USA : Monte Cristo Donut Sandwich

Bakery: Donuts and Sliders

Location: New Orleans, Louisiana

This grilled donut sandwich is filled with smoked ham, Havarti, and Dijon, and topped with preserves and powdered sugar for a doughy blend of salty and sweet.

USA: Buffalo Wild Wings

Buffalo Wild Wings is an American casual dining restaurant and sports bar franchise in the United States, Canada, Mexico and The Philippines which specializes in chicken wings and sauces.

• Headquarters: Minneapolis, Minnesota, U.S.
• Number of locations:  1080 (as of February 2015)
• Area served: United States, Canada, Mexico, The Philippines
• Known for: Chicken Wings, Shareables, Sandwiches and Burgers
• Website buffalowildwings.com

Buffalo Wild Wings offers a variety of sauces and seasonings, which include Sweet BBQ, Teriyaki, Mild, Medium, Honey BBQ, Spicy Garlic, Buffalo, Desert Heat, Chipotle BBQ, Lemon Pepper and Salt & Vinegar, among others. Its menu includes a variety of food items, including Sharables, Wild Flatbreads, specialty hamburgers and sandwiches, wraps, Buffalito soft tacos and salads.

USA : the signature food of each state

Today's map comes from the Cooking Channel, which asked viewers to vote on each state's favorite/signature food. The results can be seen above, and you can get more details (and recipes) here. A lot of delicious choices, but also some controversial ones, including calling it fried ravioli instead of toasted in Missouri, and mixing up the labels for Nebraska and Kansas. 

Chicago : Starbucks Reserve Roastery

World's Largest Starbucks

The Starbucks Reserve Roastery Chicago opened its doors to the public in November 2019. Located at the corner or North Michigan Avenue and Erie Street on Chicago's Magnificent Mile, the Roastery is five floors and 35,000 square feet, making it the largest Starbucks in the world.

   

 

 

 

 

Chicago : McDonald's at the company's new HQ

McDonald's is about to move into its new global headquarters and, as a first step, the burger giant tomorrow will open a sleek, next-generation restaurant on the West Loop building's ground floor. 

• This Fulton Market District McDonald's is open to the public.
• The new nine-story building will house the company's global corporate and U.S. headquarters, along with its Hamburger University training center.
• McDonald's signed a lease in June 2016 to move its headquarters to the former Harpo Studios site in the city's Fulton Market District from its longtime suburban perch in Oak Brook. The building was built by Sterling Bay, which bought Oprah Winfrey's former broadcast and production campus for $30.5 million in 2014. 

In addition to the modern design and technology upgrades that have trickled in to franchises over the past 18 months, this restaurant will have something else: international menu offerings not available anywhere else in the U.S.

Inside McDonald's new Fulton Market headquarters.

The menu, which will rotate every few months, will start off with loaded cheese and bacon fries from Australia, an Angus burger from Canada and a spicy chicken sandwich from Hong Kong, two salads from France and a "Prestigio McFlurry" from Brazil with strawberry sauce and chocolate-covered coconut bits. The entire McCafe coffee selection will come from Australia and be served by specially trained, full-time baristas.

A map of the world serves to remind customers that this McDonald's has international menu items. The menu will change every few months.

"We're weeks away from making this location the global headquarters for McDonald's, so it became clear we needed a unique, one-of-a-kind experience," said Robert Gibbs, the company's chief communications officer, at a press preview this morning. "Everything we've done to modernize the brand over the past several years is represented in the restaurant."

The approximately 6,000-square-foot restaurant features oak laminate-clad walls and small tables, plus longer communal steel tables with built-in laptop charging pads. The seating is a combination of leather and a proprietary leather-like material that McDonald's created for its modern stores. The building's original concrete pillars remain, and red-tinted glass at the entrance adds a pop of color to the mostly neutral space. One wall, etched with a map of the world, features small Golden Arches signs that move and illuminate when a country's menu item is available.

The company intends the location to serve as a showcase that other franchise owners from around the world can visit for inspiration as they begin the process of updating their own stores.

"It was really important to us to be aspirational yet attainable," said Juliana Strieff, the company's global creative design manager. The industrial-chic location, designed by Landini Associates in Sydney, is an example of one of 12 design prototypes that all U.S. restaurants will adopt by 2020. Previously, McDonald's franchisees used between 100 and 150 designers around the world, which made it tough to keep everything "on-brand."

