Carl's Jr. - Teriyaki Burger With Grilled Dole Pineapple Is Back - And Then Some

One of our favorites is back at Carl's Jr., and the timing is perfect. You are supposed to eat fruit in the summer and this burger helps carry that load. This year the Teriyaki Burger is being promoted by a lovely bikini beach bunny who is as good-looking as this burger is. We like this burger because the teriyaki glaze (not teriyaki sauce, which is bitter by itself) blends with the sweetness of the pineapple to make a 1-2 knockout punch. The burger looks just like the photo above - something Carl's is always good about, unlike other fast food restaurants. Heres the official stats: The Teriyaki Six Dollar Burger Charbroiled 100% Black Angus Beef Patty, Teriyaki Glaze, Grilled Dole Pineapple, Two Slices of Swiss Cheese, Red Onion, Lettuce, Tomato and Mayonnaise on a Toasted Sesame Seed Bun. CLICK HERE FOR ONE DOLLAR OFF COUPON

The Kentucky Bourbon Burger - From Carl's Jr. - The FPT Staff Review

While all of the staff here is familiar with burgers and bourbon, we called in a 'special teams' player to help us here. BoBandy eagerly agreed to try this new burger with us and use his extensive knowledge of liquors to judge this new offering from Carl's. This sampling occured around 10 AM, as BoBandy usually has a quart of Rye in his gut by noon. The Kentucky Bourbon Burger - From Carl's Jr is "smooth and with excellent tang" BoBandy tells us. However, we allready knew this. While we did this via video conference, the staff here allready had knocked back a couple of these burgers before the call. This burger is another solid, stand-alone offering from Carl's Jr. This and a large fries will satisfy the biggest of appetites. We are happy to fully endorse the consumption of the Kentucky Bourbon Burger, but we also endorse 'eating responsibly' as well. For those needing support with eating responsibly visit: "Welcome to a place where all Kentucky Bourbon Burger™ addicts can feel at home. Here you can find out more about your situation. Don’t be afraid. At our meeting place you can come to terms with – and be proud of – your obsession. We’re here to help, we’re here for you. Welcome friend, you’re not alone. eatresponsibly.com OFFICIAL STATS: A Charbroiled, All-Beef Patty, Two Strips of Bacon, Pepperjack Cheese, Garlic-Pepper Onion Straws, Lettuce, Tomato Slices and Kentucky Bourbon Glaze

Foodstuff Flashback: A 1940's Era Carl's Jr. Drive-Thru Hot Dog Stand In Los Angeles

FOODSTUFFS FLASHBACKS POST #9 IN A 7 PART SERIES One of our staffers was inside a Carl's Junior picking up lunch for our meeting when he spotted this snapshot in time framed by the restroom doors. This drive-thru hot dog stand was at the corner of Florence & Western in Los Angeles and at the time was considered 'modernized'. Named Carl's at this time - the same organization would eventually run the Carl's Jr. locations you see today.

The Monster Breakfast Sandwich From Carl's Jr. Meets The FPT Staff

One of our staffers brought a few of these big boys into the FPT test kitchens yesterday. This is one mean breakfast sandwich. Sporting 2 eggs, bacon, sausage, 2 kinds of cheeses & sourdough bread it will fill any belly it enters.

Price is around 3.00 to 3.50 depending on loction - but this sandwich is stocked with enough goodness to equal well over 2 sausage mcmuffins with cheese which would hit you for 4.00.

This sandwich just tastes better than the options from other drive-thrus as well.

5-Star Choice

Our Staff Samples The Carl's Jr. Guacamole Bacon Cheeseburger

This afternoon our staff at the FPT test kitchens was able to sample and rate the Carl's Jr. Guacamole Bacon Cheeseburger. We went for the 6 dollar version - as there were 3 of us present and it doesn't really cost 6 bucks, they just call it that.

Our three tasters came from across the board in re. to guacamole, one taster who loves it, one taster who dislikes it and one taster who is "on the fence".

Every taster ate their entire third of the burger and all found it tasty in different ways. The guacamole lover said then guac was very nice because it has larger tomato chunks in it and it was not sweetened. The taster who claimed he disliked guacamole alltogether said the nice big bacon strips blended well with the guacamole taste and then he declared that he had forgotten why he disliked guacamole and could not even actually remember trying it (he just knew he doesnt like avacodos by themselves). Our man who was undecided put bbq sauce on the burger and said it was an awesome burger - then remembered we were focusing on the guacamole and then apologized for 'spacing out'. He promises to try it again this time with no added sauces and let us know if he becomes a guac 'convert'.

Must mention that the new fries Carl's serves are truly the best "fast food" fries you can get from anywhere. They are the long plank style with some of the potato skin still on them.

