Flavor Trailblazer: Cole Thompson

With nearly four years at the helm of culinary strategy for WOWorks, Cole Thompson operates at a different altitude than many brand chefs. As VP of culinary, he oversees menu strategy and product development across a portfolio of fast casuals that includes Saladworks, Barberitos (Southwestern-style concept specializing in customizable burritos, tacos, salads, quesadillas and nachos), The Simple Greek, Garbanzo Mediterranean Fresh, Zoup! Eatery and Frutta Bowls (a customizable açai bowl concept). That means balancing creativity with operational discipline across diverse consumer bases, cuisines and dayparts.

In this conversation, Thompson shares how he times trends in the TikTok era, why protein and GLP-1 filters are reshaping menu transparency, how Dubai chocolate became a breakout LTO, and why a Philly cheesesteak burrito makes perfect sense at a Southwestern fast casual.

Katie Ayoub: Describe your role at WOWorks.
Cole Thompson: I like to say my role is balancing creativity with scalability, making sure what inspires us as chefs can also be executed operationally across hundreds of restaurants. I oversee anything culinary related across all of our brands.

KA: When it comes to menu innovation, what is the biggest challenge right now across the portfolio?
CT: Timing the trends just right. With TikTok and other social media, trends come and go quicker than they ever have. If you move too early, customers may not know what it is yet. If you move too late, you’re behind. When we’ve timed it just right, we’ve seen a big difference in results. But we’ve also been both early and late at times, so it’s a constant learning curve. It feels great when you hit it just right, but it’s a moving target.

KA: Which brand skews the youngest?
CT: Frutta Bowls, which focuses on açai bowls and smoothies, definitely skews younger. That younger demographic is why we introduced Dubai chocolate at this concept. We knew that they would recognize it and be more likely to buy it. It ended up being the best LTO menu that Frutta Bowls has ever done—and we do one almost every quarter. Whether we bring it back or not depends on whether that train is still moving later this year. It’s on the table because it performed so well, but we don’t know yet.

KA: Let’s talk about Barberitos, your Southwestern-inspired fast casual.
CT: Barberitos skews Millennial; it’s very family-friendly. It’s mostly in the Southeast, based out of Athens, Ga. It’s similar to a Chipotle or Moe’s, but it feels more local. Barberitos is actually our fastest-growing brand. We have close to 50 locations and are planning to open 15 to 20 more in 2026.

KA: What is driving that growth?
CT: High-quality, super-clean ingredients. Everything is made from scratch. There are bold flavors without being intimidating—it’s very approachable and gives today’s consumers what they’re looking for.

KA: How do you filter trends through the Barberitos lens?
CT: It starts with the customer—what they’re looking for and what they’re willing to pay for. We ask: Does this trend fit how they eat? How adventurous are they? Does it align with our flavor DNA and our clean-ingredient ethos? And then operationally, can it work? If it passes those filters, it’s in a good position to succeed.

KA: What’s doing well on the menu today?
CT: We launched a signature menu about a year ago. Historically, Barberitos has been build-your-own, but the signature menu has done really well. And although we mostly stay close to our Southwestern-Mexican, one of our top-selling recent LTOs is the Philly Cheesesteak Burrito. So we’re willing to explore mash-ups, especially given the success with that menu item.

KA: How do you filter trends across brands through the larger WOWorks lens?
CT: Sweet heat continues to surprise me with its staying power. We did a Hot Honey Chicken Salad at Saladworks in 2023 that performed well. Now, I love seeing the trend move into different elements for sweet and heat, mixing it up with different peppers and sweeteners, making it unique per brand. At Garbanzo, we ran a hot honey pomegranate sauce across salads, bowls and plates. Of course, pomegranate is a regular on Mediterranean menus, but I wasn’t sure how it would do in a sweet-heat application and it ended up performing really well. I’m enjoying playing around with unique interpretations of what sweet heat can mean for each concept.

KA: Saladworks is rolling out protein bowls with warm proteins. Talk about that innovation.
CT: We’ve been testing new protein bowls for a couple months, and they performed so well we’re rolling them out systemwide in April. This is the first time in Saladworks history we’re offering warm proteins like roasted chicken and grilled steak. Guests can choose double protein, and we’ve layered in flavors like hot honey chicken and sweet chile shrimp. It’s not just high protein—it’s flavor-forward protein.

KA: All WOWorks brands offer a lifestyle filter online. How is that performing?
CT: It’s honestly one of our best-kept secrets: We have a nutritional website tool where guests can filter by calorie range, protein minimums, fiber, allergens—even GLP-1. You can plug in something like ‘under 500 calories and over 25 grams of protein,’ and it will build meals for you using our ingredients. Saladworks has had it for four or five years, and then we rolled it out across all our brands a few years ago because it performed so well. Initially, guests were choosing filters like gluten-free, vegan and vegetarian. Recently, we’re seeing more GLP-1 and high-protein usage. We’re in a good position to capitalize on that trend because we’re already in the better-for-you space.

QUICKFIRE

Source of inspiration:
Anywhere and everywhere. Talking to you about GLP-1s gives me ideas. I talk to team members in stores and customers every day. They know better than anyone what our guests are looking for. Travel is also huge for me. Experiencing authentic street food and culture, then combining that with social media.

Something in your fridge that would surprise people:
Coconut whipped cream! We’re rolling it out at Frutta Bowls as a non-dairy whipped topping. It’s so good that my wife, kids and I eat it straight out of the bowl. I’ll probably never eat regular whipped cream again.

Best bite you’ve had recently:
I was in Korea and had bibim naengmyeon: cold buckwheat noodles with a spicy-sweet sauce. I didn’t think I’d love cold noodles that much, but it’s one of the best things I’ve ever had. The texture of the noodles was perfect—bouncy and chewy—and paired with a unique version of gochujang. It was unbelievable.

Flavor or ingredient you’re most excited about right now:
Ube. I’ve been playing around with it, especially for Frutta Bowls, and we’ll maybe feature it in a sorbet. For an açai and smoothie concept, that bright purple visual really stands out. I also recently had an ube-espresso martini that blew me away.

Go-to late night snack:
It used to be ice cream. Now it’s cacao sorbet from Frutta Bowls. It’s better for you than chocolate ice cream but just as satisfying—we’re keeping that on the menu permanently because it performed so well.