible over other plant-based meat suppliers because their “protein stood out for its unique texture and flavor.”

Jill Adams, Qdoba’s VP of Marketing, echoed the sentiment over the phone last month. “We landed on Impossible because it delivers on flavor,” she said. “There’s also high consumer awareness around the product.”

Because of this awareness, she told me that Qdoba had seen a wave of new customers come in specifically to try the Impossible products. In fact, according to Adams, when Qdoba tested Impossible menu items in Eastern Michigan this February they saw transactions grow 4 percent. “There was an immediate uptick,” she said.

The post-Impossible spike isn’t exactly surprising. Immediately after adding Beyond Meat “beef” to their menus, Del Taco reported an increase in both check size and overall food traffic. In fact, many QSR’s report an uptick in traffic and sales immediately after adding a plant-based meat option to their menus.

Whether that uptick will turn into a steady increase remains to be seen. However, for now Del Taco and Qdoba seem to have carved out their own corners. As of now, they don’t have any competition from other Mexican food QSR’s: Taco Bell has a new vegetarian menu but is steering clear of fake meat, whereas Chipotle recently announced that it wouldn’t serve Impossible or Beyond since they were too processed.

Qdoba and Del Taco’s menus are relatively similar, which means that the brand of plant-based meat (or lack thereof) they use could become a significant factor when people decide where they want to stop for fast-food burritos — especially as more and more diners become familiar with meatless meat. But for now, the simple fact that Qdoba and Del Taco both offer plant-based meat could be enough to lure in new customers; vegetarian, flexitarian and otherwise.

Qdoba Expanding Impossible “Meat” Nationwide

Qdoba announced yesterday that it is broadening its use of Impossible’s plant-based “meat” to all of its locations across the U.S. The Mexican food chain had been running tests of Impossible in Michigan, and is the latest high-profile brand to expand its use of alternative proteins as restaurants revamp their menus to keep up with growing demand for plant-based products.

Impossible is famous for its heme-based burger patties that “bleed,” though the Qdoba offering will be ground and used in bowls and tacos. Starting April 23, Impossible will be available at Qdoba locations in Brooklyn, Denver and Los Angeles. All of the more than 730 Qdoba’s will have the Impossible option by May 28.

Restaurants are fast becoming hip to consumer desire for plant-based protein. The Qdoba news comes just days after Del Taco announced the addition of Beyond Meat to the menus of its 580 locations across the country. Earlier this month, Burger King announced a pilot program with Impossible in Missouri. Impossible “meat” can also be found at White Castles and Red Robins, while Beyond Meat is at Carl’s Jr. and the Canadian A&W chain.

But restaurants are just one front in the battle between the alterna-meat biggies. Impossible also said it is going into grocery stores this year, where Beyond Meat already enjoys a sizeable foothold.

All of this positioning at various retail outlets comes as Beyond Meat prepares its IPO. Should that public debut go well, it will have enough money to scale up and expand further into restaurants and deeper into grocery stores. A good IPO for Beyond will also help pave the way for Impossible, which has raised $387.5 million, to go public as well.

Even with all this activity, there’s plenty of, err, meat on the restaurant bones left. Expect more news like Qdoba’s (and Del Taco, and Burger King…) to continue apace throughout the coming months.