On Burger King

Dec 7, 2019

I've tried the impossible whooper three times with the recommended combo and have been disappointed by the vegan burger from Burger King on every occasion. Let that not be a diss on the BK in general, please.

It's Saturday night and due to a combination of circumstances I find myself at a burger king in downtown Boston. It's not my first time here, likely on the order of the dozenth visit it is here. I see two tables or young men drinking bubble tea eating fries and playing cards. "These small fries are how we keep our spot man," a guy intently looking at his hand of cards reminds his friend as the friend suggests they should have gotten more fries. On my other side is a Hispanic family with three young kids enjoying ice cream and drinks. They've shopped at Macy's and pink, and this is their respite before heading back. Two large trays of remains of various meals drinks ice creams. A lesbian couple sits next to them, they ordered the impossible whopper and I want to ask them what they thought about it but don't want to bother. Young couples, elder men, police officers families, friends. This is a meeting place. A place for rest and respite. This is the third place.

And why not. Temperatures are way below freezing today this place is warm, affordable and inviting. No server trying to push you out to clear for waiting customers. No one bothering you every two minutes to 'check up' on you. You, your food, the warmth. The floor is clean, as clean as it could be with a horde of rowdy children around. The music is unobjectionable.

The card-playing boys on my side have stopped with their card game and are now playing zenga. This is so ghetto, this is so ghetto, a boy says, we got to do this all for the price of a small fries. How much was the small fries anyway, he says. They have the air of having successfully pulled of a heist. IMHO that's wrong. BK PR should be all over this instead, plastering an image of a bunch of young multiracial men enjoying a game of zenga at a hip Burger King, the trays of meals on the side.

This is not about the money. This is about the need for the third place, and how accommodating this place is as that. As I type this right now, an employee cleans up the mess the young kids had created earlier. Here's an honest question: why would you NOT spend a Saturday evening playing zenga here?

 

Oct 4, 2020

 

Went to Burger King yesterday, got five bucks worth of snack. Is it just me, or has their product got literally no quality? NO flavor, no taste, no texture. I'd rather buy mozz sticks, onion rings, and jalepeno poppers from the frozen section at Wegmans, for a much better flavor, and better value per amount of food. It seems to me BK competes on nothing versus frozen food, at least with their snacks. So the question arises, why should such restaurants not be automated, turned into kiosks basically like in Japan so the humanpower may be used in much nicer finer cooking, again as in Japan? It seems obvious to me they're not doing anything besides reheating anyway, and oh dear their base recipes are not too good to begin with.

I was thinking about it  when I ate my takeout in the commons, and I could start a better food place myself with a sandwich involving the garlic bread from Wegmans slathered in hummus, with lots of healthy veggies and fixins. And I wouldn't be cooking anything either.

I would be worried about whether this was the obvious way all culinary economies could be headed but thank god for Japan. We know automation does not necessary need to a total collapse in human employment, rather it increases the level of competence and skills folks have to have. Work becomes more rewarding, the increase in quality comes with craftsmanship and innovation. Which would eventually bite the asses of the vending machines. BK and co. are threatening to automate the low-wage employees, I say bring 'em on, when they get replaced with non-robotized food they won't know what hit 'em.