Is nothing sacred anymore?
Friday June 23, 12:07 am ET
By Bruce Horovitz, USA TODAY
Cheeseburger purists: Cringe now.
The cheeseburger is flipping off the grill this summer. It's being stuffed into egg rolls and plopped atop salads at Bennigan's; layered on pizzas at Uno Chicago Grill; and - for the strong of stomach - crammed between Krispy Kreme doughnut halves at one stadium.
All in the name of making the nation's most popular entree seem new, again. Burgers have been the top entree order for 28 years, says Harry Balzer, trends watcher at NPD Group.
So, why not fuse 'em with other favorites? "If you can mix two favorites, the combination is more pleasurable than any one - as long as it's not grotesque," says Steven Witherly, a food scientist.
Recent cheeseburger pairings:
Cheeseburger egg rolls. A promotion by Bennigan's Grill & Tavern of this $6.99 appetizer sizzled, so it gets a permanent menu slot in July, says Clay Dover, vice president of marketing. It is stuffed with ground beef, cheese, pickles, onions and mustard, and deep fried.
Cheeseburger pizza. Uno Chicago Grill launched a Bacon Cheeseburger Deep Dish Pizza, topped with 6 ounces of grilled ground beef, pickles, mustard and ketchup. Locations are selling about 30 a day, "an unbelievable number for a new item," says CEO Frank Guidara.
Cheeseburger doughnuts. The Gateway Grizzlies, an independent baseball league team in Sauget, Ill., started selling "Baseball's Best Burger" this month: a $4.50 cheeseburger with two strips of bacon grilled between a sliced Krispy Kreme doughnut. (The glazed sides are flipped to the inside for less mess.)
It comes to the plate with 1,000 calories and 45 grams of fat, but the Grizzlies are selling 150 a game, says team spokesman Jeff O'Neill. "People ask us what to put on it," says O'Neill. "We like to think it doesn't need anything."
Cheeseburger tacos. Five kinds of $6.99 Cheeseburger Tacos are sold at Tin Star, a Dallas chain that has copyrighted the name, founder Rich Hicks says.
Cheeseburger fingers. These deep-fried cheeseburger sticks, sold as appetizers in bars, restaurants and supermarkets, were created by Advance Food.
Cheeseburger salad. Bennigan's tried a $7.99 cheeseburger salad, but it didn't make the cut. "Maybe it was a little 'out there' to sell a salad with a cheeseburger on top," says Dover.
An idea so "out there" it died in Bennigan's test kitchen: Cheeseburger Cones.