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The Seattle Post-Intelligencer, with a little help from Seattle magazine (which earlier picked its Top 25), selects the Emerald City’s Top 20 Burgers. Where specific burgers were mentioned, they are included below. In some cases, no specialty burger was mentioned, so a tasty-sounding choice was added. Check the menus; surely there’s an idea begging to [...]

Don’t write the obit for independent restaurants just yet. The NPD Group’s latest ReCount census of commercial restaurant locations finds that numbers of both independent and chain restaurants have risen. This is the first time since 2009 that both sectors have increased due to a decline in the number of independent restaurants in recent years. [...]

As the London Olympic Games prepare to open, new research finds the UK’s restaurant scene surprisingly healthy. The latest QuickBite survey conducted for London-based researcher Horizons by YouGov finds the British are dining out more with the highest frequency since December 2010. The average British adult dined away from home 2.77 times on average during [...]

The “mini” trend seemed to have played itself out last year when BK Burger Minis came and went at Burger King, but the increasing popularity of snack items—especially chicken snack foods such as Chicken McBites—is making small big time again. Apparently not satisfied with the success of the McBites, McDonald’s is again testing the popularity [...]

McDonald’s has “regrouped” its U.S. menu, gathering a variety of its lower-calorie—and often lower-price—items and branding this aggregation as a Favorites Under 400 Calories menu. To encourage customers to order these foods and beverages, some of the items carry instant-win game pieces for McDonald’s “Win When the U.S. Wins Gold” promotion, which begins tomorrow. Game [...]

Higher food prices seem a certain result of the drought that has parched about one-third of the U.S. How high prices might go, which proteins will see the sharpest gains and when operators and consumers will feel the impact are the key questions, and there are disagreements and conflicting forecasts. Should burger-concept operators be concerned, [...]

Despite earlier promises that its London Olympics-sites menu would be the broadest it ever has assembled for the Games, athletes, press and spectators will find a menu that’s so narrow and safe as to be a bit of a gold-medal disappointment. There may be a 9,843-square-foot McDonald’s (its largest) at the Games, but the menu [...]

It’s easy to over-analyze McDonald’s marketing skills because the chain does so much marketing, but it is just as easy to overlook some small efforts that show its finesse. An example: In many markets around the world, McDonald’s is promoting Olympics-themed Coke glasses. Coke-glass promotions are a long-standing tradition with McDonald’s and the offer does [...]

Adopting a marketing presence to match its national brand stature, Smashburger this month has launched a broadcast/digital ad campaign along with its new logo and tagline that all focus on its “smashing” identity. “Smashed fresh. Served delicious” is the tagline used with the logo and in a series of 60-second radio spots. The spots introduce [...]

Maybe money can’t buy you love, but it can get you a lot of “likes.” According to Chicago-based social-benchmarking company Unmetric’s Fast Food Report, released July 14, McDonald’s is “the most astute fast-food chain in social media,” with Taco Bell a close second. That McDonald’s is most effective in using both Facebook and Twitter, according [...]

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, [...]

KFC plans to tuck a freestanding insert (FSI) with a coupon for its new Original Recipe Bites into newspapers nationwide this Sunday (July 15). Sunday papers are not a medium KFC often uses, but couponed FSIs have become a more important and more frequent advertising channel for restaurants. Data from Minneapolis-based researcher Kantar Media finds [...]

McDonald’s has promised that its menu at the London Olympics will be world-class and now, roughly two weeks before the Games begin, the offerings are coming clear. Two new LTOs joined McDonald’s UK menu this week and apparently will be among choices athletes and visitors at the chain’s four Olympic venue restaurants can enjoy. One [...]

When Jack in the Box launched its new All-American Jack Combo (shown) last week, it priced the burger/fries/drink meal at $4.99. That put it right of the top of the pricing “sweet spot” for quick-service burger chains. Jack in the Box had mined the lower edge of that pricing target in May with its $3.49 [...]

KFC is fighting back against burger chains’ continuing encroachment into its chicken territory. This week the chicken-category leader introduces KFC Original Recipe Bites, an answer to McDonald’s addition of Chicken McBites in January (and the Spicy Chicken McBites currently being promoted) and a shot across the bow of burger chains, warning that it intends to [...]