Like many product launches, Daphne’s new Pita Burger proved challenging. Kitchens had to figure out how to trim cooking times to 6 minutes to accom-modate the chain’s average ticket time.

Ron Lynch, CEO, Tilted Kilt, Tempe, Ariz.

We've expanded our burger section to a whole page on the menu. We also added a 10-ounce burger. We wanted to make the statement: "If you want a great burger, you have to go to the Tilted Kilt."

We went to a fresh burger, increased its quality and gave customers more. But we actually reduced food cost by almost doubling our burger sales.

We did analysis before expanding the menu and determined we had enough staff already at lunch. We found we had labor that could do more prep work. So we could add more items and not have it cost us more in labor.

We had a couple of challenges [adding the Pita Burger]. One was ticket time. We like to get food out in 5 minutes. Initially, during our testing process, the burgers were taking 9 minutes to cook. We figured out a few keys things to speed things up. When a burger is ordered, the cashier has to tell the kitchen to drop a burger immediately.

Also, when the burger is ready, the set-up—grilled bun, roasted red peppers, crumbled feta cheese—has to be ready. We have now gotten it down to a 6-minute ticket time.

Cooking hamburgers on the flattop was a new skill set [for cooks]. We had to teach them about timing and when to flip them.

Dan Kim, CEO and founder, Red Mango, Los Angeles

A lot of chains make the mistake of always adding items to the menu. It is not about frequency of new products but quality of innovation. Yet we do have to keep things fresh, and we've done that in innovative ways.

Bill Fuller, corporate chef, Big Burrito Restaurant Group, Pittsburgh

We got to the point where we have a pretty good-sized menu at Mad Mex. Now it is nearly impossible to find a slot for a new item.

One thing that worked last year was pepitas [or pumpkin seeds] hummus. We make it with toasted pepitas, chickpeas and garlic. Pepitas was the one ingredient we pulled in for the dish. Then we said, "Can we add pepitas to anything else?" We added pepitas to salads and moles. Now pepitas is part of our lexicon. It's a totally cool word, very Mexican and Southwesty.