A few of Orange County’s largest restaurant chains have tried their hands at the latest food trend in the U.S.: Mexican beef birria.
Birria, a shredded, spiced beef typically served with a broth called consomé, originated in Mexico and was recently popularized in Los Angeles counting billions of social media posts and views over the last few years.
Last November, consumer research firm Datassential reported that birria’s appearance on menus had grown by 144% in the past four years, according to a report in Nation’s Restaurant News.
The virality among consumers spurred companies such as Costa Mesa-based El Pollo Loco, Irvine’s Taco Bell and Del Taco in Lake Forest to incorporate the dish on its menus.
It was the first time each chain had offered shredded beef as a protein option.
Following year-long testing and limited time runs in 2023, OC firms saw mixed results.
New Product
Del Taco may have discovered an all-new food category through its take on birria.
It is the latest restaurant chain to include the shredded beef on its menu with tacos, quesadillas and its first-ever ramen added in November.
The consomé dip on the side went through 16 different iterations before the research and development team found the best recipe, according to Senior Director of Culinary Research and Development Jeremias Aguayo.
The project took one year to test and finalize, Aguayo told the Business Journal during a recent visit to the company’s test kitchen. The birria ramen was introduced in the second test run of the beef product.
“I wanted to make authentic flavors accessible and at a good value,” Aguayo said.
He noted that the birria ramen has possibly sparked more ideas for other soup-related options in the future.
Del Taco is OC’s sixth-largest chain by systemwide sales of $957 million for the 12 months ended Dec. 31, 2022, and counts almost 600 restaurants in the U.S.
Second Try
El Pollo Loco (Nasdaq: LOCO) first brought the protein option to restaurants in 2022 and it turned out to be “a record breaking LTO (limited time offer) for the brand across sales and social engagement” for the restaurant chain, according to Chief Marketing Officer Andy Rebhun.
The launch of the three birria entrées—stuffed quesadillas, burritos and crunchy tacos—was followed by record sales companywide for three straight weeks.
Former Chief Executive Larry Roberts, who left the fifth-largest chain based in OC early this month, pointed to the company’s marketing on TikTok as a major factor in its initial success.
The company brought the dishes back in April with some updates, which didn’t fare as well.
“I think birria itself just didn’t resonate the second time around, and I think getting away from focusing on chicken actually hurt us the second time around,” Roberts told analysts in August.
With a decrease of 3.4% for El Pollo Loco’s second-quarter comparable sales, Roberts labeled the promotion as a “business distraction.”
Summer Start
Taco Bell, the largest chain in OC by sales, introduced the shredded beef this summer after two years of finalizing the recipe and “an incredibly successful test in 2022,” officials said.
Birria meat was included in a grilled cheese dipping taco in August with nacho cheese sauce and red sauce offered in place of the traditional consomé. It was available for approximately five weeks until supplies ran out.
Taco Bell’s parent company, Yum Brands Inc. (NYSE: YUM), made no mention of the dish’s impact on sales for that time period in its recent earnings report.
