Operations
Lion’s Choice refuses to compromise despite rising beef costs
Despite rising beef prices, Lion's Choice, a St. Louis-based QSR, is refusing to compromise on the quality or portion size of its signature roast beef, instead opting for alternative cost-saving measures and strategic menu pricing.
September 12, 2025 by Mandy Wolf Detwiler — Editor, Networld Media Group
Lion's Choice, a beloved St. Louis QSR known for its slow-roasted, extra-thin roast beef, is navigating a challenging market as beef prices continue to soar to unprecedented levels. The price surge, which has seen beef and veal costs rise by over 10% or higher in the last year, is the result of a perfect storm of factors: America's shrinking cattle herds alongside persistent drought conditions that have raised feed costs.
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Fred Burmer, CEO of Lion's Choice. Photo: Lion's Choice |
For a company that prides itself on using premium top round beef, these sustained supply constraints and heightened costs present a significant test to its traditional business model, forcing a delicate balance between absorbing rising expenses and passing them on to loyal customers.
The brand has 24 restaurants in Illinois and Missouri. Eighty-five percent of sales comes from Lion's Choice's roast beef products, its award-winning fries and its custard. But while beef prices have risen, Lion's Choice CEO Fred Burmer refuses to compromise on quality, insisting his customers could tell if the brand substituted a cheaper beef product.
The menu has been expanded to include chicken products like a sandwich and tenders, ham, turkey and baked potatoes mainly for those who simply don't want roast beef on a given day.
Creativity with efficiency
One of Burmer's tenets is thinking outside the box when it comes to rising prices. Though the brand did raise its prices 4% in July, it's finding alternate ways to save money. For instance, two years ago amidst rising paper costs, it chose reusable baskets for in-house dining rather than the paper products it had been using, saving 1%. Burmer said it was a nicer presentation and was a move that was well received by customers.
"You've got to think outside the box when it comes to rising prices," Burmer said in a phone interview with QSRweb.com. "You can't simply pass all the price increases onto the consumer. You've got to figure out ways to become more efficient."
Burmer said few consumers realize the small margins that QSRs produce. There's not a lot to absorb, and brands simply can't pass on all those rising costs to customers.
"We refuse to compromise on the beef quality," Burmer said. "We've certainly been approached by vendors who suggested or at least asked us to try a lesser cut of meat. We refuse to even entertain that idea and we're certainly not going to change our portion sizes."
Instead, Lion's Choice is looking at strategic pricing, including bundled meals for two, three or even four people. When you raise the price point, brands can take a smaller margin and still make a profit, Burmer added.
Lion's Choice has loyal customers, and should the brand take any shortcuts on portion sizes or on any of the products "that would be a big disaster for us," Burmer said. The brand's original menu will always be the same, but the brand is also venturing out on items like premium sandwiches such as The Cubano which was launched six months ago. At $8.99, it's the most expensive sandwich on the menu but has proven to be popular.
"Lion's Choice is an institution," Burmer said. "We've got a loyal customer base and we're just never going to do anything to change that, and frankly, we wouldn't get away with that. Our customers notice just about anything we do different."
The brand has saved on labor by moving some tasks around to other parts of the day. They don't want to cut back on labor during the busiest parts of the day, but they were using a lot of hours before they even opened on prep work.
"It's a waste to have four bodies for two hours or three hours in the morning before we're even open," Burmer said. "There's no customers there, but they had things that they needed to get done, so we just moved them to different parts of the day. And we were able to get everything done."
Surplus hours were added to peak times in the restaurants.
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Photo: Lion's Choice |
Banking on taste
Burmer added that quality and taste of the food come before price. "Companies that make it about the price, I see the falling by the wayside," Burmer said. "What we have to do is make sure we make that food right. That's a sacred obligation that we have, and we treat it very seriously."
Lion's Choice just began a campaign with its teams dubbed "Slow Down and Get it Right." Consumers tend to choose restaurants based on three reasons: price, convenience and speed, but the majority choose based on the food quality and taste.
"Slow Down and Get It Right" is a campaign Lion's Choice kicked off this week. While it usually takes three and a half minutes in a drive-thru to get an order, Lion's Choice isn't afraid to take four minutes, banking on the fact that customers would rather have a perfect order than get it faster.
"We don't think a customer is going to mind if it takes an extra 30 seconds if we get it right," Burmer said, "and that means accurate. That means it's made the way it's supposed to be made. If for some reason something doesn't look right, we take an extra 30 seconds and just make it right."
Burmer said customers realize that Lion's Choice needs to turn a profit, but they also expect the food to be quality and abundant. "I think it's a short-sighted view to try a trick people or to try shrinkflation," he added.
Many Lion's Choice customers aren't dead set on price, instead focused on quality.
"I rarely hear a complaint about the price if it isn't attached to something else. Either they had bad service that day or the product wasn't very good," Burmer added. "The food is sacred. Making that food right is sacred."
About Mandy Wolf Detwiler
Mandy Wolf Detwiler is the managing editor at Networld Media Group and the site editor for PizzaMarketplace.com and QSRweb.com. She has more than 20 years’ experience covering food, people and places.
An award-winning print journalist, Mandy brings more than 20 years’ experience to Networld Media Group. She has spent nearly two decades covering the pizza industry, from independent pizzerias to multi-unit chains and every size business in between. Mandy has been featured on the Food Network and has won numerous awards for her coverage of the restaurant industry. She has an insatiable appetite for learning, and can tell you where to find the best slices in the country after spending 15 years traveling and eating pizza for a living.
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