Nostalgia Sells. Can You Bring Something Back Too?

It’s Time To Leverage Nostalgia Again

The other day, we were driving through downtown Palo Alto and I saw a really long line for some place called CREAM, so I asked my wife what it was. Since she’s more hip to what the buzz is when it comes to restaurants, she told me they were “ice cream sandwiches”. I immediately thought of the old Nestlé Vanilla Ice Cream Sandwiches we used to eat when we were kids.

So I said “Wow. Are people lining up like that for ice cream sandwiches? How can any business NOT survive around here if people are going nuts over mere ice cream sandwiches”

Of course, I found out later that they were “gourmet” ice cream sandwiches, made to order with your choice of fresh baked cookies and your choice of ice cream, and were only $2.50 to boot. Still, I thought: why the insanity over ice cream sandwiches, and of course the same nuttiness over cronuts in other places?

HYPE, of course. There’s nothing really special about these ice cream sandwiches, just read the reviews on Yelp if you want more insight. No, if you think about it, its all about this new wave of nostalgic products breaking over the bough. In case your wondering, here are the keys:

  1. The product has been around for ages
  2. The product is considered a comfort food
  3. The product is given a new modern/hipster/green/fresh/organic (pick one or more – more is better) twist

The same can be said of The Melt, which is basically a place which serves the same kind of comfort food that we all ate when we were kids – namely grilled cheese and tomato soup, with the number 3 treatment above.

I see a pattern here. What other comfort food can we dig up from the past, twist and make a killing at?

  • Pillsbury Bake-off Foods
  • Tuna Noodle Casserole
  • Oven Fried Chicken with cereal crumb topping
  • TV Dinners
  • Root Beer Floats
  • French Bread Pizza
  • Creamed Tuna On Toast, Beans on Toast, hell anything savory on toast
  • Anything in a Crock Pot (how about a whole restaurant with ONLY Crock Pot recipes)
  • Kool-Aid
  • Fondue Pots
  • Chicken Pot Pie
  • Tang
  • Shake & Bake
  • Shake-a-Pudding
  • Hamburger Helper
  • Meatballs in Grape Jelly
  • Pudding Pops
  • Cheezwiz
  • Mallow
  • McRib
  • Pizza Bagels
  • Hawaiian Pizza
  • Anything with sun dried tomatoes!

And hey – if you do come up with something, let me in on the action…. 😉