rolling new food laboratory inventions for american chain restaurants thread

damn i really want some Satisfries™

http://www.qsrmagazine.com/competition/pizza-s-arms-race

incredible pull quotes in this article about the race to be the "chipotle of pizza," too

“This new generation, Millennials, they’re used to getting everything their way,” Grier says. “It’s just a customized world they’ve grown up in; they haven’t known anything different. They’re used to directing what they want because of the technology they’ve grown up with, and having those options and choices … we think is a big win.”

“We cater to all walks of life, all demographics, all genders, and up and down the socioeconomic scale,” Andrew says. “What’s cool is people get to be individualistic; it’s all about being yourself, and I think today that’s been more and more accepted as people want to express themselves even outwardly.”

“We think the paradigm shift to lunch for pizza is a major element in the success that we are having and will continue to have,” Zuckerman says. “Because when you can get an item like pizza—which is America’s favorite, basically—at lunch without having to take 45 or 50 minutes total, but you can actually order a pizza, choose all your ingredients, and then have it go oven to you in three minutes or less and be quality—not roller grill oven, but high-end, stone-hearth oven—people appreciate that.”

the chipotle of pizza is actually not the worst idea i've ever heard

yeah, guac + sour cream + corn pizza sounds really tasty actually

ketchup on the side

wpro tip: you can already order a pizza with whatever toppings you want from any pizzeria #lifehacks

http://gawker.com/5807591/grilled-cheese-sandwich-gets-10-million-in-venture-funding

i just

i don't even

fuckin a

We think the paradigm shift to lunch for pizza

PIZZA FOR LUNCH WE'RE REALLY OUTSIDE THE BOX ON THIS ONE PEOPLE

All those years having pizza for lunch and I never once realized that I was DOING IT WRONG.

Pizza in the morning, pizza in the evening...but can you handle pizza at SUPPERTIME?

When pizza's on a bagel, you can eat pizza anytime.

http://www.burgerbusiness.com/

i've been away, god it's good to read burgerbusiness again

for some reason a lot of recent posts are talking about 'builds'

Cinnamon on a burger. I hadn’t considered it, but two burger spots—Kuma’s Too and Milwaukee Burger Co.—create Burgers of the Month for October that work cinnamon into their builds. Check them out. Not surprisingly there are a few Oktoberfest burgers among the monthly specials, but several joints—Grill ‘Em All and Kuma’s Corner among them—that peg specials to Halloween. By the way, Grill ‘Em All surely is the first to top a burger with a “savory pumpkin-sage polenta cake.” It might be the only place that would do that, which is why its customers love it.

it's really great - apparently gouda is "the trendy burger cheese of the moment" (their emphasis)

The October Burger of the Month at The Oinkster in Los Angeles is The Nick Offerman "American Ham" Burger, saluting the "Parks and Recreation" star. The build is a 6-oz burger patty topped with shaved ham, two layers of Gruyère cheese, hot-sweet mustard, mayo, and house-made bread and butter pickles on a sourdough bun.

where are they getting their information from

do you suppose they guard their sources closely, to retain their edge

i am into both gruyere and gouda as potential burger cheeses

i'm generally into gruyere and gouda as anything cheeses so grain of salt

i am into grains of salt

do you put those in your build

was really distressed by the latest burger business post

http://www.burgerbusiness.com/?p=15720

Pretzel Burgers Can’t Save Ruby Tuesday
Pretzel-bun burgers may be all the rage, but they couldn’t keep casual-dining chain Ruby Tuesday from a double-digit debacle. Fast. For its fiscal quarter ended Sept. 3, 2013, the casual-dining chain reported an 11.4% plunge in same-store sales at company restaurants.

Ruby Tuesday's Spicy Jalapeno Pretzel Burger
Ruby Tuesday’s Spicy Jalapeno Pretzel Burger
The dive came despite the chain’s biggest menu rollout in the last seven years. On August 12, Ruby Tuesday introduced eight new products, including four burgers on pretzel buns, three Crispy Flatbreads and a tempura green bean appetizer. Six weeks of TV advertising that included national cable plus spot advertising in select markets backed the launch.