Like other recently unveiled McDonald's, the restaurant on West Randolph Street will offer table service, self-service kiosks and mobile ordering. It doesn't have a drive-thru, but it does have two designated parking spots up at the front of the building on Randolph that will be dedicated to curbside pickup for mobile orders, and two others for Uber Eats drivers grabbing delivery orders.

The restaurant also includes an area with a long table and sliding glass doors that can be left open as regular seating or closed when reserved for private meetings. The space will be available free of charge to people in the community who want to hold meetings or brainstorming sessions.

McDonald's signed a lease in June 2016 to move its headquarters to the former Harpo Studios site in the city's Fulton Market District from its longtime suburban perch in Oak Brook. The new nine-story building will house the company's global corporate and U.S. headquarters, along with its Hamburger University training center.

The building was built by Sterling Bay, which bought Oprah Winfrey's former broadcast and production campus for $30.5 million in 2014. Sources say the company will start to take occupancy of the building at the end of this week. Gibbs, McDonald's communications chief, said the company will "move down in waves over the next few weeks."

USA : Carl's Jr. ads

Feb 2018"  Matthew McConaughey is now doing Carl’s Jr. commercials

“It’s time to answer the call,” McConaughey can be heard saying over footage of the bacon-topped, onion-ring-inclusive burger. “The oozing drips and the smacking lips — the snizzle-dizzle, piggedy-wiggedy buckwild beef, bustin’ straight outta the gate, showin’ it’s teeth like a flavor stampede! Crispety rings, whoa, whoa!

“Takin’ it S-L-O with the Western Bacon Cheeseburger. That’s the call of Carl’s,” McConaughey concludes.

Previous ads featured Sports Illustrated model Sara Sampaio (above)

Hannah Ferguson (above) was featured in an ad for the Texas barbecue burger

 

Padma Lakshmi (left) and Kate Upton (right) have also been featured in commercials

Charlotte McKinney (above) starred in their Super Bowl commercial for the brand this year

 

Paris Hilton (left) and Kim Kardashian (right) in their ads for Carl's Jr.

"Most American Thickburger"

USA: McDonald's touts 'frork' fry utensil to promote new burgers

NEW YORK (AP) -- McDonald's is touting a new french fry-centric utensil — the "frork" — as part of a campaign to promote its new line of burgers.

The chain says the utensil has an opening where people can insert some fries, which act as edible tines. McDonald's says it will give away 100,000 of them to people who buy the new burgers starting May 5. It's the latest push by McDonald's Corp. to drum up excitement and get people into its restaurants, after four years of declining customer transactions in the United States.

The stunt is intended to draw attention to the chain's new "Signature Crafted Recipes." McDonald's calls the utensil "edible, utilitarian and desperately innovative," but also "superfluous." It made a mock infomercial that it posted online.

USA : Starbucks Reserve Roastery on Michigan Avenue in Chicago in 2019

• The four-story location, slated to open in 2019 in the space occupied by Crate & Barrel, 
• The 43,000-square-foot Reserve Roastery will be the chain's largest. 
• Visitors will be able to interact with master roasters and the coffee-making process. 
• In addition to offering multiple brewing methods and special Reserve beverages, the new Starbucks concept will also include food from Princi. 
• The location will be the third Roastery in the U.S. and the sixth globally. The Seattle location opened in 2014, and a New York City Roastery will open in 2018. Shanghai, Milan and Tokyo locations are slated for openings in the coming year.

The deal marks the end of an era for a local retailer, Northbrook-based Crate & Barrel, which has had a store in the Michigan Avenue building for 27 years.

Crate & Barrel spokeswoman Jill Assad said the store will remain open through the holiday season, likely closing by early 2018. Its other store in the city, on North Avenue in the Clybourn Corridor, will remain open, she said. 

USA: Chicago's 2016 Bib Gourmands List

The Bib Groumands list showcases "quality restaurants that have menu items that offer two courses and a glass of wine or dessert for $40 or less." Fifty-two restaurants made the cut this year, including three newcomers.

The Chicago’s Michelin stars will be released on Wednesday, Nov. 2.

