Millennials spur flood of fancy fast-food breads

Bruce Horovitz | USA TODAY

Fast food's oldest calling card — the boring bun — is getting turned on its head by Millennials.

Raised on breads often several culinary notches up from the familiar Wonder Bread of their Boomer parents, the target generation of the $200 billion fast-food industry is demanding — and receiving — unconventional bread options at even the biggest fast-food chains.

That may reach a new level of one-upsmanship on Monday, when Wendy's rolls out a new burger served on a brioche bun. For those who can't pronounce the word, it's BREE-osh, a light, slightly sweet French bread that's made with milk, eggs and a rich yeast dough. The fast-food joints are going bread crazy, just as casual dining did before them.

Carl's Jr. this week announced plans to start freshly baking its buns in-store. Culver's recently rolled out a burger with a "Pub Bun" sprinkled with onions, poppy seeds and sesame seeds. Earlier this spring, Arby's introduced a sweet, Hawaiian bread bun.

Smashburger offers four artisan buns, including multigrain and spicy chipotle. Wendy's and Sonic both rolled-out pretzel buns this summer, and flatbreads have shown-up in several fast-food and fast-casual chains, including Wendy's.

"For Millennials, your bread is your signature," says trend-spotter Marian Salzman. "Millennials need to have something that says who they are — uniquely them. The more unique the better — hold the raisins."

The group's food choices, which can hinge on who's got the tastiest bread, are typically based on social-media and word-of-mouth recommendations.

Subway is watching all this. It recently rotated muffins out at breakfast and replaced them with flatbread offerings, since consumers found flatbread to be "more exciting," says Tricia Hetherington, director of research and product development at Subway. The chain also recently rolled out a garlic bread option.

Millennials strongly influenced the decision by the Carl's Jr. and Hardee's chains to begin freshly baking its buns in the stores, says Chief Marketing Officer Brad Haley. "They're the first generation to grow up with a pervasive foodie culture that has, in turn, sort of democratized high-quality food for everyone."

But Wendy's has been the fast-food kingpin of wacky bread. "Millennials won't accept the Wendy's of 30 years ago," explains Craig Bahner, chief marketing officer. "They're influencing restaurants the way Boomers did in the past."

Wendy's has rolled out three premium breads this year. It was among the first to sell a flatbread sandwich. Its two pretzel bread sandwiches were both bit hits. But the pretzel buns, which were limited-time offerings, will be pulled to make room for the new Bacon Portabella Melt served on a brioche bun.

Will the pretzel bun return?

"We can't talk about things we might — or might not — do," says Bahner.

In other words, of course it will.