The BK Whopper Bar is a limited service concept created by fast-food restaurant Burger King in 2009.
The Whopper Bar is a high end concept designed to compete with fast casual and casual dining restaurants. The locations feature an open kitchen with a semi-circular metal counter top. [1] The exposed kitchen allows customers to view the preparation of their foods. Decoration of the new locations is limited to plasma televisions playing looped videos of open flames. The concept is similar to the McCafé concept from rival McDonald's, and like the McCafé locations they are designed for malls, airports, casinos and other areas with limited space. [2]
Whopper Bars are kiosk-type stores with a menu limited to the company's Whopper, TenderCrisp and Angus sandwiches; drinks; and desserts. [3] The menu features higher-end ingredients and variants not sold in the normal Burger King locations.
While international locations sold beer at the Whopper Bar locations, the company originally stated that it did not intend to do so at its North American locations. The company changed its mind with the opening of its second Whopper Bar location in the South Beach section of the company's home town of Miami; Burger King reported that it would be the only current American, national fast food chain selling beer in its home territory. [4]
In markets where alcohol can be sold at fast food restaurants, the company will be selling products from SABMiller and Anheuser-Busch including Budweiser, Bud Light and Miller Lite in aluminum bottles designed to maintain temperature. The move, designed to target the important 30-and-under demographic, has been called risky by industry analysts because the company is known as a fast food purveyor and not as an alcoholic beverages seller. Other industry consultants have disagreed with the assessment, believing that the move is a practical one because the company is growing with its aging customer base. [5] [6] [7]
A fast-food restaurant, also known as a quick-service restaurant (QSR) within the industry, is a specific type of restaurant that serves fast-food cuisine and has minimal table service. The food served in fast-food restaurants is typically part of a "meat-sweet diet", offered from a limited menu, cooked in bulk in advance and kept hot, finished and packaged to order, and usually available for take away, though seating may be provided. Fast-food restaurants are typically part of a restaurant chain or franchise operation that provides standardized ingredients and/or partially prepared foods and supplies to each restaurant through controlled supply channels. The term "fast food" was recognized in a dictionary by Merriam–Webster in 1951.
Burger King Corporation is an American multinational chain of hamburger fast food restaurants. Headquartered in Miami-Dade County, Florida, the company was founded in 1953 as Insta-Burger King, a Jacksonville, Florida–based restaurant chain. After Insta-Burger King ran into financial difficulties, its two Miami-based franchisees David Edgerton (1927–2018) and James McLamore (1926–1996) purchased the company in 1959. Over the next half-century, the company changed hands four times and its third set of owners, a partnership between TPG Capital, Bain Capital, and Goldman Sachs Capital Partners, took it public in 2002. In late 2010, 3G Capital of Brazil acquired a majority stake in the company in a deal valued at US$3.26 billion. The new owners promptly initiated a restructuring of the company to reverse its fortunes. 3G, along with its partner Berkshire Hathaway, eventually merged the company with the Canadian-based doughnut chain Tim Hortons under the auspices of a new Canadian-based parent company named Restaurant Brands International.
The Whopper is the signature hamburger brand of international fast food restaurant chain Burger King, its Australian franchise Hungry Jack's, and BK Whopper Bar kiosks. Introduced in 1957 in response to the large burger size of a local restaurant in Gainesville, Florida, it became central to Burger King's advertising, including the chain's tagline "the Home of the Whopper." Burger King's competitors began releasing similar products in the 1970s designed to compete against it.
Hungry Jack's Pty Ltd. is an Australian fast food franchise of the Burger King Corporation. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of Competitive Foods Australia, a privately held company owned by Jack Cowin. Hungry Jack's owns and operates or sub-licenses all of the Burger King/Hungry Jack's restaurants in Australia.
David Russell Edgerton Jr. was an American entrepreneur and co-founder of Burger King, in what would become the second-largest burger chain after McDonald's. After serving as a manager of another restaurant, Howard Johnson's, on March 1, 1954, he opened a franchise outlet of the restaurant chain Insta Burger King in Miami, Florida. On June 1 of the same year, he met fellow restaurateur James McLamore and the two founded the Burger King Corporation. After leaving Burger King, he went on to start Bodega, a steakhouse restaurant.
The Big King sandwich is one of the major hamburger products sold by the international fast-food restaurant chain Burger King, and was part of its menu for more than twenty years. As of March 2019, it is sold in the United States under its 1997 Big King XL formulation. During its testing phase in 1996–1997, it was originally called the Double Supreme and was configured similarly to the McDonald's Big Mac—including a three-piece roll. It was later reformulated as a more standard double burger during the latter part of product testing in 1997. It was given its current name when the product was formally introduced in September 1997, but maintained the more conventional double cheeseburger format.
