We now have burger king!!

[krallam]

how far south of the 49th are you 2dimes?

[krallam]

ha, you're not. a fellow canuck, eh? i lived within spitting distance of the second 'big cheese' in calgary on 10th st. pretty good, but, ya gotta go to quebec for the real stuff...
and shame on you for not singing the praises of A & W before i did!

[2dimes]

I did not see much point in trying to explain places Betiko probably would never have been. Do you remember Willies? They were pretty awesome. Peter's is not as great as they used to be but they would be more "Legendary" than A&W. Do you like Boogies? They have spectacular fries and a couple of good dipping sauces for them, their burgers are ok.

Bob's used to be in several locations, I think there is only one left in the parking lot with the Glemore Inn. The place is a bit of a dive but the food is ok and pretty inexpensive.

I don't think I have seen one but A&W started somewhere in the United States.

I like the mama burger. Last one I had seemed even better since they seemed to change their beef. I don't like the cheese and bacon anymore so teens are out. My preferred A&W is McKnight and Edmonton Trail currently. The one on 4th st and 16th ave NW is ok but not as good.

I have never been to Quebec.

[krallam]

haha yeah, i remember willies. quite good as i recall - was sad to see them go. believe i had my only "ostrich" burger there...
as for boogies, i am not that big a fan and i will tell you why : the buns disintegrate about 1/3 of the way through your burger every time. i would go there much more often if they sold "full size" corn dogs, however. do you know any place in town that does? seems i can only find them @ stampede and i hate the stampede...

[2dimes]

7-11 used to have corn dogs. I'll try to keep a eye out. I can't think of anywhere right now. We get those frozen ones sometimes. Pogo and some other brand but they are not the same baked. We gave the stampede a miss fora few years. Usually take the kids down last couple years fora part day.

[krallam]

yeah, pogo's dont count. i'm talking real, honest to goodness, deep fried(right fucking there!!!)CORN DOGS! it baffles me that in a city of 1 000 000 +, there is no place to get a real corn dog. please, somebody stop me...

[2dimes]

Should we open a stand? People probably get their fill during the stampede. Might be profitable to open one for a couple of weeks every January.

[notyou2]

Google a recipe and make your own.

[2dimes]

Grease spatter in my kitchen? No thanks. Maybe if I buy an outdoor deep fryer.

[krallam]

i actually kicked around the idea of buying a hot dog cart and licence this summer as work on the rigs was quite scarce for my then employer. kinda seems like a fun way to make money , hanging around outside all day, hawking edibles...being your own boss. plus, i have a secret weapon - an unbelievable(and authentic)doukhobour borscht recipe. everytime i make it for a party, i always get asked "why arent you selling this shit?"

[Dukasaur]

yeah, pogo's dont count. i'm talking real, honest to goodness, deep fried(right fucking there!!!)CORN DOGS! it baffles me that in a city of 1 000 000 +, there is no place to get a real corn dog. please, somebody stop me...

You want corn dogs, go to Chicago.

Everywhere else, there are better things to eat.

[Serbia]

A&W is good, but not terribly common. I love their cheese curds.
I'm American, but a big fan of poutine. I love it. I want some right now, in fact. But I can't get any. Alas.

Bollocks.

[Endgame422]

A&W is good, but not terribly common. I love their cheese curds.
I'm American, but a big fan of poutine. I love it. I want some right now, in fact. But I can't get any. Alas.

Bollocks.

cheese curds are the tits

[notyou2]

A&W is good, but not terribly common. I love their cheese curds.
I'm American, but a big fan of poutine. I love it. I want some right now, in fact. But I can't get any. Alas.

Bollocks.

Squeaky cheese curds are the tits

Fixed it for you.

[Dukasaur]

I'm tired of eating at Burger King every fucking day.

[BigBallinStalin]

#firstworldproblems

As a consumer, you have the choice to stop doing that to yourself--if BK is actually that shitty. Instead, you have plenty of other places like Arby's, What-A-Burger, Subway, and so on! (or googling can reveal some local good places too).

