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tesg's guide to big chain road food consumption
CHAIN -- Burger
King I'm
at a Burger King in rural Nebraska, and they have a new crispy chicken sandwich
up on the board. "Crispy
chicken sandwich, no tomato," I say. "It
doesn't come with tomato", Smiling Counter Girl says. I
point to the picture. "But
they have tomato in the picture." "Oh,
that's the NEW crispy chicken sandwich. We
also have the...crispy...chicken sandwich..." She pauses for a second and
says, very matter-of-factly, "We have far too many chicken
sandwiches." Then she can't figure out how to make it "no tomato" on the cash register and grabs the person next to her and says "Why don't they list the ingredients?" "I don't know" said the other person. So she stormed back towards the kitchen and shouted with a passion that made me think of Lucy from "Peanuts"..."NO TOMATO ON THE CHICKEN!" Problem solved. Burger
King was started in 1952 as "Insta-Burger King" by Keith Cramer using
a broiler invented by George Read (the "Insta-Broiler"), which Cramer
purchased the rights to. The
revolutionary machine claimed to be able to produce over 400 burgers an hour.
Cramer's Insta-Burger King, with its 18 cent hamburgers, was a hit.
"Insta" was eventually dropped from the name after franchisees
James McLamore and David Edgerton redesigned the broiler to resolve problems.
The new flame broiler set the course for history.
In 1972, McLamore and Edgerton's franchise company "Burger King of
Miami" became "Burger King, Incorporated".
It's hard to tell exactly what the deal was between Cramer's startup and
McLamore/Edgerton's ultimate control. BK
doesn't even acknowledge any company history other than McLamore/Edgerton.
To their credit, they are responsible for literally everything you know
about the company today...from the Whopper to the flame broiler.
Burger
King has always been the "Have it your way" chain, specializing in accommodating special orders like
"No tomato on that Whopper please."
But that's become less important over the years with computerized
terminals that can easily send those requests with the food orders to the
kitchen, and very few chains actually assemble food before it's ordered anymore. Burger King had a rough start of the 21st century. Stores closed in alarming numbers. Their biggest franchisee went bankrupt. Things were not going well. But Burger King has rebounded partly thanks to that creepy King mascot in their commericals, partly due to fancy new sandwiches, and possibly partly due to new cooking methods, including a new broiler that was designed to cook fewer burger patties faster so they could serve more food hot and fresh. BK claimed the new broiler system had an unintended side effect...Customers commented that the Whopper actually tasted better. More like they "remember it" from years ago. The new contraption hasn't rolled out in large numbers yet, as far as I know. My problem with BK is that I have a lot of experiences with stale food. BK assembled reheated food for years, making for a pretty lousy product. So I show up at Burger King basically when the Western Whopper is around (and that's really nothing more than a Whopper with bacon and barbecue sauce in place of ketchup...they could make that any time if they wanted) and if I'm near one that sells their Jack-in-the-Box clone tacos. Those are awesome. If that new broiler is as good as they've made it out to be and they start showing up in my neck of the woods, maybe that will increase my business. Maybe. Burger King's future includes a recently developed offshoot called the "Whopper Bar". The Whopper Bar assembles Whoppers to order in front of you with a menu that features specialty Whoppers and 22 optional toppings. Fascinating! (Historical info partly compiled from "Hamburger Heaven" by Jeffrey Tennyson, and Burger King's website)
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