1. The Angry Crab
2. Arami
3. Au Cheval
4. Avec
5. Balena
6. BellyQ
7. Belly Shack
8. Bohemian House
9. The Bristol*
10. Ceres' Table
11. Chilam Balam
12. Cumin
13. DeCOLORES
14. Dos Urban Cantina*
15. Dove's Luncheonette
16. The Duck Inn
17. Fat Rice
18. Frontera Grill
19. Gilt Bar
20. Girl and the Goat
21. Green Zebra
22. GT Fish and Oyster
23. Han 202
24. Herb
25. Hopleaf
26. Jaipur
27. Jam
28. Jin Thai Cuisine
29. Kai Zan
30. Luella's Southern Kitchen
31. Lula Cafe
32. Mana Food Bar
33. Maude's Liquor Bar
34. mfk.
35. MingHin
36. Mott Street
37. Nana
38. The Publican
39. The Purple Pig
40. Riccardo Trattoria
41. Sabri Nihari
42. San Soo Gab San*
43. Smoque
44. Sol de Mexico
45. Sushi Dokku
46. Table, Donkey and Stick
47. TAC Quick
48. Two
49. Untitled
50. Via Lima
51. Wood
52. Yusho

*Denotes new selection for 2016

USA : Best Brunch Restaurants

The following restaurants, listed in alphabetical order, comprise the 100 Best Brunch Restaurants in America according to OpenTable diners. The complete list may also be viewed at http://www.opentable.com/m/best-brunch-restaurants-in-america-2016.

100 Best Brunch Restaurants in America

ACQUA – Forest Lake, Minnesota 

Atchafalaya – New Orleans, Louisiana
Balthazar – New York, New York 
Beachcomber Cafe - Crystal Cove - Newport Coast California
Beatrix-River North – Chicago, Illinois
Beehive – Boston, Massachusetts 
Big Jones – Chicago, Illinois 
Blend on the Water – Long Island City, New York 
Brennan's – New Orleans, Louisiana 
Brennan's of Houston – Houston, Texas 
Bristol Seafood Grill – Creve Coeur, Missouri 
Bristol Seafood Grill – Leawood, Kansas 
Brunch – Chicago, Illinois 
Café Luxembourg – New York, New York 
Café Modern – Fort Worth, Texas 
Café Monte – Charlotte, North Carolina 
Central Park Boathouse – New York, New York 
Cheever's Café – Oklahoma City, Oklahoma 
Chez Zee – Austin, Texas 
City Café – Baltimore, Maryland 
The Clubhouse – Oak Brook, Illinois 
Clyde's of Chevy Chase – Chevy Chase, Maryland 
Clyde's Willow Creek Farm – Ashburn, Virginia
Cookshop – New York, New York
Corner Kitchen – Asheville, North Carolina
The Dead Fish – Crockett, California
Deerpark Restaurant-Biltmore Estate– Asheville, North Carolina
El Chorro – Paradise Valley, Arizona
Farm & Table – Albuquerque, New Mexico
Farmers Fishers Bakers – Washington, D.C.
Fat Hen – Johns Island, South Carolina
The Food Market – Baltimore, Maryland
Founding Farmers-DC – Washington, D.C.
Founding Farmers-Montgomery County – Potomac, Maryland
Founding Farmers-Tysons – Tysons Corner, Virginia
Gaslight – Boston, Massachusetts
Geoffrey's Restaurant – Malibu, California
Georgia Brown's – Washington, D.C.
Gertrude's – Baltimore, Maryland
Gracias Madre – West Hollywood, California
Grand Concourse – Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Great Maple – San Diego, California
Greens Restaurant – San Francisco, California
Hau Tree Lanai – Honolulu, Hawaii
Iron Rooster – Annapolis, Maryland
The Ivy – West Hollywood, California
Jane – New York, New York
Laduree SOHO – New York, New York
Lafayette – New York, New York
Lake Elmo Inn – Lake Elmo, Minnesota
Las Brisas – Laguna Beach, California
Le Diplomate – Washington, D.C.
The Liberty Tavern – Arlington, Virginia
Linger – Denver, Colorado
Little Goat – Chicago, Illinois
LuLu California Bistro – Palm Springs, California
The Majestic Yosemite Hotel – Yosemite Village, California
Marseille – New York, New York
MAX's Wine Dive Houston-Washington Ave. – Houston, Texas
Meriwether's Restaurant & Skyline Farm – Portland, Oregon
Oxford Exchange – Tampa, Florida
Parc – Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Perch LA – Los Angeles, California
Pier W – Cleveland, Ohio
Poor Calvin's – Atlanta, Georgia
Print Works Bistro – Greensboro, North Carolina
Queen Mary Champagne Sunday Brunch – Los Angeles, California
The Rainbow Room – New York, New York
Ray's on the River – Sandy Springs, Georgia
Relish – Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
The Rotunda at Neiman Marcus – San Francisco, California
Rue 57 – New York, New York
Rusty Scupper – Baltimore, Maryland
Salty's on Alki Beach – Seattle, Washington
Salty's on the Columbia – Portland, Oregon
Sarabeth's Central Park South – New York, New York
Sarabeth's Park Avenue South – New York, New York
Sarabeth's TriBeCa – New York, New York
South City Kitchen Midtown – Atlanta, Georgia
The Southern – Nashville, Tennessee
Spencer's Restaurant – Palm Springs, California
The Smith-East Village – New York, New York
The Smith-Lincoln Square – New York, New York
The Smith-Midtown – New York, New York
Summer House Santa Monica – Chicago, Illinois
The Standard Grill – New York, New York
Sundy House – Delray Beach, Florida
Tabard Inn – Washington, D.C.
Tavern on the Green – New York, New York
Terrain Garden Café – Glen Mills, Pennsylvania
Tower Oaks Lodge – Rockville, Maryland
Town – San Carlos, California
Webster House – Kansas City, Missouri
White Dog Café – Wayne, Pennsylvania
Willa Jean – New Orleans, Louisiana
Woodberry Kitchen – Baltimore, Maryland
X20 Xaviars on the Hudson – Yonkers, New York
Yank Sing-Rincon Center – San Francisco, California
Yardbird Southern Table & Bar – Miami Beach, Florida
Zingerman's Roadhouse – Ann Arbor, Michigan

