Food On Demand is recognizing The Grill at OnCue as an Outstanding Operator.
Convenience stores with fresh food are no longer a step behind their step-cousins in the quick-service restaurant world. Take OnCue. It operates 75 C-stores in Oklahoma and Texas, with 35 of them having in-store kitchen offerings. And it has been growing, in no small part due to its expanding menu. It is adding four or five stores in 2025, which will include made-to-order kitchens and drive-thrus. And it has been retrofitting existing stores; it did 10 renovations last year. This is clearly a C-store brand with more to offer than hot dogs on roller grills.
These days, in those select locations, OnCue prepares and serves everything from breakfast tacos and biscuits to burgers, chicken strips, pizza, salads, and wings. In many ways it functions like a QSR. But it’s still a C-store, which means it relies heavily on consumers stopping in on their way to work. The dayparts are the crucial parts.
Brad Essary, assistant director of food service at The Grill at OnCue
“Breakfast is king for sure,” said Brad Essary, assistant director of food service, in an interview. “Our breakfast biscuits are a big item for us. And last year we rolled out a waffle sandwich that’s gaining in popularity. Those are our top two performers.”
A kitchen on-site, a production facility off-site
The brand doesn’t prepare all of its food on-site. It still makes some of its menu items, such as its baked goods, at its production facility in Stillwater, OK, and delivers them to stores each day for heating in high-speed ovens. But more and more it’s leaning on its made-to-order operations.
OnCue is smart enough to keep convenience front and center in its proposition, which according to recent surveys is a smart play. This means allowing customers to use its app and website to customize meals, schedule pick-ups, and pay in advance. OnCue works with local tech provider TapTapEat to manage some of these functions, including its relationships with third-party delivery providers, with Postmates being its most-used vendor. While take-out makes up the largest share of the brand’s digital orders, delivery is growing.
TapTapEat
“TapTapEat built out our online platform years ago and has been a wonderful partner,” said Emily Fate, public relations head for the brand, noting how effectively the vendor’s online-ordering and customer-feedback systems work.
The brand has a nifty app and an easy-to-follow points system for rewards members. It’s nimble in the back of the house as well.
“We’re leveraging a lot of technology behind the scenes, which allows our stores to analyze real-time sales to dictate decisions based on time of day and product mix,” Essary said. “Not every store has the same traffic patterns, demographic base, or consumer trends. By looking at real-time sales by time, hour, and item, we can create a custom mix for each store.”
The freshness perception
Smart C-stores like OnCue understand that consumer perception about its food is one of its biggest hurdles. A lot of consumers, particularly those of a certain age, don’t naturally default to C-stores as a top option for a fresh meal. Essary is determined to change that.
“We’re putting quality offerings in our store,” he said. “We’re using good ingredients, sourced from good partners, sometimes with local partners, and we feel this commitment will help us achieve our goals. The more that consumers identify us with high-quality food the more that demand will go up.”
The brand has been finding success with its catering program, which is powered by its off-site bakery, which produces all the decadent donuts you would want.
And for the sugar-conscious, OnCue offers some healthy items that one doesn’t naturally associate with C-stores: yogurt parfaits and fresh fruit cups.
OnCue has survived as a family-owned brand since 1966, with some of the same ownership in place, by knowing what it stands for: grab-and-go food that is reliable, tasty, and now, more than ever, nutritious.
“In the last 10 years we’ve been working to hone the menu and optimizing it a bit more,” said Fate, “and we’re always looking to figure out our audience and simplify things. We’ve gone from using a wide net to get people to try our food to understanding that now we have a reputation and we can focus on figuring out what our hero items are and what people are seeking from our stores. We’re excited for this part of our business to evolve.”
The Outstanding Operators Program highlights 20 innovative brands taking creative paths to success with all things off-premises. Each winner receives a $1,000 charitable donation to its organization of choice and will be recognized on-stage at the 2025 Food On Demand Conference. Register today!
 |
 |
 |
