Molly McGrath doesn’t think Mediterranean food can be summed up as just grilled meat in a pita. She thinks almost any flavor can work in any cuisine — so long as it’s made deliciously.
That’s exactly what McGrath, head chef and culinary director at Roti Modern Mediterranean, hopes to prove at the company’s new Exploration Kitchen.
“If I’m a customer and I just want something that’s like an indulgent burrito, how on earth do I order that at Roti? And how do I meet that craving with these awesome flavors that we already have?” she asked.
The test kitchen, inside the restaurant’s West Loop restaurant at 1012 W. Randolph St., is a place where McGrath and other Roti employees can experiment with recipes before rolling them out companywide. Before it opened, McGrath tried out recipes at her own, smaller test kitchen near Roti’s corporate office.
Roasted tahini cauliflower is among their most popular experiments. The cauliflower dish, roasted in house and tossed in a spicy tahini sauce, was created in response to the ongoing conversation surrounding meatless, plant-based alternatives. It gives people who don’t eat meat another choice for protein that isn’t falafel.
Another hit in the kitchen is grass-fed spicy steak, which is grilled on-site before it’s tossed in a sweet & spicy s’hug sauce. The spicy steak led to a realization for McGrath: “It’s like a Venn diagram; all our steak customers are also spicy customers.”
Roti Modern Mediterranean is a fast-casual restaurant chain based in Chicago’s Fulton River District. With over 40 restaurants in seven states — a quarter of which are in Chicago — the company emphasizes its wholesome ingredients that fall in line with the Mediterranean diet.
The Exploration Kitchen opened in October, but Roti is not the first restaurant in the city to open a public test kitchen; Yolk, a Chicago-based breakfast spot, opened one in 2018.
“The entire restaurant, from aesthetic to service, was a test for us — for us to really engage with our customers, to see what works and what doesn’t,” said Gianluca Pesce, Yolk’s director of marketing and communications. “We asked for feedback, and have added new menu items to our other 15 locations in the country.”
That’s not to say there weren’t challenges. Yolk first opened its test kitchen as fast-casual — but soon discovered that’s not what customers wanted.
“We found that people liked that ‘Yolk service,’” Pesce said. “Lots of people came expecting that. We listened and switched, and now it’s full service.”
Roti’s test kitchen is easily set apart from the restaurant’s other locations — one major difference being the curated menu offered in addition to its usual Chipotle-style make-your-own meal format.
The cauliflower and steak are offered on the curated menu as a Roasted Tahini Cauliflower Plate and Spicy Steak and Hummus Feta Bowl. The third menu item is a Mediterranean Caesar Salad.
“If people come into us and they’re new to Roti, they tend to go immediately to the curated menu — and that’s really what it’s designed for, for that first-timer,” she said. “We have nine sauces and six sides — it’s not quite infinite, but it’s a lot of combinations, and we put [the curated menu] together because we know it’s overwhelming.”
Deciding on the kitchen’s menu started with an internal test panel made up of McGrath and Roti CEO Carl Segal, who McGrath describes as a “complete, 100% foodie.” Then, they offered samples to staff and some customers.
Tablets in the restaurant allowed customers to share feedback on items that made the menu.
“Consumers are more likely to want to give more robust and verbose feedback because they feel like they’re participating in something that might improve the system and their own experience,” said Aaron Allen, a global restaurant consultant.
Other additions to the Exploration Kitchen have been more subtle; its spicier spices were toned down and the warmer ones toned up. They’ve also left some things off the menu, like couscous (which was swapped for black lentils) and one type of chicken (as opposed to the two offered at most spots).
No changes have been rolled out companywide yet, but McGrath said a few things probably will be, including curated menus. The challenge, she said, is making the changes in an all-inclusive way.
“We just want to make sure we’re doing it right and making sure we’re not just catering to a very high-end West Loop palate when we’re also in the suburbs of Maryland — just making sure if we change something, we’re making sure it’s right for all our customers,” McGrath said.
The next thing on McGrath’s plate? Dessert, of course.
The kitchen is experimenting with some Mediterranean-inspired sweets including chocolate hummus and Greek-style yogurt, though neither are available for purchase yet.
“We’re really trying to crack the code on dessert,” she said. “There are a lot of things that we love with sweets that fit our menu; we just haven’t figured out how to bring those to life quite the right way yet.”
