These food service brands are putting a twist on tradition with culinary mash ups blending flavours and cuisines
By Hannah Foulger
Food mashups are on the rise. As more and more people are catching on to the business potential of franchising, it becomes more and more necessary to hold a unique niche in a market or neighbourhood. By combining different cuisines, food service businesses can appeal to a large audience while introducing new, interesting offerings. These fusion food franchises provide ever-expanding menus that keep the competition on their toes.
Prairie Donair
Prairie Donair is traditional donair. It’s chicken shawarma. It’s falafel. It’s gyro. It’s … Teriyaki crunch?
Prairie Donair is fresh on the franchise scene. With locations located largely in the major urban centres of the prairie provinces, opportunities are ripe for Canadian-Mediterranean fusion. Some of their offerings include the Traditional Lamb Donair, Traditional Chicken Shawarma, and falafel pitas, which are excellent sellers in their own right.
What makes Prairie Donair so unique, though, are the twists they put on their menu items to reflect different Canadian locales—from the Canadian Maple Donair and East Coast Beef Donair to the West Coast and Spicy Signature donairs. Their innovative menu even includes twists on popular flavours like philly cheesesteak and teriyaki.
Founded in Regina, Saskatchewan in 2009, Prairie Donair has been franchising since 2019. President Joshua Bagchi started with four Prairie Donair restaurants of his own to work out the kinks and develop proof of concept.
“It took me quite a few years to figure it out,” Bagchi says. “I just went for it. I didn’t know where it would go, but I was a dreamer, and I wanted to keep moving forward.”
With three more stores in construction this year, and nine other opportunities in development, Prairie Donair is moving fast. For franchisees, Bagchi says, one of the benefits is an accessible price point. “We pride ourselves on not needing a canopy system to prepare foods that are really good,” he says. Another benefit is the fulsome support the brand offers. “I’m really involved, my team is involved. We’re a phone call away. At the end of the day, the franchise businesses are the face of the company … as well as the uniqueness of our product.”
The phrase “Prairie Donair” might seem unusual, as donair is a uniquely Nova Scotian fusion food. Developed in the 1970s, it traditionally features sliced ground beef wrapped in a pita with onions and tomatoes, and topped with signature sweet donair sauce, and is inspired by traditional Turkish doners. Prairie Donair takes this Halifax dish and brings it across Canada, along the way infusing it with a number of cuisines that Canada is now home to.
For Bagchi, fusion food is not just about Westernized takes on global dishes, but also about developing new ways of preparing these items—including fusing quality cooking with innovative technology. Prairie Donair has designed a new MATLAB cooking system that can generate $2,000 to $3,000 a day in revenue, as it prepares food quicker than more traditional cooking methods. “That is our biggest innovation that we’ve done as a company to keep up with the times, that I haven’t seen many other brands do,” he says.
Another part of Prairie Donair’s innovation is the development of a franchisee portal. If franchisees run into a problem outside of head office’s operation hours and can’t reach anyone right away, they can find the information they need in the online portal. This is useful for many issues, like a broken-down oven, or even more day-to-day tasks like cleaning the kitchen equipment.
Todays restaurants face a challenge as food costs continue to rise, but Bagchi is working on a new menu that is built to be cost-effective for their franchisees. “It’s something I think can sustain the future,” Bagchi says. “Like items that don’t have a roller coaster of price increases, items that aren’t so heavily protein-based.”
With five restaurants opening up this year, nine more in the works, and a development deal to open up 30 locations in British Colombia over the next ten years, Prairie Donair has its sights set on an expansive and innovative future.
Smoke’s Poutinerie
Poutine has become a uniquely Canadian experience, topping many tourists’ to-do lists while visiting the Great White North. And, given the meal’s legacy, it may surprise you to know that the word “poutinerie” was first used as a corporate identity and trademarked by franchise powerhouse Smoke’s Poutinerie, who opened their first location in 2009.
While poutine was created in Quebec in the 1950s, it’s had a slow rise to becoming the iconic Canadian dish we all know today. Smoke’s Poutinerie has benefited, and even contributed to, that rise in fame as they continue to expand the very definition of the word “poutine” each year.
Smoke’s Poutinerie’s ongoing rise in the market can be attributed to not only their innovative approach to fusion food, but also their unique branding inspired by ’80s glam rock. In every restaurant you’ll find their original Smoke’s Radio setlist playing—or see the new Smoke-A-Vision TVs, airing ’80s music videos on repeat.
The brand calls their customers “fans,” who are largely 18-25 years old. So, you’ll find Smoke’s Poutinerie where the young people are: universities, arenas, airports, and nightclub districts, like their original location on Adelaide St. W. in Toronto. They open from 11 a.m. to 4 a.m. each day, and 5 a.m. on Fridays and Saturdays (or is it technically Sunday at that point?).
According to president and chief operations officer Mark Cunningham, “Smoke’s is an entertainment company that happens to sell poutine.”
Smoke’s is Canadian through and through, sourcing their ingredients from homegrown producers. Considering the potato’s supreme importance to the success of the brand, Smoke’s started its own potato distribution company in 2012. Spuds are sourced from P.E.I., and cheese curds from Quebec. The brand’s potatoes are low in sugar because they are cut fresh in the restaurant and then blanched to get that crispy outer coating and soft interior.
But it’s what’s on top of the fries that really catches the eye.
“Anything we can think of [to put] on top of our poutine, we’ll try it … You can travel around the world through your visits to Smoke’s Poutinerie,” Cunningham says. Menu items include the ever-popular butter chicken poutine, Korean Beef BBQ, or varieties topped with shawarma fillings or jerk chicken.
Cunningham adds that “menu fatigue” is always a challenge, but that’s where marketing helps. “Twenty per cent of your menu drives 80 per cent of your sales, but you have to have a lot of noise in it. Our vegetarian category is only about about five per cent of our menu mix, but it is an important five per cent,” he explains. “We have to be very conscious of that and bring innovation [to that category], and not to ignore it. We try to tweak a lot, and [bring out new varieties] on limited time offer.”
For example, their holiday poutine arrives in October and is showered in turkey, cranberry sauce, and stuffing. This kind of offer is particularly important for the franchises on college campuses, which are only open from September until April.
The ideal franchisee for the Smoke’s team might not be the typical business owner. In the initial interview process, they will ask a potential franchisee, “What song do you want to play on air guitar?” Cunningham says, “That’s a lot of pressure for a potential franchisee, but the ones that can do it are the successful ones.”
What’s next for Smoke’s Poutinerie? “Unlimited potential,” Cunningham says. “Winnipeg, [Manitoba] is a great example. We have two locations, and I think we could grow a third. There’s lots of cities across Canada with growth opportunities. We also have Smoke’s on wheels, which is the mobile part of the business. That brings us an opportunity to bring poutine to the people.”
He also says that non-traditional venues are also a great option, including ghost kitchens and bigger retailers like Walmart. Smoke’s is now at the Toronto Zoo and looks to grow into amusement parks and arenas across Canada too. Because of course, what’s more Canadian than hockey and poutine?
