INCREDIBLE
SHRINKING PORTIONS
To some consumers, healthier eating
may mean smaller portions. At Sea
Level, Connelly receives more splitplate
requests today than a few years
ago, especially for burgers and turkey
sandwiches. “We don’t charge a split
fee, we just do it,” he says, explaining
that he wants to make it easy for customers
to order what they want—and
not more. “You have to appeal to a
wide variety of people.”
A couple of years ago, Sullivan
found that California Pizza Kitchen
customers associated healthier fare
with lower-calorie items. To deliver,
he focused as much on portion control
as on lighter ingredients when
California Pizza Kitchen introduced
its Lite Adventures menu with dishes
that clocked in under 650 calories.
The popularity of the menu’s cedar-plank
salmon served with corn,
spinach, and feta succotash, as well as the quinoa and arugula salad with
roasted asparagus and sun-dried
tomatoes, has led to double-digit
growth in sales for Lite Adventures
items