Burgers, Dogs, & Pizza, Oh My!

Posts Tagged ‘Hardee’s’

Hardees, actually it’s predecessor, Sandys, was the first fast food in my hometown, years before McDonalds or BK landed.

Second was probably Henry’s, another defunct chain.  So, anyway, I’ve always had an affinity for Hardees, and while it has ebbed and flowed over the years parallel to their own ups and downs, the last few years I’m good with them.

I think they have the best breakfast sandwiches in the industry, and they have actual, real, bonafide ham in the breakfast hours, as well. Some years ago, they decided their target customer was going to be young men, who aren’t shy about eating hardy, and then went after that market, and while I don’t know the numbers, I’ll bet they made a solid dent in it.

They focus on larger burger patties, 1/3 pound minimum, heavily loaded  — like the Monster Thickburger, two 1/3 pound patties, four strips of bacon, three slices of American cheese, mayo on a bakery bun.

In order to tell their target customer about their new focus – they employed a number of attractive female celebrities, portrayed as seductively eating the new burgers.  This went on for a few years, then somebody moaned about it and they stopped.

I thought it was brilliant.  PC aside, the company had a demographic specific product and designed marketing to capture that audience. It worked.

Here’s one of the commercials.

Feeling a might pecking a few weeks ago, somewhere unidentifiable in the Carolinas, I pulled off to grab a snack and happened into Hardees for the only reason is it was the easiest to get in and out of off the street.

They were advertising a double cheeseburger slider for a buck, which would be all I’d need at the moment. (BUT….the only TRUE sliders, IMHO, come from White Castle and Krystal).

I was the only customer inside. There were no drive-thru customers.  Yet for some reason, it took a full fifteen minutes to put this sandwich together, and apparently they couldn’t spare another 15 seconds in the microwave to melt the cheese.

No matter. Tasted OK.  Mission accomplished.  Hey it was a buck!  Better meat and bun than lots of fast food burgers at $2-4.

I don’t see it on the menu on their website, must have been a limited time thing.

So here’s a pic of the slider.

Hardees Double Cheese Slider Review

Hardees Double Cheese Slider Review

I admit I’ve become fussy about fast food (and C-store) breakfasts.  Think I’ve covered them all, and some are pretty good, some are absolutely dreadful. Some could be made better with very little effort or expense.

I stopped in a Hardees/Carl’s Jr on a recent road trip, in search of a menu item I’ve had before, the “Monster Biscuit (review)” which is egg, cheese, bacon, sausage and ham together!

Hardee’s gets extra points off the top for making their biscuits fresh, in house daily. Not sure anywhere else does that. In any case, the Monster Biscuit was nowhere to be found, so I thought I would try the Ham Biscuit, figuring I’d be disappointed cause they would probably use the standard fast food “ham” (which isn’t, is it?).

Lo and behold, behold and lo, no the biscuit had REAL ham on it, much like one of my other favorites, the ham biscuit at Bojangles, a southern chain.

So, surprise!  I’m ok with Chik Filet’s breakfast biscuits (also because they have tots), and Einstein’s (because they cook them to order).  I found a bologna breakfast biscuit in a c-store in Tennessee last week.  That was different.

I enjoy Sonic’s “Toaster” breakfast sandwiches (review), but I wish the toast was crisp instead of limp.  Could be if they toasted it on the spot.  Starbucks has a pretty good offering, which I will write about later this week.  But it’s spendy.

Finally, something else I will cover this week, spoiler alert, Dunkin Donuts toasted breakfast sandwich.  Just plain dreadful.  If you go to the search bar above, and use gas station or c-store as a search term, you can discover other stops I’ve made along the breakfast highway!

Hardees Breakfast Biscuit Review

First opened in Greenville, SC, Hardee’s is a ‘semi-national’ chain, mostly in the Eastern United States, and part of CKE (Carl Karcher Enterprises) which operates Carl’s Jr. in the Western US; the two share some menu items.

Hardee’s places a big emphasis on their breakfast menu, and offers a wider variety of choices than most competitors. Additionally, they push a “prepared fresh” method with their items.  They bake their biscuits in-house, from scratch daily, and cook the other ingredients upon order.

On a whim, I picked up their “Monster Biscuit”, which is a pile of egg, bacon, sausage, shaved ham, and cheese.  It surprised me on every level, and is surely one of the best fast-food breakfast offerings in the land.  My only preference for “improvement” would be that Hardee’s also has a ‘country ham’ biscuit, and I think I’d prefer that ham on the Monster.   Nevertheless, this is a good product, and as the advertising says, prepared fresh.  Grab a couple today. Update 2/2016, Hardees has added a Hillshire Farms Smoked Sausage breakfast biscuit to their menu.  Locator.

                    Hardees Monster Biscuit Review

Hardees Monster Biscuit Review

McDonald’s was late in coming to my city.   One had to drive  150 miles to get to one when I was growing up.   But that’s not to say my town was fast food-less.   In addition to locally-owned establishments, our first burger chain entry was Henry’s, followed a few years later by Sandy’s.

Both were Midwestern chains, eventually both reaching between 150-200 outlets before fading from the scene.    Sandy’s was started in Illinois by a couple of guys who had one of the first McDonald’s franchises, got mad at Ray Kroc, sued him, then started up their own deal.

Henry’s was started as an off-shoot of Bressler’s Ice Cream, in order to cash in on the drive-in craze, and to have additional outlets to sell their ice cream.   In the early days, Henry’s outlets far-outnumber McDonald’s.

I remember our family going to Henry’s on very rare occasions, probably when my mom was managing the brood because my dad was out of town.  I do remember the sign that touted the 15 cent burger, or ten for a buck promotion.

Sandy’s was a bit more full-line, with a “Scottish” theme, eventually sold out and converted the units to Hardees.

Here’s an old Sandy’s commercial.

McDonald’s launches Angus, Carl’s and Hardee’s take umbrage. An article in the WSJ yesterday chronicles the marketing efforts of these three as they attempt to garner a larger share of the large burger market. Feeling that the McD angus was a copycat of CKE’s (Carl Karcher Enterprises, parent company of both Carl’s Jr and Hardees), Carl’s took aim on Wednesday to introduce the Big Carl, a direct snub at the Big Mac. The Big Carl contains more than two times as much beer as the Big Mac, and at a lower price point. The Big Carl will be backed by a television campaign that will poke fun at both the competitor’s sandwich and their marketing methods.

In September, Carl’s Jr. will have a campaign to issue refunds to people who claim they like Big Mac’s better. They will also employ a guerrilla marketing strategy of having a mobile unit outside McDonald’s in Los Angeles and offering to trade diners their Big Macs for Big Carl’s.

Hardees continues to push its Thickburger line, which is also “Angus” beef. The largest thickburger is the Monster entry, at 1420 calories, compared to McD’s bacon and cheese Angus, which is a mere 790 calories.

Not many places in the U.S. you will find this, unless you are cruising the eastern Maritime provinces of Canada!  But now,  Hardee’s has added a fried bologna biscuit, with egg and cheese, to its extensive breakfast sandwich menu.  No word on whether or not sister chain Carl’s, Jr., will follow suit, but that would sure be nice for Western US residents!   And yes, Hardee’s (are you old enough to remember when their slogan was “Charco-Broiled?”) spells its bologna  O-S-C-A-R!

The “French Maid”.   Roast beef on a burger w/ au jus.  Tried it?   Thanks, hardees! http://is.gd/1ykv6