USA: New app fills empty restaurant tables with free Uber rides

Cake.af, launching in New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco this week, texts users when an empty table is available and then escorts them to that restaurant with a free Uber ride. The app's young founder, 16-year old Daniel Singer, said Cake pays Uber for transporting the customer and the restaurant pays Cake for bringing them the customer.

Users can sign up for the (free) Cake.af service by texting the cake emoji to the provided phone number; once they're registered, "the team at Cake.af will determine restaurants that have availability/open tables and send an invite to the customer detailing the establishment and the time of the reservation. If the customer accepts the invite, an Uber car will be sent to provide a free ride to the restaurant. If the customer is not interested in the restaurant or available, they can simply decline the invite."

.af is a domain extension that typically signifies a website based in Afghanistan, but in Singer's case it does double duty as ubiquitous internet lexicon for "as fuck" (obviously).

Singer is currently taking a year off from high school to focus on working full-time; he's also behind a social app called Bond.sh, among other projects.

USA: Starbucks planning a flagship store in Chicago

Starbucks plans to open an upscale store focused on its Reserve coffees in the Fulton Market district, the chain's first such shop in Chicago.

Starbucks is planning a flagship store in this building at 1000 W. Randolph St.

The company has leased about 4,000 square feet on the ground floor of a two-story building at 1000 W. Randolph St. for a flagship that will focus on Starbucks' rare small-batch coffee beans, according to people familiar with the deal.

Starbucks began rolling out the new store concept in December 2014, with a 15,000-square-foot Starbucks Reserve Roastery & Tasting Room in its hometown, Seattle.

At the time, Starbucks said it planned to open at least 100 such stores, with Chicago among the initial five U.S. cities it was targeting, but did not name potential locations in those cities.

Earlier this month, Starbucks confirmed plans for its largest store in the world in Manhattan: a 20,000-square-foot roastery where visitors will be able to taste coffees and learn about coffee brewing and bean origins.

The new Chicago store will be much larger than a typical Starbucks but is one-fifth the size of the New York behemoth that will open in 2018. It's not yet clear what elements the new Chicago store will share with the mega-sized roasting facilities.

The 23,000-square-foot building was formerly home to B.A. Florist & Nursery. Starbucks has a traditional store across Morgan Street, at 946 W. Randolph.

Fulton Market—on the northwest edge of the West Loop and west of the Kennedy Expressway—was once a center for meatpackers and food distributors but has recently drawn new uses including creative offices, retail and hotels.

USA: Burger King releases spicy Angriest Whopper

Burger King is releasing their so-called Angriest Whopper, which features a red bun infused with hot sauce and lots of hot toppings.

On Thursday, March 31, 2016, Burger King is releasing their so-called Angriest Whopper, which features a red bun infused with hot sauce and lots of hot toppings.

