From the March 19, 2004 print edition
Restaurants, retailers with high-carb products feel the Atkins pinch
Toya Richards Hill
Business First Staff Writer

While the Atkins diet craze might be giving meat retailers and other producers of low-carbohydrate products a boost, it's putting a hurting on those businesses whose bread and butter is high-carb fare.

From bakeries to Italian restaurants, the low-carb diet phenomenon is making an impact, and some say those businesses that don't adjust to the craze just might not survive.

"Our pasta sales have been affected by it," although it's hard to say how much, said Scott Penland, general manager of Ferd Grisanti Italian restaurant at 10212 Taylorsville Road in Jeffersontown.

The restaurants "that are going to survive are going to have to offer some healthy alternatives for people," Penland said.

Much has been written lately about the diet created by the late Dr. Robert C. Atkins that promotes controlled use of carbohydrate products -- including breads and pastas -- in order to lose weight.

Although the diet has been around for several years, it has gained exposure recently as national restaurant chains scramble to make their menus appealing to Atkins followers.

Included in that mix is T.G.I. Friday's restaurants, which tout the chain's Atkins-approved menu; Subway sandwich shop, which offers Atkins-friendly wraps; and sandwich-maker Blimpie, which offers a "Carb Counter Menu."
Menu adjustments made locally, too

Penland said Ferd Grisanti officials have had to make adjustments to what they offer to keep up with customers' low-carb demands.

"We have experimented with whole-wheat pasta and rice pasta ... because people have asked for it," he said. "We get calls all the time from people asking what (low-carb) alternatives we offer."

Servers at Ferd Grisanti tell guests that the whole-wheat and rice pastas are available, but they're not listed on the menu, Penland said.

Penland said there also has been a shift, of sorts, in the regular menu selections that customers choose.

"We are selling more dishes like our salmon," he said. "We're selling more steaks, more chicken dishes than we used to" before Atkins caught on.

He said that a few years ago, the restaurant also started offering a choice of a vegetable as a side item with its dinners.

Before that, "we used to offer just a pasta side with most of our dinners," Penland said.

Adjustments also have been made at Lotsa Pasta grocery and deli, located at 3717 Lexington Road in St. Matthews.

"We have looked into making a low-carb pasta, which we have done using a soy flour," said John Hale, who owns the business with his wife, Vicki Hale.

"We started making that probably two months ago," after getting requests for low-carb pasta, he said.

"We are selling it," he said, but "it's not a big seller by any means."

Hale said he and his staff also have been experimenting with making low-carb bread, although they haven't yet come up with a suitable product yet.
Problems lie in taste, appearance

Helen Friedman, the owner of Desserts by Helen, has been looking for a low-carb formula for cake, but she hasn't had much success.

"I've tried a couple, (but) they have not worked well," she said. "They didn't look well or taste good."

Friedman said one low-carb chocolate cake she made was "rubbery," while a low-carb cheesecake she tried had "wrinkles" on the top.

"I'm going to a bakers' convention in about two weeks, and I was going to look for something that might work," she said.

These problems are the reason that Friedman, who has shops at 9209 U.S. Highway 42 in Prospect and 2210 Bardstown Road in the Highlands, says any low-carb items she adds at this point will simply be an extra option, and not part of her mainstream offerings.

"It would be nice to have (a low-carb option) for customers," she said. But when people buy a cake for "a special occasion, they want something really good."

"I don't want (to sell) something that is crummy and tastes lousy," Friedman said.
Association trying to set record straight

Nationally, the effect of low-carb mania has been much the same as for high-carb producers in Louisville.

"Clearly, people are consuming less bread and pasta products," said Jack Russo, a St. Louis, Mo.-based senior analyst with A.G. Edwards & Sons Inc.

Among the companies Russo covers is Panera Bread Co., also based in St. Louis.

"High-protein diets are very popular and will continue to be," he said.

"How long it lasts, I have no idea," said Russo. But "clearly it's going to continue for a while."

Paul Abenante, president and CEO of the Washington, D.C.-based American Bakers Association, had similar thoughts.

"The carb craze has certainly had an impact on our industry," he said. "We are very concerned about it."

Abenante's association represents 80 percent of the market of the wholesale baking industry in the United States and abroad.

"I think the whole carb craze got a lot larger and bigger than anybody ever thought it would," he said.

Abenante said the current biggest challenge his industry faces is trying to educate the public on "the nutritional value of grain-based food."

There is "misinformation" being spread "about the affects of carbs on diets and health," he said, referring to the notion that carbohydrates are unhealthy.

He said the American Bakers Association is working on a national education program about grain-based foods "to help set the record straight" and "to convey some good, sound information."
Local bakery banking on healthy aspects of bread keeping consumers

Despite the low-carb hype, one of the owners of Blue Dog Bakery & Cafe at 2868 Frankfort Ave. said she's banking on the healthy nature of the company's bread to keep consumers coming.

"We certainly have people come in for lunch and they want their sandwich without bread. ... It certainly hasn't been a good thing for business, but I don't really see it as a long-term problem," said Kit Garrett, who owns the business with her husband, Robert Hancock.

"As far as the cafe menu, we always make sure there are things on there that can satisfy people," she said. "We just try to accommodate people's requests."

Overall, Blue Dog customers "are buying a healthy product," she said. "We don't add preservatives; we don't add sugar."

Bread "very much can be a part of a healthy way of living," Garrett said. "We haven't tried to change what we are doing because we are producing a healthy product."

She joked that customers only need look at her staff as proof of bread's healthiness.

"I happen to have ... very skinny bakers on staff," Garrett said.