President-CEO James J. Buettgen called the results “disappointing and did not reflect where we believe we can take the business as we execute our repositioning strategy.” He offered several explanations including the popular “economic issues continue to provide significant headwinds” tack. Buettgen also suggested that a lower average check due to lower pricing for new menu items was a not-unexpected culprit.

“The new items are all priced at or below average, so the pretzel burgers are from $8.99 to $9.49, the flatbreads are $6.99 and $7.99, and the green bean appetizer was $5.99. So on an absolute menu level, or within the categories that they’re featured in, they’re attractively priced items,” Buettgen told analysts. “And we knew going into the rollout that we are going to see some level of check decline to the degree we got strong preference on the items, and that was part of our effort to showcase a more casual and approachable items, but also to give more value and affordability to guests.”

However, when pressed for details, CFO Michael O. Moore explained that only 1% of the 11.4% sales drop was due to check while 10.5% reflected guest-count decline. Added Buettgen, “Keep in mind that our guest declines have occurred over a number of years and will not be reversed overnight. Having said that, we believe we are on the right strategic path and that our efforts will lead to sales and guest count growth over time.”

The Bacon Cheese Pretzel Burger
The Bacon Cheese Pretzel Burger
While Moore noted that only the last three weeks of its first fiscal quarter benefited from the pretzel burger rollout, he was hardly optimistic about the current quarter. “We anticipate same-restaurant sales to be down high single-digits in the second quarter, with sequential improvement in the third and fourth quarter, including positive same-restaurant sales in the fourth quarter, reflecting traction from our new menu offerings and marketing campaign.”

He noted that more than 20% of diners ordered at least one of the eight new items on a menu with more than 60 dishes. He called that “significant and certainly a big step in the right direction. The initial high preference demonstrates how appealing the new items are to our guests.”

The menu revamp will continue with the “new food platforms and items that we have in test,” Buettgen said. Reflecting lessons learned from the introduction of lower-price pretzel burgers, the “products that we have in the queue are at a range of price points, some comparable to those we’ve rolled out, others that are more expensive and more premium,” Buettgen said. Those products will get advertising support more evenly spread out across all 12 months, rather than front-loaded in Q1 as it did last year.

Todd A. Burrowes, COO and Ruby Tuesday Concept president, outlined changes made or planned to improve the brand. These include improving music programming “by offering more of a contemporary mix of rock, pop and Top 40” and exploring changes in lighting and décor “to more accurately reflect our brand positioning.”

Finally, the sees a solution in making its employees more “genuine.” Burrowes said the chain will be “testing an enhanced service platform that enables team members to share their personality and passion for our brand by connecting with guests in a more natural and genuine manner. What I mean by this is that we’ll encourage our team members to make real connections with each and every guest in a fun and friendly atmosphere.”

really hope ruby tuesday can make it out of this slump.

goooooodbyyyyye ruby tuesday

Someone should offer to buy them out, but with the stipulation that they change their name to Cocksucker Blues.

"Oh honey, look, there's a new Cocksucker Blues in the mall!"

"OK, gang, team lunch on Friday at Cocksucker's."

Stones should totally franchise

Beggar's Banquet buffet
Loving Cup bar & grill
Goatshead Soup erm soup
Sister Morphine rehab

I will always like Ruby Tuesdays for all the times it allowed me to get drunk at the mall.

lol @ VG

lol Soup erm soup

have to say i've tried a number of different pretzel bread burgers the past few months and the only place that really justified it for me was steak and shake, really nice build

Steak & Shake rules. Love their Halloween quintuple chocolate shake or whatever it's called. Really wish there were some locations on the east coast.

