rolling new food laboratory inventions for american chain restaurants thread

i heard joke once: man goes to doctor. says he's depressed, life is harsh and cruel. says he feels all alone in threatening world. doctor says, 'treatment is simple. the great burger hot mess is in town. go see him. that should pick you up.' man bursts into tears. 'but doctor' he says, 'i am hot mess.' good joke. everybody hit service times. roll on snare drum. curtains.

it's like ßß's informant transmitted this information over a drive-thru headset

he talks like a george saunders narrator

http://i459.photobucket.com/albums/qq313/doctorcasino/rorschachfryer_zps2b6da9f4.jpg

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

http://www.replikultes.net/medias/uploads/films/robocop_2/robocop2_03_hob.jpg

cajun kick-ass

"Haven’t sold a wrap in so long."
He paused, taking a drag off his cigarette, and gazed painfully over the windswept hellscape. In the distance, saltwaves crashed over the decimated plastisteel skeletons of abandoned high density housing projects. His lips trembled, the admission of failure hard to bear.

"No one remembers how to make one.”
― 龜, Thursday, January 9, 2014 4:01 PM (4 days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

a+

yeah, that is truly great. Stephen King's The Burgerflipper.

''Plastisteel'' is what seals it for me.

beautiful

http://gawker.com/mcdonalds-is-at-war-with-a-group-of-gossiping-elderly-m-1501639646

According to the New York Times, the restaurant is upset because the large group — "nattily dressed, in suits or dress slacks, brightly colored ties or sweaters, fedoras and well-shined shoes" — arrives as early as 5 am and stays until after the sun goes down. When police are able to clear out the restaurant, they walk around the corner and come back in.

Members of the group told the Times that they gather every day to gossip and talk about politics, but interestingly, none could specify why they liked that particular McDonalds over other spots, like the nearby Burger King.

senior citizens love breakfast at mcdonalds

gonna make a point of ordering more wraps at mcdonalds.

srry gr80, didn't mean to overlook your perfectly apt thread

http://www.myinspirasian.com/

http://i.imgur.com/D13h1nB.png

game = changed

What... What is going on here?

omg is there pie in there too??!

Something about the colors, and the generic old-school coffee cups, makes me think I'm looking at styrofoam and this is a rejected, archived invention from 1983. Picturing Bruce Kroc, making his way down to Morgan Freeman's forgotten sub-basement laboratory, asking casually whether he has anything that can keep the hot side hot and the cold side cold. For extreme skiing, you understand.

mcbento

i would def buy a few extra value meals if mcdonalds did a a limited edition series of throwback cups/containers

he talks like a george saunders narrator

― the portentous pepper (govern yourself accordingly), Thursday, January 9, 2014 3:31 PM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Sometimes I feel like life is constantly playing catchup to George Saunders, and may be gaining speed

burger juice cola syrup

http://i.imgur.com/6TRh22I.jpg

For the CNY, McDOnalds rolled out two LTO burgers

The one on the right is two pork patties + a slice of ham (I think) on top

The one on the left is two chestnut-flavored shrimp logs over a chicken thigh patty

I went to three McDonalds today to try and find the shrimp log burger

Unfortunately I think they underestimated demand and all three were sold out. Have been for days, according to the guy behind the counter

Here are some pics courtesy of Baidu

http://i.imgur.com/quC4RIp.jpg

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

The shrimp burger is in general a very underrated burger

I first came to know of them through MOS Burger

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

Feel like it'd never catch on in the States

Are you kidding? I could see my nice midwestern mom who hates sushi but loves tempura inhaling about five of those at a sitting.

*goes to buy small prawns and panko crumbs*

Hah yeah I was thinking more NYC where people go ga ga over the "umami burger" or a ramen burger

Here's my "ham" burger

http://i975.photobucket.com/albums/ae232/daggerlee/SH/BC61364D-52CB-4538-9859-875D2079D4FD_zpsp2ecaxjp.jpg

It was fucking delicious

Actually I think my translation is off

It's either kielbasa or saveloy (apparently a Britishes thing?)

http://newsfeed.time.com/2014/01/14/the-most-influential-burgers-of-all-time/slide/white-castle-burger/

TIME for sure rolled out their deep challops game with this but I support the nom

what do we make of the McDonalds BLC?

