Ask almost any Eegee’s fan about their favorite item on the Tucson-born fast-food chain’s menu and you are sure to hear them wax poetic about the ranch dressing.
What goes better with ranch dressing than chicken tenders?
“Chicken tenders, ranch’s best friend,” Chief Marketing Officer Jessica Wegener-Beyer joked during a phone call last week to talk about changes to Eegee’s menu that go into effect on Wednesday, Oct. 19.
The restaurant, known for its namesake iced fruit drinks, sandwiches, crinkle fries and ranch dressing, is introducing chicken tenders, which will be available as a meal with two to four tenders, fries and an Eegee. It also will be used on the chicken salad, Wegener-Beyer said.
Eegee’s is introducing chicken tenders to its menu on Wednesday. , Oct. 19.
Tenders meals start at $7.79 for a two-piece.
Other changes to the menu include going with a new bread supplier that Wegener-Beyer said is using the same recipe and dropping three sandwiches from its subs offerings — the ranch club, pizza and BLT.
Eegee’s also is adding more meat and cheese to sandwiches — 50% more meat and 100% more cheese in some instances.
“The grinders and classic subs, specialty fries and crinkle fries will still be there,” Wegener-Beyer said. “We definitely aren’t messing with the fan favorites.”
The company also will not mess with the Eegee flavor-of-the month rotation, she said, although they are exploring different flavor options.
“We’ll play around with flavors, but we’re staying pretty true to those monthly flavors that everybody has really loved,” she said, adding that some longtime fans of the restaurant anticipate their favorite flavors year-round. “We don’t want to ruin people’s birthdays.”
The menu changes come in response to customer input from the company’s 33 Arizona restaurants; a 34th is set to open in north Phoenix in November. This is one of the most significant menu changes in Eegee’s 51-year history and the first big change since the New York investment firm 39 North Capital bought the company in 2018.
In the four years that it has owned Eegee’s, 39 North has added 11 stores, five of them in the Phoenix area.
