Wendy’s has introduced a new burger to its premium Made to Crave line. The Pretzel Bacon Pub Burger, introduced Tuesday, is made with a beef patty, Muenster cheese, three strips of bacon, honey mustard, warm beer cheese sauce, onion rings and pickles on a pretzel bun. Its recommended price is $5.69.
The same build can be had with a fried chicken breast for $6.19
The burger somewhat resembles the Pretzel Bacon Cheeseburger that Wendy’s introduced as a limited-time offer in 2013, which had honey mustard, cheddar cheese, cheddar cheese sauce, red onion and a nine-leaf spring mix accompanying a beef patty on a pretzel bun.
That burger was such a success that it won a Nation’s Restaurant News MenuMasters award and joined Wendy’s permanent menu in 2014. It was part of a pretzel-sandwich craze of the 2010s that started with Blimpie introducing pretzel bread as a sandwich option, followed by Red Robin’s introduction of its Oktoberfest Bürger in 2011. TGI Fridays went on to use pretzels as the carrier for corned beef sliders, and Cousins Subs introduced a line of “twisted subs” made with pretzels.
Gordon Biersch also introduced Baby Brats in pretzel rolls as a limited-time offer.
Pretzels were even being used as desserts at that time, including Krispy Kreme’s Caramel Chocolate Pretzel doughnut.
The trend has slowed down, but continued with the 2018 launch by Culver’s of the Pretzel Haus Pub Burger, which also won a MenuMasters award.
Wendy’s appears to be skipping the process of introducing the new burger as an LTO before moving it to the permanent menu: The Pretzel Bacon Pub Burger is available nationwide indefinitely.
Dublin, Ohio-based Wendy’s is promoting the burger by offering it for free via third-party delivery company Postmates with a minimum $15 purchase from Friday, Sept. 4 through Sunday, Sept. 7.
This is the latest in a series of menu innovations at nearly 6,000-unit Wendy’s, most notably the launch of breakfast in early March.
Although breakfast has been the hardest hit daypart during the coronavirus pandemic as many customers started working from home, and thus didn’t go through restaurant drive-thrus at breakfast time, Wendy’s said the daypart still made up 8% of domestic sales in the 2nd quarter of there year and vowed to invest up to $15 million in breakfast in the remainder of the year.
Wendy’s also introduced a spicy crispy chicken sandwich last month with romaine lettuce and mayonnaise for $1.25
Contact Bret Thorn at [email protected]
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