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Millennials are hungry for personalization, and when it comes to dining out, they put their money where their mouth is. Nearly 90 percent of millennials said they look for fast, casual food that’s more customized – and they’re willing to pay for it.

As a growing demographic whose members spend more food dollars eating out than any other generation, these consumers are a group you want to win over when you’re in the restaurant industry.

That’s why customizable food concepts – from build-your-own salads and pizza to poké bowls and burritos – have taken the market by storm, prompting a sales increase that’s double what’s been seen at traditional restaurants in recent years.

While traditional quick and full-service restaurants scramble to accommodate the customization generation, franchises like Angry Crab Shack – with built-in, build-your-own menu items – are ahead of the trend and positioned for success.

Angry Crab Shack menu options

Here’s more on why customization is one of the fastest-growing trends in the restaurant industry, and how Angry Crab Shack franchise owners are able to capitalize on this wide consumer shift:

Customization is King

Today’s consumers, and millennials in particular, want food items that are fresh, creative and made just for them. As the principal consumer generation with more than $600 billion in purchasing power in the U.S. alone, they are shaping the national and global economy, while driving trends in every industry.

The millennial definition of personalized, made-to-order food goes way beyond choosing a soup or salad side, however. Instead, they want restaurant meals that are completely customizable in their entirety, and can be easily altered in any number of ways. More than a third of millennials order something different whenever they visit a restaurant, so mix-and-match concepts, which let guests build something different each time, are thriving.

No one knows this better than our team at Angry Crab Shack, where guests can’t get enough of the endless combinations they can create with our made-from-scratch seafood boil. All they have to do is pick their favorite seafood item, choose a savory sauce and spice it up the way they like. With priced-by-the-pound seafood options that range from shrimp and king crab to lobster and crawfish, guests have limitless possibilities for their build-your-own seafood boil.

Angry Crab Shack seafood boil

Combine that with one of six different heat indexes, and sauce options like Kajun, lemon pepper and garlic, and guests are able to completely customize their entrée. Add-ons like seasonal vegetables, corn on the cob and red potatoes allow them to further personalize their boil, and additional fixin’s like fries, onion rings and cole slaw complete their meal for a fully-customizable experience.

A Taste for Creative Culinary Combinations

Not only are millennials responsible for the build-your-own food trend explosion, their affinity for global cuisine and ethnic meal mashups have also largely defined the industry – and served as a boon for our brand. More than any other generation, millennials are interested in visiting restaurants that offer dishes with new or innovative flavors and ingredients. Nearly half of them also say they would like restaurants to offer more ethnically-inspired foods and beverages. Lately, Southeast Asian spices and ingredients like Sriracha have been cropping up in restaurant menus across genres, but these flavors have been longstanding mainstays at Angry Crab Shack.

Large pot of boiling freshwater cray fish

Our Asian Cajun fusion concept perfectly blends the sweet and savory mashups and peppery seasonings that have been making waves among consumers in recent years. In all of our menu options, Cajun spices bring the heat and color from ingredients like paprika and cayenne, while Asian spices fill out our savory flavors with ginger and garlic. The perfect mix of these two flavor profiles creates the signature Angry Crab taste that keeps our guests coming back for more.

At Angry Crab Shack, we’ve turned cooking delicious seafood into a very profitable business by giving our guests a completely customized and unique dining experience. Our seafood boil, with endless flavor combinations, lets guests pick and choose their ingredients, while exploring ethnically-inspired cuisine and spices. For the increasingly individualized yet globally-conscious consumer, Angry Crab Shack is the perfect dining destination, and our concept is in more demand now than ever.

To learn more about franchise opportunities with Angry Crab Shack, get started here!

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