Not that it ever left—but it sure seemed that way, what with Burger King having introduced more than 50 different menu items in a single year (remember Satisfries?). But it finally dawned on Restaurant Brands International Inc. that its fast-food burger chain was better off selling classic flame-broiled burgers and putting aside those snack wraps and salads.
Like its rival McDonald’s, Burger King has struggled with an identity crisis: Embrace fast-food efficiency or become fast-casual? Expand its healthy options and tout better ingredients or play-up its guilty-pleasure offerings? (Carl’s Jr. clearly had no qualms selling its Texas BBQ Thickburger.) And similar to McDonald’s experience, the abundance of new menu items turned into a nightmare for the kitchen with wait times getting ever longer.
As Julie Jargon explains in the Wall Street Journal:
The decision is paying off. “Burger King’s adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization grew 68 percent between 2010 and 2015,” writes Jargon. “Same-store sales at U.S. and Canadian restaurants grew 5.7 percent last year, better than most big rivals.”
We tend to forget the Whopper was invented in 1957, 15 years before the Quarter Pounder. As the late Josh Ozersky notes in The Hamburger, “At a time when the standard was a fifteen-cent burger, or at most one costing eighteen cents, the Whopper cost a whopping twenty-nine.” He adds, “Burger King found out what the whole fast-food industry would come to learn: Americans like bigger products and are willing to pay for them. Burger King sold more Whoppers than anything else. By 1967, it was building a hundred new restaurants a year, equaling McDonald’s pace—an unheard-of feat, albeit one that didn’t last long.” It also helps when Elisabeth Shue is your spokeswoman.
