Cosi found a way to bake quiche in a hearth oven using prepared croissants, lower oven flame and oversized muffin pans.

Ovens are a big part of the story. The high heat of a hearth oven is great for baking bread, but it takes some noodling to figure out how to make it turn out a satisfactory quiche. David Utley should know. The corporate executive chef and culinary director behind Deerfield, Ill.-based Cosi's January breakfast menu expansion, Utley spent a year of trial and error before his eureka moment.

"I tried adapting the Cosi square-bagel dough, but it came out too tough. I tried pastry and pie crusts, but couldn't adjust the heat enough to keep from burning those," Utley recalls.

Finally, watching somebody slice a fully baked croissant horizontally, Utley had an idea: "I took half of that croissant and stuffed it in an oversized muffin tin. It fit exactly."

Cooks now pour quiche batter over the croissant and bake it bread-pudding-style over a lower flame during off-peak hours. Available in two varieties, Hearth-Baked Quiche Lorraine and Hearth-Baked Garden Vegetable Quiche, the product is one of the top-selling new breakfast options at the 152-unit chain.

At Minneapolis-based Buffalo Wild Wings, which recently rolled a line of Wild Flatbreads to its 581 units, a hearth oven would have been a blessing, says Sylvia Matzke-Hill, director of research and development. She had to figure out how to use the chain's underutilized convection ovens instead.

Tested as a limited-time offer last fall, the flatbreads did so well Buffalo Wild Wings moved them to the core menu in January. Matzke-Hill is now using the ovens to bake more flatbread flavors, a new specialty sandwich line and desserts.

Ovens are also the pivot point for innovation at Bonfire Restaurants Co., a regional, Minneapolis-based chain of nine casual-dining Axel's and Axel's Bonfire restaurants. Maximizing use of wood-burning pizza ovens has put more of the food preparation in view of the guests and allowed the company to reduce labor in the back kitchens.

"For about eight years, we only used the wood-burning pizza oven for pizzas," says Mo Moore, director of culinary and purchasing for the chain. But six months ago, with business falling off, Moore started using the grill for a lot of other dishes. "It just made sense to build on the equity we have with that smoky, grilled flavor," he says.

Barbecue without the smoker: Gordon Biersch's beer-soaked BBQ Pork Sliders.

In the back of the house, some operators say gas-fired pizza ovens are too big and expensive to include on a cooking line. For non-pizza restaurants, adaptive use of the ovens to prepare more than pizza makes sense.

"We use one deck of our pizza oven for pizza and the other to do all sorts of other things," says Bill Heckler, corporate executive chef for 38-unit Gordon Biersch Brewery Restaurant Group, which is based in Chattanooga, Tenn. Finishing steaks is one use. Steaming mussels in beer, another: "The intense heat lets them cook quickly and chars the shells a little," Heckler says.

Heckler also uses the pizza oven for Cedar Plank Salmon, a $20.95 entree he launched last June that is now Gordon Biersch's top-selling seafood item. Normally, cedar-plank salmon would be prepared slowly over a grill. To speed preparation and get the same smoky results, Heckler heats the wood on the grill, sears the salmon on both sides in a saute pan, puts the fish on the grilled plank, covers it with a honey-pecan crust and finishes it in the pizza oven. "The preparation takes 7 to 8 minutes instead of 20 to 30," he says.

Zach Bredemann, corporate executive chef of 21-unit Kona Grill, uses the pizza oven to fast-bake 7-ounce crocks of macaroni and cheese, a new side dish and kids menu item launching this month at the Scottsdale, Ariz.-based chain. During rush times Bredemann says the pizza station is less active, freeing up space to prepare the mac and cheese and lessening the load in other parts of the kitchen.

Creative Melting

Kitchen innovation isn't limited to ovens. Both Hooters and Famous Dave's recently launched shareable appetizers that are prepared outside that box.

Without the equipment to make potato skins, Hooters created a similar flavor sensation: Lots-a-Tots, a tower of cheese-sauce-slathered tater tots topped with bacon, green onion and sour cream.

Minneapolis-based Famous Dave's is introducing an expanded line of dishes that capitalize on its hickory-wood-fueled smoker. Its Not'cho Ordinary Nachos ($4.99 for nachos for two; $7.99 for Nachos Grande), tortilla chips topped with either Texas beef brisket or Georgia chopped pork, cheddar cheese, Wilbur beans, chili, lettuce, tomato, jalapeños and seasoned sour cream, launches this month. Choosing a finer shred of cheese, "means we got the cheese to melt without adding a salamander," says Aric Nissan, vice president of marketing and research and development for the 174-unit chain.

Emulating Korean-style twice-cooked meats, Culver's summertime ribs are smoked and roasted by its supplier and flash-fried to order in the units.

Other chains have figured out how to do barbecue without a smoker. Gordon Biersch braises spice-rubbed pork butt in beer overnight in a 200-degree gas oven. The shredded pork is sauteed to order for the chain's $8.95 BBQ Pork Sliders or BBQ Pork Sandwich.

Taking a page from Korean recipe books, Jim Doak, director of research and development at Prairie du Sac, Wis.-based Culver's, created twice-cooked ribs. Culver's purchases ribs that have already been dry-rub-seasoned, smoked and slow-roasted by its supplier. These are then flash-fried to order in the units.

"We have great competency with the fryer," says Doak. "This capitalizes on that." A recurring summer offering, Culver's BBQ Ribs, $9.99 for a full slab, is one of the 396-unit chain's top-three performing seasonal items.