Burger King Rolls Out Bunless Burgers
 

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,108455,00.html


Burger King Rolls Out Bunless Burgers

Thursday, January 15, 2004



CHICAGO ? It has come to this in America: Burgers are losing their buns.

Some of them, at least.

Burger King's (search) rollout of breadless Whoppers this week is a nod to the low-carb craze that's sweeping the nation ? and the latest evidence that the burger wars are taking a turn for the healthy.

Smaller chains Hardee's (search) and Carl's Jr. (search) dumped the bread from some hamburgers last month, going lettuce-wrapped instead, and TGI Friday's (search) restaurant has started serving a bunless cheeseburger, too.

But burger-lovers will have the last say, and experts say the bun shouldn't be written off from restaurants' regular fare, much less from its place in modern American food lore.

"This won't be a big segment of the (burger) market," predicted Jerry McVety, a foodservice industry consultant based in Farmington Hills, Mich. "I don't see it lasting very long."

Besides, he noted, a Whopper without a bun is almost an oxymoron. "The bun is almost the least of my worries," he chuckled.

McDonald's and Wendy's, the other two largest burger purveyors, aren't biting on bunless for now. Spokesmen for both those chains, which have added entree salads and taken other steps to assuage customers' diet concerns, said Wednesday they have no plans to include bunless burgers on their menus.

With good reason, according to Carl Sibilski, an analyst for Chicago-based Morningstar and frequent fast-food patron. "Bunless burgers don't sound so appealing," he said.

The price of the new product risks being unappealing to customers, too: It's the same with or without bun, per Burger King's recommendation to its 8,000 restaurants.

The surge in popularity for the high-protein, high-fat, low-carbohydrate Atkins diet (search) is what prompted a move that once would have been unthinkable in the hamburger business. Customers who used to ask "Hold the pickle" now are saying "Hold the bun"; can "Hold the burger" be far behind?

Burger King took out a full-page advertisement in USA Today on Wednesday to tout its unlikely new product, showing a giant Whopper with dotted lines marking the outlines of where a bun would normally be. The Miami-based chain is selling them in plastic salad bowls, with knife and fork, after reporting an increasing number of such requests over the past year.

It also is introducing Whopper meals that substitute salads for French fries and bottled water for soft drinks and promising a new line of salads, so company officials aren't staking their future on a bunless trend.

"A large majority of our customer base still enjoy fully loaded, high-quality cheeseburgers, so we don't see this as some kind of sea change," said Russ Klein, Burger King's chief marketing officer. "But it's a change that we felt was warranted in order to give all our customers options they feel comfortable with in terms of diet."

The bunless Whopper has 3 grams of carbohydrates, compared with 52 for a regular Whopper.

No matter how you slice it, though, such "gimmicks" as bunless burgers don't impress dietitians like Connie Diekman.

"The issue is we need to burn more carbohydrates ? more physical activity ? and eat less," said Diekman, director of university nutrition at Washington University in St. Louis. "The better option would be a smaller burger, maybe less often, and still have it on a bun so you control the calories and the fat."

Ricardo Real, a tourist from Mexico who lunched at a Burger King in downtown Chicago on Wednesday, was unimpressed when informed about the bunless burger and chose a regular hamburger instead. "A burger without bread? That's crazy," he said. "That's not a burger."

The bunless burger is hardly a new innovation at fast-food joints. The Irvine, Calif.-based In-N-Out chain has been offering them since the 1970s.

But in a sign of the times, the name has changed. Currently known as "protein style" burgers, they used to go by the less politically correct "animal style," Sibilski said.

"It wasn't on the menu, but if you asked for it 'animal style' they stuck it between two pieces of lettuce without the bun," he said. "They kind of set the precedent for it."

Stupid idea...

its called corporate bullshit

<---Guilty of ordering at In and Out a burger 'protein style'. They just wrap it in lettuce. Sometimes i crave the meat, and the bun is just in the way.

The worst way is to have it served up in a bowl, like Jack in the Box does, you're lucky if they remeber to give you plasticware to eat it with.

I tried the Six dollar burger wrapped in lettece and actually liked it.

Best fuckin' "Fast Food" burger in the world ... as a matter of fact ... BEST BURGER PERIOD!

NO GUILT!

"Protein Style" ... fuck the bun!

LOL

carls jr. is doing this too. you get half a lb of meat and whatever toppings you want with no bun

sounds good to me, less carbs is better :thumbsup

Every fast food joint is adding an atkins menu

When they put that hot burger in my hands it burned! I'm suing them!

I introduced the foreskinless whopper penis several decades ago and it was a massive hit.

