I find it remarkable that White Castle, which pretty much invented the slider years before mini burgers/sandwiches became a trend, may be the one to popularize veggie burgers to a new generation.
This week White Castle made the grand announcement that it was introducing the “Impossible Slider” to 140 of its restaurants in three states. I don’t know if that takes guts, or if that shows they are wise beyond their years.
Impossible Foods’ Impossible Burger and Beyond Meat’s Beyond Burger have been all over the news lately as operators are popping up with their plant-based burger announcements. White Castle's timing is actually perfect.
When I was growing up, veggie burger and Gardein were synonymous distasteful terms. Only flower children ate them. They had a beef with beef. Today’s beef is not so much with cows as with the way they are raised and the impact on the environment. My generation wouldn’t think much about these things, but today’s Millennial is aware and disapproves of the vast amount of water it takes to raise cows vs. produce plants. (Where did everyone collectively learn this?) These youngsters purchase with their environmental conscience.
Smart people (including investors) saw a market for this reasoning. Combine the science behind Impossible Foods’ development of plant-based patties made from wheat, coconut oil, potatoes and “heme,” etc., with its targeted marketing message, “Compared to cows, the Impossible Burger uses 95% less land, 74% less water, and creates 87% less greenhouse gas emissions,” and you have a business for the textbooks.
I don’t want to give all the glory to Impossible Foods. Beyond Meat has its own version of this success story with impressive investors to back it up—Leonardo DiCaprio, Bill Gates and McDonald’s former CEO Don Thompson. The Beyond Burger, which boasts of being cholesterol-, gluten- and soy-free and containing pea protein, has already made it into Applebee’s, TGI Fridays and Epic Burger. Watch for more Beyond Burger announcements among restaurants (until it becomes old news), considering that it’s on the Sysco order form now.
To the credit of both of these companies, apparently they achieved one of their highest goals. That was to create a burger that looks, smells, sizzles and tastes like a regular burger. Though I’ve never tried one, I talked to one independent restaurant operator who brought in the Beyond Burger, and within the first month, at least six customers sent the burger back because they thought they were accidently served a real beef burger.
He’s the one to whom I addressed my pressing question. Wouldn’t vegetarians push back on the idea of eating something that mimics real meat? But that question just shows my limited scope. Those who would order these meat-like plant-based burgers are not doing so because they are vegetarians. Today’s generation is completely open to plant-based foods while they are cutting back on beef—a well-researched and established fact.
And so I’m back to White Castle. They are wise to enter the Impossible Burger arena while everyone is still so curious and before the subject is worn-out, non-reported news. It was a great way for them to make a splash as the first fast food burger chain to carry the Impossible Burger.
Tell me what you think.
Jody
Comments