As with the other 6 dollar burgers we have tried from Carl's this one was all-over excellent. Comes with nice thick bacon strips, large slices of cheese, nice lettuce & tomatoes and it was (as always) cooked fresh to order.

Carl's Jr & Hardees Re-Launch New Truly Cool "Interactive" Websites

The fine folks at Carl's Jr. & Hardee's have given their website a very cool makeover that the FPT staff recommends you visit and check out the cool stuff. What we liked the most was depending on what time of day you visit the site - the food on the table changes. For example if you visit in the morning you see breakfast foods and in the evening you see dinner.

Here is the official press release:

Burger Lovers Can Now Customize Site and Interact With Virtual Roommates

CARPINTERIA, Calif. – Oct. 1, 2008 – Carl's Jr. and Hardee's have again transformed the way fans can bond with their burgers and each other. Both brands re-launched their Web sites this week with an updated look, expanded interactivity and new customer loyalty program.

The sites, carlsjr.com and hardees.com, feature an enhanced "young, hungry guy's" dream bachelor pad, starting with a virtual, 3D living room landing page and a large, flat-screen TV playing Carl's Jr. and Hardee's latest television ads. A library of some of the brands' hottest historical ads is also accessible. Site visitors can now select a virtual roommate who will interact with them each time they login to the site. And because we all know guys like gaming, the site allows visitors to sign up for the "Burger Slayer" loyalty program, earning points that can be used to customize the look of the living room and eventually unlock "hottie" roommate options and other brand fan freebies.

"When we first partnered with Spacedog Interactive, now part of Mendelsohn-Zien Advertising, to design and launch state-of-the art Web sites for both Carl's Jr. and Hardee's in 2005, the sites were unlike anything anyone was doing in the industry because they focused more on an aspirational lifestyle for our 'young, hungry guy' customers," said Brad Haley, executive vice president of marketing for Carl's Jr. and Hardee's restaurants. "But since that time, others have copied our approach - in some cases very closely, indeed - so we wanted to regain our leadership with revamped sites that take the virtual living room environment and the overall brand interaction potential to a whole new level. The new 3D capability and full live-action video capability will also allow us to do cool things like have special guests, including hot new bands, make exclusive appearances on the sites in the future."

The living room landing page has been updated with 3D modeling as well as real-time day-to-night transitions. On the coffee table: a full meal from Carl's Jr. or Hardee's, which changes depending on the time of day visitors log on - as does the scene outside the window. The sites were designed by the digital division of Mendelsohn-Zien Advertising, formerly operated as digital design and marketing firm, Spacedog Interactive. Mendelsohn-Zien is the Los Angeles-based agency known for creating the brands' edgy, iconic advertising campaigns.

Visitors to the Carl's Jr. and Hardee's Web sites can also explore and interact in 3D thanks to a partnership with ExitReality. The technology allows users to experience the traditional, 2-dimensional sites as 3-dimensional spaces and even convert their profile pages on social network platforms, such as MySpace and Facebook, into 3D environments. The ExitReality 3D component is available to download on the Carl's Jr. and Hardee's sites.

In conjunction with the launch of these new sites, CKE Restaurants has partnered with Lionsgate for a promotion in support of their recent theatrical release "My Best Friend’s Girl". Consumers visiting the Carls'Jr. or Hardee's sites can click on the movie poster in their virtual living room and enter the "Shave an Eyebrow for Love" contest for the chance to win $1,000. The site will serve as a platform to promote other such partnerships in the future. Movie clips are able to be viewed on the site's flat-screen TV.

Aside from the new and improved interactivity, consumers looking for nutritional information or restaurant location will be able to easily navigate and access the information. Since the sites were created using the Ruby on Rails framework, the information is easily updated and can be customized for visitors wanting to gather nutritional information for each menu item or an entire meal.

THE CARL'S JR. GUACAMOLE BACON BURGERS EXPAND OFFERINGS - Also To Be Honored As Official Burgers of the California Avocado Festival