[nietzsche]

I'm tired because of eating at Burger King every fucking day.

Fixed

[saxitoxin]

other places like Arby's

OMG, the French would go apeshit over horsey sauce. Betiko and I should open an Arby's franchise in Paris. We'd be $$$.

Plus France already has lots of surly, annoyed people to work at the Arby's, so we wouldn't have to import those from wherever the U.S. Arby's locations find them at; like this guy ->

[betiko]

other places like Arby's

OMG, the French would go apeshit over horsey sauce. Betiko and I should open an Arby's franchise in Paris. We'd be $$$.

Plus France already has lots of surly, annoyed people to work at the Arby's, so we wouldn't have to import those from wherever the U.S. Arby's locations find them at; like this guy ->

that's a good question... would a higher quality american burger restaurant work in france? I don't thing planet hollywood or hard rock café are doing that great to give an example...

[Dukasaur]

#firstworldproblems

As a consumer, you have the choice to stop doing that to yourself--if BK is actually that shitty. Instead, you have plenty of other places like Arby's, What-A-Burger, Subway, and so on! (or googling can reveal some local good places too).

Well, yeah. I live in a tourist town. I have a million options. Well, maybe not a million, but probably a thousand.

When the wife first left, I was eating at all kinds of interesting places, but soon the list began to narrow.

The expensive places were the first to go, because despite saving myself the expense of a companion, I still found that eating three meals a day at restaurants was tearing a big-ass hole in my budget. So, I started narrowing it down to just the local diners and the fast food joints.

Then the snow began, and most of the local diners took themselves out of my list because they didn't plow their parking lots, and I didn't need to get my feet cold and wet first thing in the morning. That left the fast food joints and a very short list of diners.

Then, as I started working more and more excessive hours, I found myself resenting driving even a very small detour. It's amazing, being a professional driver who's logged probably a million miles, that I started to think of two extra intersections as an odious chore that I wasn't willing to perform. That left only those places that were directly in my path between home and work and didn't require even a tiny detour.

That includes one tavern that serves good food but has slow service. Sorry, no time. It also includes three of the five major burger chains and one of the three major sub chains. For some reason, I have a mental image of subs as cold food. It's irrational, I know, because you can get hot subs as well as cold, and yet when the mental image forms it's always cold, and so I rarely go there.

That leaves the three burger joints -- Burger King, Harvey's, and A&W. All three serve variations on the same shit, but A&W is vastly more expensive than the other two and takes itself out of contention, except late at night when it's the only thing open. That leave's Harvey's and Burger King. Harvey's requires a left turn on a busy intersection, and then two left turns to get back out and on my way, whereas I can get both in and out of Burger King making right turns only. That's probably an extra minute of my time, and that one measly minute is enough to ensure that I choose Burger King over Harvey's probably four times out of five.

It's actually quite an interesting study in microeconomics. Over time, an incredibly small competitive advantage has made one restaurant the centre of my world in a town with a thousand restaurants.

[mrswdk]

Eating out in Beijing is so cheap that I only cook during the first 2/3 days after Chinese New Year, when literally everywhere is closed. It's great.

I can go out with friends, stuff my face on decent food and get pissed up for the grand total of about $7 if I go to a little local restaurant.

[BigBallinStalin]

#firstworldproblems

As a consumer, you have the choice to stop doing that to yourself--if BK is actually that shitty. Instead, you have plenty of other places like Arby's, What-A-Burger, Subway, and so on! (or googling can reveal some local good places too).

Well, yeah. I live in a tourist town. I have a million options. Well, maybe not a million, but probably a thousand.

When the wife first left, I was eating at all kinds of interesting places, but soon the list began to narrow.

The expensive places were the first to go, because despite saving myself the expense of a companion, I still found that eating three meals a day at restaurants was tearing a big-ass hole in my budget. So, I started narrowing it down to just the local diners and the fast food joints.

Then the snow began, and most of the local diners took themselves out of my list because they didn't plow their parking lots, and I didn't need to get my feet cold and wet first thing in the morning. That left the fast food joints and a very short list of diners.

