rolling new food laboratory inventions for american chain restaurants thread

I haven't had the original comeback sauce at The Rotisserie in Jackson, but from everything I've read about it, it's the same stuff or pretty close. Zax's is what Abner's sauce used to be before they screwed it up trying to produce it on a larger scale.

I wonder if Abner's was a copy of Guthrie's...it started around '93 or '94, franchised out and lost the magic around 7-8 years ago. The two Memphis locations have closed, Tupelo's always has an empty lot and it's sitting right in front of the Malco 10-screen.

There's a chain called Guthrie's, actually, did they just buy the name? There was one in Tallahassee when I lived there, open hella late and always with a line around the store (it was near FSU).

And god do I miss that place. Fuckin' go out late and fill up on a basket of beige food.

lol apparently they did eventually franchise

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guthrie%27s - this does explain how the athens guthries could be run by a notorious fuckup and yet get up and running. i'm guessing the other guthries didn't have playboys up on the walls.

lol ok, Abner White definitely went to this place during some Ole Miss @ UGA game weekend and said "I can do this in Oxford and print money."

Y'all tried Cane's? Not as great as some people rave, but the tenders are pretty good and they do serve 'em with fries and toast.

Just placed an order for a Mashed Potato Double Beef Burger (it looks exactly like the double beef bacon burger I got ~3 weeks ago but with the mashed potato at the bottom)

since chinese new year, traditional fries have been unavailable at mcdonalds in favor of curly fries (at least when i left in february)
DYAO PLEASE CONFIRM

― dylannn, Saturday, March 8, 2014 12:21 AM (16 hours ago) Bookmark

It was the other way around. 扭扭 fries OOS everywhere, along with the chestnut shrimp/pork log burger... lean times

hah, I was scrolling through to see if anyone had mentioned Cane's. you done some time in Louisiana, Doctor Casino?

cane's is fantastic. bonus points for bizarre interior design, low-rent planet hollywood movie poster theme, giant pictures of dogs, true arctic air conditioning. LSU boosterism makes me uncomfortable but that's because all LSU fans are also racists.

I've only ever been through the drive thru. My friends were going to LSU, but certainly not LSU fans.

mh, no, there was a Cane's in Columbus OH! Never exactly felt *great* after eating it, but sometimes it just called to me. The Texas toast is what sealed the deal every time.

there's a canes now where guthries used to be in athens. i pretty much only get it when it's more convenient but i know a lot of ppl who prefer it to zaxbys. it's open til 3am which helps.

also their sweet tea is such that i've seen massive suburban louisiana stretch-stirrup-pant walmart moms wince at its astonishing sugariness.

back at home…

http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2014/03/america-is-falling-out-of-love-with-tv-dinners/284403/

http://cdn.theatlantic.com/newsroom/img/posts/2014/03/us_frozen_ready_meal_sales_billions_chartbuilder/005e61485.png

o no a dip

http://www.burgerbusiness.com/wp-content/uploads/Brackets_Round-1.jpg

The BurgerBrackets measure the loyalty of a burger brand's fans. Just like those other March brackets, this one begins March 17 with 64 competitors, all burger joints, in head-to-head matchups. The brand with the most vote moves on to the next round (see the Schedule below). The (number) next to the name is its seed. Seeding is influenced by pest performance in the BurgerBrackets, social-media strength and whim.

I was so disappointed in the mashed potato burger I forgot to update you guys

http://i975.photobucket.com/albums/ae232/daggerlee/SH/02AFADC9-86AB-423F-8A15-D673A4749BD7_zpssgel8e5i.jpg

http://i975.photobucket.com/albums/ae232/daggerlee/SH/5B2BDE66-FF9C-4271-ABBE-8790E3005152_zps61n7iatg.jpg

http://i975.photobucket.com/albums/ae232/daggerlee/SH/85F537E7-ABDA-40AB-985C-C95B996107AB_zpsmjvd2jbh.jpg

As you can see, uneven mashed potato distribution, terrible build, average taste...

It could have been a beautiful burger

And I'm not ready to give up the mashed potato burger yet

But I'm going to need some time to heal first

http://i.imgur.com/ptVP849.png

That has the look and feel of something from the powerful conservative images thread.

http://mashable.com/2014/03/19/taco-bell-breakfast-phones/#:eyJzIjoidCIsImkiOiJfY2JyaHp6cGw2ZHBsZG9oOXlsbXAxcXBhdXJfIn0

http://distilleryimage6.ak.instagram.com/380582eeaeef11e3907f1214fb674332_8.jpg

"We just wanted to do something that would be really personal," says Tressie Lieberman, director, digital marketing and platforms. "We're calling them every day. You never know when the phone will ring." Taco Bell identified the superfans by their activity in social media and their fealty to the brand.

