How secret menu items make us feel special.
HOW SECRET MENU ITEMS AREN’T SELLING SPECIALTY FOOD AS MUCH AS A SPECIAL YOU
If you reveal your secrets to the wind, you should not blame the wind for revealing them to the trees. — Khalil Gibran
‘Idon’t need to see a menu,” I announced a little too proudly as a server at Jackpot Chicken Rice, a hip Asian- fusion restaurant in Toronto, offered us menus as we waited in line for a table.
What I wanted wasn’t on the menu. The dish was called the Secret High Rolla Ramen. It was a salty carbohydrate mountain of spicy mee goreng noodles, jumbo shrimp and a runny, softboiled egg. I had learned about it on Instagram the day before.
This was annoying for two reasons: 1) I knew real secrets looked more like Ursula the Sea Witch and less like perfectly composed Instagram posts, which meant that the Secret High Rolla Ramen was not an exclusive item shrouded in mystery so much as it was a dish designed to make restaurant patrons feel special for following @ eatjackpot on Instagram; and 2) Despite my awareness, I still wanted to order it.
Suddenly the ramen went from lone Instagram post to mini viral sensation. In an ironic twist, the more people talked about the off- menu delight, the more everyone wanted to try it, and the less of a secret it became. “We created the High Rolla Ramen in appreciation for our loyal social media followers,” says Jackpot Chicken Rice Executive Chef Craig Wong. “Since the dish isn’t listed on our menu, it spread through word of mouth, which is always the best endorsement.”
Ordering off menu is noth- ing new, but the amount of restaurants seizing on an opportunity to please customers hungry for an exclusive dining experience is expanding.
At the Brindle Room in New York City, a by-request-only burger made from dryaged steak trimmings, American cheese and caramelized onions generated so much buzz it helped the restaurant stay in business by boosting razor- thin profit margins. In Montreal, Japanese restaurant Sho- Dan keeps regulars coming back with an extensive sushi list on a secret menu only available to select restaurant patrons by request. In Toronto, Burdock Brewery offers a secret wine list, and wine bar Grey Gardens boasts a secret sake list. In Vancouver, locals will steer you toward Eat Chicken Wraps, not for the chicken wraps but for the off- menu Al Pastor poutine, a dish that has quietly developed a cult following.
Fast food chains are the last place many think to look for exclusivity, but they too have benefited from the word-of-mouth buzz generated by off- menu food. Where Starbucks is no stranger to sugary perversities like the company’s infamous “purple drink” and Unicorn Frappuccino, Taco Bell boasts something called The Incredible Hulk and The Superman Burrito — a double beef burrito stuffed with cheese, potatoes and deep-fried tortilla strips. McDonald’s offers an endless list of off- menu tragedies for those looking to increase their chances of developing cardiovascular disease, among them the Big McChicken, a dizzying array of beef and chicken patties sandwiched between a Big Mac bun. A particularly lifealtering off-menu event is the Big Mac Sauce Fries, which combine McDonald’s fries with a side of Big Mac sauce.
Ultimately, it doesn’t matter if you’re dining at McDonald’s or Jackpot Chicken Rice. Successfully ordering off-menu imbues the customer with a sense of knowledge and authority that no expensive bottle of wine or fancy foie gras can duplicate. When the lesser- known dish eventually materializes in front of you, it makes you look like a regular with the inside scoop. More than the potential for lesser known ramen or fries dipped in Big Mac sauce, ordering off- menu also sharpens the entire dining experience into greater focus. The arrival of a dish that has been labelled as “se- cret” signals that something unusual is going on, so you’d better pay attention if you don’t want to miss it.
Yet the more we yearn for the secret menu experience, the more impossible it becomes. As a ravenous Eater-reading, Instagram- posting, Yelp-reviewing food culture, today we spare no expense in our coverage of restaurants and the dishes they offer, especially if the foodstuff in question is guaranteed to give us bragging rights. But as foodies race to be the first to unearth new trends and lesser-known dishes, we keep ruining secret menu items by turning them into public knowledge.
This is where the line between off- menu food and marketing blurs. There is no secret dish in the history of dining that was created with the intention of actually staying unknown. Those hungry for real culinary mysteries might have better luck looking at the back of chefs’ lockers where abused supplies of Advil, liquor, amphetamines and hot sauce tend to be as plentiful as service is long. Unlike the truly hidden kitchen delights, off- menu items are brought into the restaurant with the intention of generating profit. They have to strike a balance between seeming exclusive and actually selling.
When they do manage to find such middle ground, by-request-only specialties serve as better PR than any mar- keting campaign or media dinner.
The timing of our burgeoning secret menu fanfare is no coincidence. Foodies who have enough disposable income to see frequenting restaurants as an acceptable form of entertainment are often the same people who can afford to get anything delivered to their doors at any hour of the day. Thanks to Amazon, UberEats and countless other meal delivery services, everything is available to anyone willing to pay for it.
Ordering food that signals exclusivity with words like “secret” and “off- menu” tricks us into thinking we are experiencing something rare at a time when accessibility has meant that few things are.
When Starbucks offers an off- menu unicorn frappuccino, it appeals to more than our sugar addiction and our conflicting sense of novelty and self- loathing. Being privy to a secret menu is a convenient and painless way to return to the idea of being special, which many of us might have been told as children but have since felt the adjective get lost. The word “secret” finds so much success when it is glued onto foodstuffs because it promises to resuscitate this better version of ourselves.
Secret menus don’t just sell lesser-known dishes that you can brag about trying; they scratch at the memory of being special and promise to revive it. Unlike regular menus that only offer food, secret menus sell you back to yourself. And when the deal is that good, few are above lining up to buy it.
EVERYTHING IS AVAILABLE TO ANYONE WILLING TO PAY FOR IT.