The BK Stacker sandwiches are a family of cheeseburgers sold by the international fast-food restaurant chain Burger King.
The Burger King Specialty Burgers are a line of burgers developed by the international fast-food restaurant chain Burger King in 1978 and introduced in 1979 as part of a new product line designed to expand Burger King's menu with more sophisticated, adult oriented fare beyond hamburgers. Additionally, the new line was intended to differentiate the company from other fast food hamburger restaurants at the time. Since the line's introduction, the other burgers have been discontinued, leaving the chicken offering, the Original Chicken Burger, as the primary product left. Additionally, other burgers that utilize the same roll as the chicken burger have been introduced to the company's menu both domestically and internationally since the original product line was introduced.
Restaurants fall into several industry classifications, based upon menu style, preparation methods and pricing, as well as the means by which the food is served to the customer. This article mainly describes the situation in the US, while categorisation differs widely around the world.
As far back as the 1970s, international fast food restaurant chain Burger King has attempted to introduce a premium line of burgers. These sandwiches are part of a system which eventually became known as the barbell strategy; a plan designed to expand Burger King's menu with both more sophisticated, adult-oriented fare along with products that are more value-oriented. This program is intended to bring in a larger, more affluent adult audience who will be willing to spend more on the better quality products on one side while maintaining a lower cost value menu dedicated to a more cost-conscious audience on the other. The hope is that the customers would be drawn in initially for the lower prices of the value-menu and upgrade to the more expensive products, upping overall sales.
The predecessor to what is now the international fast food restaurant chain Burger King was founded on July 23, 1954, in Jacksonville, Florida, as Instant Burger King. Inspired by the McDonald brothers' original store location in San Bernardino, California, the founders and owners, Keith G. Cramer and his stepfather Matthew Burns, began searching for a concept. After purchasing the rights to two pieces of equipment called "Insta" machines, the two opened their first stores around a cooking device known as the Insta-Broiler. The Insta-Broiler oven proved so successful at cooking burgers, they required all of their franchises to carry the device. After the original company began to falter in 1959, it was purchased by its Miami, Florida, franchisees James McLamore and David R. Edgerton. The two initiated a corporate restructuring of the chain; the first step being to rename the company, Burger King. The duo ran the company as an independent entity for eight years, eventually expanding to over 250 locations in the United States, when they sold it to the Pillsbury Company in 1967.
When the predecessor of international fast food restaurant chain Burger King (BK) first opened in 1953, its menu predominantly consisted of hamburgers, French fries, soft drinks, milkshakes, and desserts. After being acquired by its Miami, Florida franchisees and renamed in 1954, BK began expanding its menu by adding the Whopper sandwich in 1957, and has since added non-beef items such as chicken, fish, and vegetarian offerings, including salads and meatless sandwiches. Other additions include a breakfast menu and beverages such as Icees, juices, and bottled waters. As the company expanded both inside and outside the United States, it introduced localized versions of its products that conform to regional tastes and cultural or religious beliefs. To generate additional sales, BK occasionally introduces limited-time offers of special versions of its products, or brings out completely new products intended for either long- or short-term sales. Not all of these products and services have been successful; in 1992, Burger King introduced limited table service featuring special dinner platters, but this concept failed to generate interest and was discontinued.
The majority of the locations of international fast-food restaurant chain Burger King are privately owned franchises. While the majority of franchisees are smaller operations, several have grown into major corporations in their own right. At the end of the company's fiscal year in 2015, Burger King reported it had more than 15,000 outlets in 84 countries; of these, approximately 50% are in the United States and 99.9% are privately owned and operated. The company locations employ more than 37,000 people who serve approximately 11.4 million customers daily.
The legal issues of Burger King include several legal disputes and lawsuits involving the international fast food restaurant chain Burger King (BK) as both plaintiff and defendant in the years since its founding in 1954. These have involved almost every aspect of the company's operations. Depending on the ownership and executive staff at the time of these incidents, the company's responses to these challenges have ranged from a conciliatory dialog with its critics and litigants to a more aggressive opposition with questionable tactics and negative consequences. The company's response to these various issues has drawn praise, scorn, and accusations of political appeasement from different parties over the years.
The fast-food restaurant chain Burger King was the first major fast food chain to introduce a grilled chicken burger to the marketplace, in 1990, six months before Wendy's and four years before McDonald's. Since then, Burger King, and its Australian franchise Hungry Jack's have offered a variety of grilled chicken burgers, as have Wendy's and McDonald's.
International fast-food restaurant chain Burger King and its Australian franchise Hungry Jack's have had a variety of breakfast sandwiches in their product portfolio since 1978. The Croissan'wich was the first major breakfast sandwich product introduced by the company.
Newk's Eatery is an American chain of fast casual cafés which operates over 100 restaurants in 13 states.