bill wyman owns an upscale-TGIFridays ish called Sticky Fingers in London iirc

how's his build

gonna have a pretzel burger today @ lunch, i've been inspired by this thread

where are they getting their information from

do you suppose they guard their sources closely, to retain their edge

i used to date a girl who worked for the n4tional rest4urant associ4tion; as far as i could tell a lot of her job entailed finding out what the trendy burger cheeses of the moment actually were

i won't lie, it seemed like an awesome job

Bathroom themed reastaurants have come to America (apparently started in Japan or Taiwan, per comments, despite what the CNN doofus says).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QDOktxE2nPU&feature=youtube_gdata_player

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/20/opinion/sunday/maam-your-burger-has-been-paid-for.html

You could chalk it up to Southern hospitality or small town charm. But it’s just as likely the preceding car will pick up your tab at a Dunkin’ Donuts drive-through in Detroit or a McDonald’s drive-through in Fargo, N.D. Drive-through generosity is happening across America and parts of Canada, sometimes resulting in unbroken chains of hundreds of cars paying in turn for the person behind them.

http://www.brandeating.com/2013/09/news-papa-johns-new-mega-chocolate-chip-cookie.html

http://i.imgur.com/ZiRHyFn.jpg

http://www.facebook.com/pizookie

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8umVKXfcutA

http://i.minus.com/i7ZB78R66q80s.gif

I just don't want dessert from a pizza place, ever, and wish they would stop trying with their weird "it's a pizza shaped cinnamon bun slathered in icing!" ideas.

i don't care what shape it's in i'm always available to eat a cinnabon

Love that blog burger business.

hate that canada misses out on some of the more awesome sounding weird shit from the states.

i don't care what shape it's in i'm always available to eat a cinnabon

I would eat a Cinnabon out of the treads of a combat boot, I just don't trust pizza places to not fuck that recipe up. Always sounds like something a stoned employee did just before closing with a can of Pillsbury dough and a bunch of packets of sugar.

Also, to be honest, I almost never want dessert after pizza because I'm already aware that my actual meal was already 100% junk food and I am full of grease, bread and sweeteners as it is.

I just don't trust pizza places to not fuck that recipe up. Always sounds like something a stoned employee did just before closing with a can of Pillsbury dough and a bunch of packets of sugar.

and his dick, if the tales of late night fast food restaurants I've heard are even half-way accurate.

having made some crazy good canned cinnamon rolls lately i think the provenance of the pizza-place dessert is not that important

http://www.burgerbusiness.com/?p=15853

i have never had a mcrib :/

“fewer more impactful items"

What a horrible phrase.

http://i.imgur.com/i7fW4bf.png

that was great

it's hard out there for the most successful restaurant chain in history, lay off guys

HIS OPINIONS ARE HIS OWN!

http://www.burgerbusiness.com/?p=16072

drudgesiren

“Have it your way” is Burger King’s longtime slogan but McDonald’s is testing build-your-own-burger customization and new premium-price burgers in Southern California, according to a story today by Nancy Luna in the Orange County Register (OCR).

At a recently remodeled restaurant in upscale Laguna Niguel, Calif., south of Los Angeles, McDonald’s waitstaff in black or in white chefs aprons welcome customers at the entrance. The restaurant offers three new high-price specialty burgers as well as the option to choose custom toppings from the list on an iPad menu. The OCR reports that the test is taking place in an Illinois McDonald’s as well.
McDonald's recently improved its Quarter Pounder line. Will its customers let it move farther upscale?

McDonald’s recently improved its Quarter Pounder line (above). Do its customers want it to move farther upscale with BYO customization? That’s the test.

The BYO and specialty burgers—the SoCal Style, Hot All Over and Grill Thriller—all use the regular Quarter Pounder patty but are priced at $5.79. That takes McDonald’s up to fast-casual pricing: a 7.5 oz. BYO burger at fast-casual chain Smashburger is $5.99.

The OCR says the options include more than 20 toppings and sauces, such as white Cheddar, guacamole, caramelized onions, grilled mushrooms, creamy garlic sauce and applewood-smoke bacon. Other than guacamole, these seem to be foods it has on hand for other menu items (for example, the garlic sauce is sued in the Chicken & Bacon McWrap).

Tray liners promote the burgers as “Real. Freshly Grilled. One of a Kind,” the OCR says.