I took it for a test drive earlier in the year:

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BdKyjZGCMAA1uGl.jpg:large
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BdKy9DhIUAAxnkQ.jpg:large

My verdict: "Post-prandial review: solid burger to be honest, adds a sense of bite to the previously bland Chicken Mayo, bacon a tad invisible...Not sure if it's worth £1.49 but I have just left a pub after two pints because it was busy and making me anxious and I feel a little better"

http://i.imgur.com/igV5Emv.jpg

This graph just about says it all, don't you think?

poor old salad

Missed opportunity to make graph look like a container of McDonald's fries.

I wonder what the list of base ingredients looks like. Kind of thinking they use the same half-dozen ingredients in different ways to make different items?

they are un-using the same ingredients, like CHEESE. or apparently just putting lettuce and tomato on things to make them different menu items.

http://www.burgerbusiness.com/?p=16654

What has happened is a proliferation of “flanker” products. The core Double Cheeseburger was joined in 2008 by a McDouble burger (a Double Cheeseburger with just one piece of cheese) followed by the 2012 arrival of the Daily Double (with lettuce and tomato) and this year’s Bacon McDouble (one of the five new burgers that came in the Dollar Menu & More, adding complexity).

mmmm, flank

http://qz.com/172900/how-chipotle-is-going-to-serve-burritos-faster-and-faster-and-faster/

The chain managed to speed up service by six transactions per hour at peak times this past quarter (a significant increase compared to the mere two transactions per hour it added over the previous quarter). “We achieved our fastest throughput ever,” co-CEO Steve Ells said in an earnings call yesterday. But some of Chipotle’s fastest restaurants run more than 350 transactions per hour at lunchtime, more than three times the chain-wide average, the company told investors earlier this month. “We know we have a lot of room to get faster,” said Ells.
+

How? By emphasizing what the company calls its slightly Maoist-sounding “four pillars of great throughput.” These are:
+

“Expediters.” That would be the extra person between the one who rolls your burrito and the one who rings up your order. Her job? Getting your drink, asking whether your order is for here or to go, and bagging your food.
+

“Linebackers.” The people who patrol the countertops, serving-ware, and bins of food, so the ones who are actually serving customers never turn their backs on them.
+

“Mise en place.” What in a regular restaurant means setting out ingredients and utensils ready for use means, in Chipotle’s case, zero tolerance for not having absolutely everything in place ahead of lunch and dinner rush hours.
+

“Aces in their places.” A commitment to having what each branch considers its top servers in the most important positions at peak times, so there are no trainees working at burrito rush hour.

i wonder what this zero tolerance entails

you still think that delicious steak comes from cows, don't you

i don't think there's anyone who has ever worked a service industry (and in particular a corporate service industry job) that can read that blockquote and not feel a deep welling of horror and sadness.

yeah ime the only thing you need to do to like "increase productivity/efficiency" is to pay your lowest-paid workers enough that they don't mentally classify your business as a major adversary in their lives

those kinds of things are never meant to be read by the people who are actually supposed to work harder (they're meant to be translated into condescending PPT presentations during monthly 6:30 am staff meetings) which makes it worse and so machine-like

tbf at least they imply they're adding people to the line to make things go faster

Thanks,

mh
Chipotle Corporate Marketing

yeah i always feel creeped out at five guys w/ all the insane 'our employees only priority in their lives should be satisfying you, the customer. if you suspect there is even the possibility that these lowly beasts have spent a moment thinking or doing something not completely devoted to satisfying you, the customer, plz bring it to our attention so that we may kill them slowly in front of their families' signs.

"four pillars of great throughput" is killing me.

http://hackthemenu.com/chipotle/secret-menu/quesarito/

This website, "Hack the Menu," is both incredibly depressing and extraordinarily liberating

http://i.imgur.com/EgHBkV9.png

My initial reaction was "man fuck people for feeling like they can make fast food workers do a song and dance in the name of blogging to an ILX thread about it" but then I thought maybe making something called a McGangBang is a nice break in the drudgery of the job but then I went back to feeling like "fuck these guys"

It is a very, very good thing that McD doesn't do root beer in the UK any more otherwise I'd be dead from Float-A-Day Disease, and disgusted with myself for going to McD's.

Don't EVER deny yourself the pleasure of McDonalds. I've eaten at restaurants, actual restaurants with plates, knives and forks, places that offer you a starter or a pudding, and I've rarely eaten ANYTHING as nice as a McDonalds Double Cheeseburger.