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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 [...]

Could there be a better way to acknowledge National Burger Month than to spotlight the remarkable culinary creativity that drives the burger business? Appropriately, the May Burger of the Month specials display a wide variety of influences. There’s Southern cuisine in Bobby Flay’s Pimiento Burger; there are two Mediterranean and one Caribbean burger on the [...]

McDonald’s Corp. CEO Don Thompson explained the company’s poor showing in the first quarter by stressing once again that the Informal Eating Out (IEO) marketplace is a zero-sum game where survival and growth come at the expense of competitors. “Our growth is going to come from taking market share,” Thompson told analysts. The “thoughtful and [...]

McDonald’s Corp. releases Q1 2013 sales results on Friday and the numbers aren’t expected to be pretty. Or positive. A 1.5% decrease in global comp sales for February after a 1.9% decline in January have fairly well sealed the deal on the quarter. There also are signals that consumer confidence and spending are still fragile [...]

Opened in 2008, Blanc Burgers + Bottles was one of the early adopters of the modern burger-bar concept and was the inaugural winner of the BurgerBusiness.com Burger Brackets competition in 2010 (it repeated in 2011; the 2013 winner will be crowned on Monday). That longevity means it has seen the number of upscale burger competitors [...]

Burger King’s Spring Menu for 2013 explodes in literally a dozen directions like fireworks. As BurgerBusiness.com tipped last week, new menu items include a Chipotle Whopper and Donut Holes. But this menu flies all over the board: there are a stuffed beef burger, regular beef burger, turkey and chicken sandwiches plus a chicken wrap. It [...]

Anthony Ackil, Jon Olinto and Tony Rosenfeld opened the first b. good restaurant in Boston’s Back Bay in January 2004. The concept’s signage promises “Real. Food. Fast” and the idea from the start was to prepare and serve locally sourced, all-natural food with QSR efficiency. Customers can order an all-natural beef, turkey chicken or veggie [...]

A McDonald’s franchisee says the chain will remove Angus Third Pounder burgers, Chicken Selects and apple-walnut salad, a move likely intended to clear menu space for an expected rollout of McWraps and other new items. McEnaney Enterprises, a Princeton, Ky.-based McDonald’s operator, announced via Twitter that the Selects , the salad and Angus burgers all [...]

Red Robin Gourmet Burgers announced positive results for 2012’s Q4, including a 1.4% same-store sales increase (1.1% of which came from check increase). It also provided an update on its ongoing efforts to make the chain more appealing to adults dining without children. This includes a shift this year to serving its burgers on china [...]

Burger King Worldwide barely had an opportunity to feel good about strong full-year 2012 results that validate last year’s ambitious menu makeover before announcing that it needs to adjust menu/marketing strategies to deal with a slower Q1 2013. In today’s quarterly earnings call with analysts, Burger King executives reported a 3.2% rise in global same-store [...]

Jake’s Wayback Burgers is no stranger to change. The chain that began in Newark, Del., in 1991 simply as Jake’s augmented its name in 2010 to gain some separation from all the other Jake’s. But that was two years and a couple dozen locations ago. On March 1, the chain introduces a new menu intended [...]

A Massachusetts native, Frank Scibelli has been a successful restaurateur in Charlotte, N.C., for many years. He already operated Mexican spot Cantina 1511 and Italian dinnerhouse Mama Ricotta’s when he decided to also ride the upscale-burger wave. He and Dennis Thompson (founder of the Lone Star Steakhouse chain) opened the first Bad Daddy’s Burger Bar [...]

Valentine’s Day isn’t a burger sort of day. It may not even be a “day.” That may be why only Buckeye Beer Engine in Ohio is making hearts and roses the theme of its February burger special. What we have instead from many burger joints this month are a lot of Italian-inspired burgers on offer. [...]

Is bison poised to succeed lamb as the next hip, hot burger protein? Given The Counter’s decision this week to make bison a permanent build-your-own-burger option coupled with Red Robin Gourmet Burgers’ revelation that it is considering a new line of premium Kobe beef and perhaps bison burgers, the all-American protein seems positioned for appearances [...]

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 [...]