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Burger King this week will announce new summer menu LTOs that include the returns of the Carolina BBQ Whopper/Chicken and Memphis Pulled Pork sandwiches. But there will be one audacious difference: The menu includes a boneless BK Rib Sandwich that can be seen as an answer to rival McDonald’s popular McRib. Sweet Potato Fries also [...]

As BurgerBusiness.com reported  last week, McDonald’s has removed its Angus Third Pounders. As this site also reported, new Quarter Pounder burgers will fill the void. In an exclusive interview with BurgerBusiness.com today, Greg Watson, SVP of McDonald’s USA’s Menu Innovation Team, detailed the plan, which involves converting two of the 5.33-oz.-patty Angus builds to 4-oz.-patty [...]

Last August, McDonald’s introduced the Chicken Box in Germany, offering a customizable, mix-and-match pack of Chicken McNuggets, Chicken McBites and Chicken Sticks. This site has since predicted that boxed multi-person meals with burgers would finally come to the U.S. in 2013, and we didn’t have to wait long to see it. Just in time for [...]

A McDonald’s franchisee for more than 40 years and operator of eight units, J.M. Owens this year became president of the Greater Atlanta McDonald’s Operators Association. He spoke with BurgerBusiness.com about the negative impact of ending the 2% payroll tax reduction; menu (including McWraps) and pricing; efforts to extend breakfast sales; and the chain’s intention [...]

Last month, McDonald’s CEO Don Thompson responded to a disappointing earnings report by promising to make “tactical adjustments” to build customer traffic. The test of the Egg White Delight McMuffin reported here last week was one example. Now more are coming clear. ◙  In Northern California, McDonald’s is trying a trio of jazzed up Quarter [...]

[Update: the Memphis BBQ line was officially unveiled on Tuesday. Read the release here.] Carl’s Jr. and Hardee’s are preparing to deal themselves into the game that Burger King started with its June introduction of a Summer BBQ Menu. But as is their style, the CKE-owned chains plan to trump BK’s items with a bigger, [...]

Itself the target of a territory invasion by Pizza Hut’s P’Zolo, Subway is breaking down restaurant category barriers, too, with its take on burgers. A three-item line of Angus Melt sandwiches is being offered this month in 1,236 Subway restaurants in Atlanta, Detroit, Nashville and Macon and Northeast Georgia. The line includes Classic Angus Melt, [...]

Pal’s Sudden Service is almost unknown nationally but loved with cult-like ardor in its Tennessee/Virginia territory. Its 23 funky, boxy double-drive-thru restaurants tell you that Pal’s isn’t like other QSRs, which has been a point of pride since Pal Barger founded it in 1956. The Kingsport, Tenn.-based chain’s menu is limited to a few burgers, [...]

Crispy is all well and good, but if you’re serious about biting into something with louder, more assertive texture as well as flavor, you want crunch. And restaurants are providing it, judging by increasing use of “crunchy” as a menu descriptor. We’re cuckoo for crunchiness. Steak ’n Shake this week added the Jalapeňo Crunch, a [...]

McDonald’s doesn’t often mess around with signature menu items. The Big Mac and Quarter Pounder don’t change. I’d have put the McRib among the iconic untouchables except McDonald’s just messed with it. Joining the menu today at McDonald’s restaurants across Austria is the McRibster, a snazzier version of the classic sandwich. McDonald’s describes the McRibster [...]

Amid the seasonal school of fish sandwiches (and even Fish McBites) for Lent it’s nice to see a few new burgers coming onto the scene as well. ◙ One of those burgers is from Red Robin, which had told analysts last week that it wasn’t going to be bullied by beef costs and would continue [...]

Letdown Monday follows Super Sunday. And after a day of energetic nationalism, it seems right to update a recurring theme: the globalization of the quick-service burger-restaurant menu. Geo-culinary authenticity may take a hit sometimes, but QSRs are introducing many around the world to flavors and ingredients they otherwise wouldn’t experience. ● Take, for instance, that [...]

Urban planner/architect Daniel Burnham’s mantra was “Make no small plans” and that philosophy ruled Wendy’s annual Investor Day event on Monday, an upbeat revival meeting for Wall Streeters that made Burnham’s plan for developing Chicago look timid. Wendy’s sees a path to its future, and its one that includes a new, secretive, code-named ad campaign [...]

“The headline is, ‘We’re staying on the move in 2012,’ ” McDonald’s CEO Jim Skinner told analysts today in announcing Q4 and full-year 2011 sales results. But if that was the headline, the subhead was “So operators should stop squawking.” Skinner and other McDonald’s executives were addressing Wall Street analysts in their conference call, but [...]

This turned out to be another tough year not just for burger joints but for every restaurant that isn’t named McDonald’s. Consumers may be more easily reached thanks to the rise of social media, but they are no more easily persuaded, as NPD’s recent report of flat customer traffic in 2011 attests. And that helps [...]