'lord bell, i am thine servant sworn.'

http://consumerist.com/2014/03/21/taco-bell-sends-food-writers-burner-phones-with-secret-breakfast-missions/

“So far the missions are delivered throughout the day (and night) via pre-recorded messages and revolve around social media,” notes Q, “with prompts like ‘Tweet which Taco Bell breakfast item are you into’ and ‘Where would you rather have a new Taco Bell Waffle Taco a beach in sunny California or in NYC?’ with 4-hours to complete each task.”

sounds like http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alternate_reality_game

sounds like http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dystopia

are they paid? (in money or taco certificates?)

wait wait wait, the entity setting up this strange, manipulative scenario is named Q?

(uesadilla)

this has to somehow be a SPECTRE plot, surely

Would be cool if Del Taco secretly sabotaged the phones so they blow up, wiping out that segment of the blogosphere that has sworn fealty to Taco Bell. Without these crucial social media leaders, their empire will collapse in a matter of weeks.

Somebody get Neil Hamburger on this stat.

Would have been better if it was pagers.

or sunlight passing through an aperture at breakfast time that when refracted through a doritos amulet opened up a passageway to a taco-shaped waffle filled chamber

"Waffles... why did it have to be waffles?"

lol

the flatizza is the saddest thing i've ever eaten

should be called polarizza

http://www.slate.com/articles/life/culturebox/2014/03/taco_bell_breakfast_phones_adventures_with_the_fast_food_chain_s_preowned.html

Moments after I hysterically tweeted, Instagrammed, and Facebooked the pictures of my new status signifier, the phone buzzed to life. It was a call from an 800 number. The moment, my moment, had arrived:

This is Greg, and I’m giving you a call from Capital One. We have a lot of options that have recently become available to you and wanted to discuss them with you. Please give us a call at ...

When I hung up, my breakfast phone chirped again. I had six voice mails waiting for me. Had I already been derelict in my duties? I hadn’t. But someone else had:

Hello, this is the Marie Curie High School, calling to inform you that your child [name withheld] was marked absent from school today. Please send a signed note with your child when he returns to school to verify this absence. Please keep in mind that your child is required by the chancellor of New York City to have 90 percent attendance for promotion, so please send your child to school every day.

the flatizza is the saddest thing i've ever eaten

― coops all on coops tbh (crüt), Wednesday, March 26, 2014 7:44 PM (3 days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

^^^ wife got one of these last time we were driving back from RI; everything just piled in the center of a flat bread and baekd to death; burned and hard and inedible.

Checkers's "Hole-Lotta" ice cream things might potentially be good, but the weird cutaway illustration makes them look really strange and plastic-y. I'm also a little skeptical of the "Monsterella Stix," just because the name seems custom-made to disguise not-really-mozzarella-cheese, although the website suggests it's real. I did try the Brownie Batter shake - okay, but not dramatically different than your basic chocolate shake, not sure what I'm missing.

At least the Monsterella Stix well reflect the fact that the only reason you go to Checkers/Rally's is the coated fries and so they might as well do more with those ingredients. They should try deep-frying their crummy burgers in that stuff, might do 'em good.

http://d3lawkbdj6aabd.cloudfront.net/singleplatform/image/upload/c_fit/d9610b07e5c350f1eab5414ed2ddaf61fcdd0e34.jpg

http://img2.tvtome.com/i/u/9e4cece41f37441bc437a006493b7985.jpg

http://bizofbaseball.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=5929:ballpark-considering-hot-dog-flavored-cocktail&catid=41:facility-news&Itemid=56

jesus fucking christ

1.5 oz gin (or any spirit you have)
1.5 oz frank consommé
3 dashes Worcestershire sauce
2 oz beer to top
hot dog spear (for garnish)

Add all but the beer to a shaker with ice, shake to chill and strain into a Collins glass over fresh ice. Top with beer and garnish with a hot dog spear that has been cooked or not. It doesn't matter.

Note: To make the frank consommé, cook several hot dogs in boiling water. Reserve the water.

http://bizofbaseball.com/images/frankcollins.jpg

Check the date.

:(

i want 2 believe...

^ Misread your display name as "pepper yourself accordingly"

what the shit is that thing