Why the hell not have a bunless burger?

id like to see a lettuce wraped burger ... The taste must SUCK ass seriously ... how can you replace bread by lettuce ?

stupid idea. If someone really wants to be healthy, they probably shoudlnt be eating burger patties.

Just a stupid fad to con people obsessed with that atkins diet.


Or they should have made it like subways atkins wraps and at least wrapped it with something. The idea of eating a whopper patty with a fork is disgusting.

Atkins is horseshit. The only people it could even possibly work for are really lazy people who don't hardly even walk (like webmasters ;)). I tried it for about a month and lost about 4 lbs and felt tired all the time. If you really want to lose weight, start watching your fat intake. That's about 80% of the reason for your ever-expanding waistline.

Go to Subway, get something from their low fat menu, and learn to enjoy it. :thumbsup

Fuck that Idea, I will go down with the bun:thumbsup

Boneprone and I eat our burgers with buns:thumbsup :winkwink:

BK buns are bullshit anyway - they are always soggy as shit after they get done nuking the burger so it is warm (you know the patties sit there for hours right?). And they always get pissed if you ask them for a non-soggy bun. Plus they are small as hell anyway.

Can't stand the texture of Burger King meat so this is definitely out. But fuck you lose 49 grams of carbs! I know a girl that's lost a lot of weight on Atkins, so I don't think it's bullshit. But she hates it. Gotta be torture passing up the donuts, ice cream, candy.....mmmmmm. Doubt I'd have the self discipline.

Wasnt it someone saying that corps were going to start removing the bun, I beleive after being shorted in the pickle count.

Don't you love corporate america, here they are taking the bun off to save money.

agreed.

Hey, will there ever be a weight gaining craze for us skinny folk with high metabolism who just cant gain weight no matter what we eat?

the atkins trend will be over faster than a "cat in the hat" happy meal.

My wife is on the Atkins diet. She's disappointed about all these places offering bunless burgers. She doesn't understand why they don't offer a low-carb bun. There's plenty of companies making low carb bread these days.

Wonder if Mc D's will try to follow suit?

The buns, is what makes the burger taste good... bad idea

I can't believe people can even eat that crap meat they sell at fast food joints.

Think about it. What grade meat do you think you're getting when they're charging you .99 cents. They paid about .30 cents or less for it.

YUK! Don't want to know what part of a cow that comes from, but its not Filet Mignon ground up in there.

:1orglaugh

Isn't it just like a salisbury steak now?

Maybe not enough onion in it.


:)

lips and ass! think about bologna,WTF is that?

Lame idea.

try the carl's deal you'll think differently.

Its a good idea for those of us who are diabetic and watch our carb intake. I have to agree the In-n-Out Dbl Dbl protein style is a treat.

I can't wail till they come out with the meatless burger

Yeah, right. People have been saying that since the 70s. True, it's been gaining steam lately but that's largely to the fact that more science is backing it up.

Simple carbs = killer. You could always order a burger and then discard the bun. At least this way, you get it wrapped in extra lettuce. I've had a few "Protein Style" double doubles at In-N-Out and they're almost as good as the real thing. PF Changs sells wildly popular lettuce wraps and they're damn good.

Stupid idea? It just looks like meeting consumer demand to me. These joints don't have to make any changes except maybe order a bit more lettuce. Either offer the option, or risk loss of customer base (which is huge now).

I want pizza with no dough!

lettuce wrapped burgers??

As if they don't put enough rabbit food on the damn things now.

LOL

WWWD?

http://www.mccomics.com/acatalog/cla...cterswimpy.jpg

(What would Wimpy Do?)

This is a great idea. Fuck Atkins, diabetics need more low-carb fast foods.

funny shit.....
In n Out has been doing the protein burger for years.....

also notice that Micky-Ds is putting out a meatless burger.....hasnt europe had those for years....

we are so behind in the fast food race......the present it as "new" when they have been making it for years

whats next....a glass of beer at mcdonalds

between mad cow and the steriods in chicken....10yrs from now well find out that the vegetarians had it right......

me...give me cow, chicken, fish...all meat...WITH a BUN.....

LOL... It's funny .. low fat? WTF :1orglaugh

There's a pizza place just around the corner that already makes it. Haven't tried it yet ...

http://www.foxnews.com/images/113373...ess_burger.jpg
:throwup

Wouldn't that be a McDonalds burger? :1orglaugh

I'd bet that a lot of the dieters would be the folks waiting 5 mins for a close parking spot so they don't have to walk too far to enter the fast food resteraunt.

interesting