βurgerβusiness

Luby’s Inc., which purchased burger chain Fuddruckers two years ago, came back for seconds this week, announcing it will acquire the 23-unit Cheeseburger in Paradise chain. Houston based Luby’s will pay $11 million plus “customary reimbursements for cash-on-hand, inventory, and accounts receivable offset by liabilities assumed at closing.” Prior-year revenues for those Cheeseburger in Paradise [...]

McDonald’s is making significant strategic changes in Japan where the chain sees a shift in consumer dining toward in-home dining. As a result, it plans a national rollout of home delivery service as well as expansion of McCafé in its second-largest market. McDonald’s Holdings Company (Japan), Ltd., an affiliate company 50% owned by McDonald’s Corp., [...]

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 [...]

In Austin, Texas, and Atlanta, McDonald’s is testing the Egg White Delight McMuffin, a lower calorie (260 vs. 300), more healthful version of the iconic Egg McMuffin. In September, when it unveiled its new menu boards with calorie info, the chain had announced earlier that it intends to make an egg-white sandwich available nationally in [...]

By all rights, 2012 should have been the year the burger business stopped to catch its breath and reassess. Beef prices had skyrocketed. A decade or so of rapid growth had critics expecting a bubble burst for better burgers. Instead, 2012 welcomed a bumper crop of great new burger joints. Included here are more than [...]

[Update: Red Robin is bringing back the Chili Chili Cheeseburger, inviting customers to vote on next revival.] Given an economic environment that McDonald’s Corp. CEO Don Thompson recently called “uncertain and fragile,” chains are trying to minimize the uncertainty by bring back limited-time-offer burgers that customers already have shown they will buy. Chains are going [...]

Surprisingly, none of the food/restaurant prognosticators this year is forecasting the collapse of the better-burger bubble. Instead we read that people will abandon colas, that neck meat will be all the rage and that fast-casual concepts will all add drive-thru windows. Given such guesses, what the heck, here are BurgerBusiness.com’s predictions for 2013. Not surprisingly, [...]

Burger King Worldwide’s recently released third-quarter results were reasonably strong, with a 1.4% systemwide increase in same-store sales. The U.S./Canada segment did even better, up 1.6%. But Asia/Pacific comps were down 2.2% as a result, the company said, of weak sales in Australia and Korea. This wasn’t the first time this year that Australia, where [...]

The roundup of burger joints’ monthly specials will continue to run in its box on the right sidebar, but I’m giving them full post attention occasionally, too, because there’s always so much culinary creativity that it would be a shame to miss this feature. If you overslept because of Daylight Savings and didn’t update your [...]

Sonic Drive-In fills a competitive gap in its menu with the introduction of a new line of Premium Chicken sandwiches. The feature sandwiches are Crispy or Grilled Asiago Caesar Chicken sandwiches that feature white-meat chicken, tomato, lettuce, a signature Caesar dressing and sliced Asiago cheese on warm, whole-grain ciabatta buns. Less-dressed-up Crispy Chicken and Grilled [...]

Denny’s is the latest restaurant to relearn the “3 Bs”: Burgers bring business. The family-dining chain says it will make the Build Your Own Burger option a permanent offer as part of a new core menu coming in January 2013. The BYO platform for both burgers and milk shakes was a limited-time promotion that began [...]