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Shari's Intros Major Menu Redesign

Shari's Family Restaurants, the Northwest chain with 98 locations, takes a pioneering step in menu design for the family dining category with a new spiral-bound cafe style menu. This multi-page menu features larger photos of highlighted plates, plus tabs to help customers find the type of food they desire.

"Our guests have enthusiastically embraced this new style of menu," reports David Archer, Shari's Vice President of Marketing. "Family dining has been called 'the laminated menu category' with years of big floppy fold-out menus. Shari's new spiral menus move us beyond that stigma and deliver a menu that is more convenient to use, in a contemporary upscale look that better reflects the range of products we currently offer."

Over the past few years Shari's has enhanced their menu by focusing on Gourmet Sandwiches, Entree Salads, and Breakfast line extensions. The sandwich introductions included a Cuban Sandwich, Mega Melt Panini, and the Manhattan Deli Reuben. Entree Salads featured the addition of a Thai Noodle Salad, Mediterranean Chopped Salad, and Chipotle Chicken Salad. The enhanced breakfast offerings include the rollout of Classic Quiche, and the recent introduction of "Stuffed Hashbrowns."

"This new menu format provides a wonderful opportunity to present our plates to customers in a way that really focuses their attention," says Kevin Bechtel, Shari's Senior Vice President of Menu Development. "For example, when they open to the entree salad section, they are immersed in a wonderful selection of visually-appealing choices. The salads are not competing for attention with burgers and omelettes and prime rib as they would be on a fold-out menu."

After test market success, Shari's spiral book menus have now rolled out to all 98 locations.

About Shari's Restaurants: Shari's (www.sharis.com) is the largest full-service restaurant chain based in the Pacific Northwest. Founded in 1978 and operated by Shari's Management Corporation of Beaverton, Oregon, Shari's Restaurants provide customers high quality, reasonably-priced meals 24-hours a day in a comfortable surrounding. Shari's menu features a full selection of breakfasts, salads, gourmet sandwiches, hamburgers, dinner entrees, desserts and pies. With nearly 4,500 employees, the chain currently has 98 locations throughout Oregon, Washington, California, Wyoming, Idaho, and Nebraska.