CARPINTERIA, Calif. September 24 It is not easy to make really good guacamole, which may explain why Carls Jr. is the only fast-food chain to have had so much success with guacamole-topped burgers and chicken sandwiches in the past that it made the Guacamole Bacon Six Dollar Burger a permanent menu offering in 2003. Carl's Jr. prepares its guacamole fresh daily, mixing real salsa also made fresh every day – with real avocado and starting today the chain's customers can order from a full line of Guacamole Bacon Burgers, including the single, double and Six Dollar Burger varieties. 'Carls Jr. has always had great success introducing menu items that deliver more authentic tastes and flavors than our competitors would ever attempt' said Brad Haley, executive vice president of marketing for Carls Jr. 'So, we naturally wanted to prepare guacamole like people do at home, with real avocados and fresh salsa, to make our Guacamole Bacon Burgers taste like something you'd be more likely to find only in sit-down restaurants. It's that kind of quality that helped get the Guacamole Bacon Burgers selected as the official burgers of the California Avocado Festival, and those people know good guacamole when they taste it!'. Already hailed as 'Best Burger 2007' by Best of Citysearch, the Guacamole Bacon Burgers will be feted as the official burgers during the 2008 California Avocado Festival. One of the largest street festivals in California, the Avocado Festival takes place in Carpinteria,CA, home to Carls Jr. corporate headquarters. 'We are proud to name the Carls Jr. Guacamole Bacon Burgers the official burgers of the California Avocado Festival. We are especially excited to celebrate it from right here in Carpinteria,' said Gary Dobbins, president of the California Avocado Festival. 'We are the third largest avocado producing region in North America and the festival is a great place to celebrate and sample the fruits of our labor.' The 22nd Annual California Avocado Festival kicks off October 3 and is a free three-day celebration of avocados in downtown Carpinteria. The event includes 30 food booths, 40 musical and entertainment acts on three stages and more than 70 arts and crafts vendors. The event even includes a guacamole competition. For more information, visit www.avofest.com. The Guacamole Bacon Six Dollar Burger features a charbroiled 100 percent Black Angus beef patty topped with guacamole, two strips of bacon, two slices of pepper-Jack cheese, Santa Fe sauce, red onions, tomato and lettuce on a seeded bun. Carls Jr. will also now offer a single Guacamole Bacon Burger as well as a double Guacamole Bacon Burger version. Price for the Guacamole Bacon Six Dollar Burger is $4.99 a la carte, $3.29 for a single, and $4.29 for the double. Prices may vary. About Carls Jr: Carls Jr. is celebrating more than 65 years in the quick-service industry. What began as a lone hot dog cart in Los Angeles , Calif. in 1941 is today an international organization that employs nearly 30,000 people worldwide. Carls Jr. is a wholly owned subsidiary of CKE Restaurants, Inc. (NYSE: CKR) of Carpinteria , Calif. As of the second fiscal quarter ended September 8, 2008, CKE Restaurants, Inc., through its subsidiaries, had a total of 3,100 franchised or company-operated restaurants in 42 states and in 14 countries, including 1,170 Carls Jr. restaurants and 1,917 Hardees restaurants. For more information, or to find a Carls Jr. near you, go to www.ckr.com or www.carlsjr.com. CLICK BELOW TO VISIT: 2008 California Avocado Festival

The FPT Team Puts The Carl's Jr. 6 Dollar Burgers To The Test

Perhaps you have seen the commercial on television where Carl's Jr. sets up a "fake restaurant" and lets diners order fancy burgers in the 15.00 range from a menu and waiter. They then serve them one of their 6 dollar Angus beef burgers and their responses. The FPT test kitchens are on the west coast, these same burgers are also served in the east at Hardee's. Carl's had an elaborate well done set-up with white tablecloths and chefs with tall hats in their fake restaurant. The staff here at the FPT wanted to try the same switch-off on some unsuspecting friends, however we did not do it such a grand style. (you can watch the commercial and more with the link at the end of this post). Our switch was pulled off by telling a friend that we had some gift cards for a local "fancy pants" restaurant that were going to expire soon. We recommended that they try the 'prime rib burger' as it "was the best and most spendy burger that our gift card restaurant offered. Both of our 'guinea pigs' happily said that sounded good and to keep them fooled, fake cell phone calls were made to order the burgers for pick-up. Using a simple made-up excuse, we arranged it so that we could swap the Carl's Jr. burgers into plain white to-go containers. We also got french fries to go with as Carl's now serves a new 'some skin left on' fry that are REALLY good and look like something from a sit-down restaurant as well. The pictures above are from the pick-up - we did not think it smart to take photos of them eating the burgers as they know us well enough that they could figure out that "we might be up to something". What happened? Our friends never had a clue - they ate the burgers very slowly (maybe when you think you are eating a 15.00 burger you think it deserves more face time than something from a drive-thru). They both absolutely loved them and the fries as well. Nothing but thank you's and WOW that was really really good was said from our 'fooled' friends. We did let them in on the whole thing after letting the meal get settled in their bellies. Laughs were had by all. During both experiments we both had our own burgers as well. The 6 dollar prime rib burger is truly excellent - especially the ciabatta bun. Also special props to the new french fries - best 'drive-thru' fries that you can find right now. Official Fake Restaurant Website