Burgers: On the Up and Up(scale)
With burgers, premium still rides a wave of popularity.
By Christine LaFave, Associate Editor -- Restaurants & Institutions, May 21, 2009
Burgers are that rare menu hero that can be both populist and premium. Besides being an eminently customizable favorite, burgers—even when they’re done up with fancier beef blends and pricier toppings—tend to be attractively priced enough relative to other menu items to practically beg "try me; I’m a bargain" at quick-service and full-service restaurants alike.
And so even as consumer dining-out spending has slid in the last eight months, burger chains such as Lorton, Va.-based Five Guys Burgers and Fries have continued to expand across the country; chef Hubert Keller has released a cookbook of recipes from his Las Vegas burger hotspot Burger Bar; and Oak Brook, Ill.-based McDonald’s announced that it would introduce $3.99 Angus Third Pounders by fall.
Check out a map of President Barack Obama's burger runs here.
At BOA Steakhouse in Las Vegas and in Santa Monica and West Hollywood, Calif., a premium burger introduced in March has proved an easy hit, says Brent Berkowitz, director of operations for concept owner Innovative Dining Group. The BOA Burger, served with fries and priced at $18, features an 8-ounce burger patty topped with triple-cream Camembert cheese, tomato, lettuce, fried onion strings and aioli on a brioche bun. The bun also gets a slathering of foie-gras butter before the burger heads to the table—but that’s not noted in the menu description, Berkowitz says.
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55% |
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Percent of American consumers who think restaurants should offer a variety of burger sizes. (Technomic Information Services) |
"We weren’t trying to be too gimmicky," he says. "For us, it’s all about flavor…so that if someone said, 'I just want the bun and the burger,' it would still taste good." The patty itself is made from 40% kobe beef, 40% New York strip that’s aged for 40 days and 20% short rib. "You get flavor from the New York strip, mosture and fat from the kobe and a little texture from the short rib," says Berkowitz. "Runner-up" burger builds—including a Prime beef burger with port-braised onions, Dijon onions and blue cheese—that BOA developed will appear on a new 2-for-$12 sliders menu later this summer.
>Carpinteria, Calif.-based Carl’s Jr. announced this week that it was bringing “fancy back to fast food” with the permanent return to the menu of its Portobello Mushroom Six Dollar Burger. The burger, a previous limited-time offer in 2005 and 2007, joins a menu of eight other Six Dollar Burgers, all featuring Angus beef. The Portobello Mushroom version will cost $4.89 a la carte and $7.39 as part of a combo with fries and a drink.
At McDonald’s, the soon-to-debut third-pound Angus burgers—promoted on McDonald’s microsite angusthirdpounders.com—will be available in three varieties: Deluxe, Mushroom & Swiss, and Bacon & Cheese.
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