Then, as I started working more and more excessive hours, I found myself resenting driving even a very small detour. It's amazing, being a professional driver who's logged probably a million miles, that I started to think of two extra intersections as an odious chore that I wasn't willing to perform. That left only those places that were directly in my path between home and work and didn't require even a tiny detour.

That includes one tavern that serves good food but has slow service. Sorry, no time. It also includes three of the five major burger chains and one of the three major sub chains. For some reason, I have a mental image of subs as cold food. It's irrational, I know, because you can get hot subs as well as cold, and yet when the mental image forms it's always cold, and so I rarely go there.

That leaves the three burger joints -- Burger King, Harvey's, and A&W. All three serve variations on the same shit, but A&W is vastly more expensive than the other two and takes itself out of contention, except late at night when it's the only thing open. That leave's Harvey's and Burger King. Harvey's requires a left turn on a busy intersection, and then two left turns to get back out and on my way, whereas I can get both in and out of Burger King making right turns only. That's probably an extra minute of my time, and that one measly minute is enough to ensure that I choose Burger King over Harvey's probably four times out of five.

It's actually quite an interesting study in microeconomics. Over time, an incredibly small competitive advantage has made one restaurant the centre of my world in a town with a thousand restaurants.

Yes. Have you grown lazier or become more efficient?

On a more serious note, why do you value saving a minute amount of time and not having to wear decent winter shoes over food quality?
If price was a long-term concern, why not cook?

[BigBallinStalin]

Eating out in Beijing is so cheap that I only cook during the first 2/3 days after Chinese New Year, when literally everywhere is closed. It's great.

I can go out with friends, stuff my face on decent food and get pissed up for the grand total of about $7 if I go to a little local restaurant.

Does it really make sense to compare going-out prices from your native land? It's not like you're going take a left, a right, go past the police station, and find yourself in the US...

Buying groceries is cheaper, is it not?

[saxitoxin]

other places like Arby's

OMG, the French would go apeshit over horsey sauce. Betiko and I should open an Arby's franchise in Paris. We'd be $$$.

Plus France already has lots of surly, annoyed people to work at the Arby's, so we wouldn't have to import those from wherever the U.S. Arby's locations find them at; like this guy ->

that's a good question... would a higher quality american burger restaurant work in france? I don't thing planet hollywood or hard rock café are doing that great to give an example...

Probably, but those are semi-casual restaurants that appeal to tourists and families and tourist families. They're not optimized for convenience.

Now I've been surprised a quality USA casual hamburger franchise concept like Five Guys hasn't made any effort to expand off the continent. I've talked to people from Australia who have eaten at Five Guys and are perplexed the only U.S. franchises they get are the downscale shit ones like McDonald's, as they love Five Guys.

I suspect it must be a lack of operational expertise by Five Guys to expand abroad. Either that or their margins are slimmer than McDonald's, due to the expense of the more robust ingredients, and they can't make it profitable to open outside U.S. / Canada due to tax considerations and so forth. Plus, since they don't freeze their meat they would have to source it locally which wouldn't work because of the issues with European cattle (though that wouldn't be a problem in Australia). After all that, you're looking at $13 for lunch instead of $8, which is too high for people to pay to eat in a garage ... and if you make your restaurant ambiance nicer you've basically become Planet Hollywood and the cycle starts over.

BBS what do you think?

• edit - no sooner had I posted this than I found this article on CNBC ... apparently Five Guys has opened in London, as well as Shake Shack; so I guess I'm wrong

[mrswdk]

Eating out in Beijing is so cheap that I only cook during the first 2/3 days after Chinese New Year, when literally everywhere is closed. It's great.

I can go out with friends, stuff my face on decent food and get pissed up for the grand total of about $7 if I go to a little local restaurant.

Does it really make sense to compare going-out prices from your native land? It's not like you're going take a left, a right, go past the police station, and find yourself in the US...

Buying groceries is cheaper, is it not?

I was just sharing a story about the joys of dining in my neighborhood.