The Angriest Whopper includes beef, bacon, American cheese, lettuce, tomatoes, “angry” onion petals, jalapenos, mayo and a “spicy angry sauce” between the angry buns.

It’s the latest colored-bun gimmick from Burger King, which released a Halloween Whopper in 2015 with a black bun infused with A1 sauce.

The Angriest Whopper weighs in at a 830 calories and 51 grams of fat.

Starbucks: Limited-Edition Cherry Blossom Frappuccino

• Although the drink is called Cherry Blossom, Starbucks said its ingredients are strawberries and cream, white chocolate sauce, matcha drizzle and whipped cream. 
• It is available Tuesday 3/15 until Sunday 3/20.

Starbucks is offering a new Cherry Blossom Frappuccino® blended beverage, inspired by the Japanese sakura tradition. The Starbucks beverage is a blend of sweet strawberries and cream with white chocolate sauce and matcha drizzle, topped with whipped cream and a sprinkle of matcha.

Cherry Blossom Frappuccino® will be available in participating U.S. stores for a limited time beginning today (March 15) through the first day of spring on Sunday, March 20.

In Japan, cherry blossoms are the national flower and a symbol of renewal and simplicity. Families, friends and colleagues gather under sakura trees and enjoy picnics and parties under the delicate pink blooms, a tradition that dates back at least a thousand years. It is also time for new beginnings, marking both the coming of spring and the start of a new school year. Sakura festivals around the world honor the return of the cherry blossoms and celebrate Japanese culture.

USA: Burger King is adding hot dogs to its menu

Burger King announced the addition of a $1.99 "classic" hot dog and a $2.29 "chili cheese" dog to its flame-grilled menu. 

• The Oscar Mayer-brand hot dogs will be available nationwide by Feb. 23, 2016.

Burger King is broadening its menu to include two different kinds of grilled hot dogs permanently hitting the menu at its roughly 7,100 U.S. locations later this month. The launch has Burger King poised to steal a sizable bite of a market dominated by convenience stores, wholesale clubs and retailers like Home Depot.


With the addition of a classic grilled dog and a chili cheese dog, Burger King is also expanding its menu to include one of America's favorite processed meats at a time when the fast food industry has been scrambling to find ways to appeal to more health-conscious customers with additions such as kale salad and sides of fruit.

Burger King partnered with Oscar Mayer to create a proprietary 100% beef hot dog, which Macedo says will stand apart from most options consumers have because it is "flame grilled" in the restaurant instead of boiled or put on a "roller," the cooking method often seen in convenience stores. The classic hot dog will sell for $1.99 and the chili cheese dog for $2.29.

Burger King joins smaller fast food companies including Dairy Queen and Sonic as one of the few major restaurant chains to offer hot dogs, an item typically relegated to summer barbecues and 4th of July celebrations — and still far overshadowed by hamburgers regardless.

USA: McDonald's to test expanded all-day breakfast with McGriddle

The world's biggest burger chain plans to start offering an expanded all-day breakfast menu that includes McGriddle sandwiches in 72 restaurants in Tulsa, Oklahoma starting Feb. 1, 2016. 

The test comes after customers complained about the absence of the sandwich when McDonald's launched a limited all-day breakfast menu in October.

McDonald's expects the test to last for two to three months before deciding how to proceed.

The test come as McDonald's rides high from its biggest quarterly U.S. sales jump in nearly four years. The Oak Brook, Illinois company said this week that sales rose 5.7 percent in the last three months of year, boosted by all-day breakfast menu and unseasonably warm weather.

Now, McDonald's restaurants in Tulsa will try adding McGriddle sandwiches, as well as breakfast sandwiches made with biscuits. Currently, restaurants offer breakfast sandwiches made with either biscuits or English muffins, depending on regional preferences. About 80 percent offer "McMuffin" sandwiches, with some areas in the south offering biscuits.

The addition of McGriddles and biscuits in the afternoon could prove to be too much of a strain, especially at a time when McDonald's has said it's trying to simplify operations to improve order accuracy and speed.

The syrupy pancake buns for McGriddles and biscuits would need to be warmed up in ovens, which are also used to heat up apple pies, cookies and mozzarella sticks during lunch hours, said LeAnn Richards, a McDonald's franchisee who led a task force on all-day breakfast. McGriddles and biscuit sandwiches are also made with a frozen egg patty, instead of the cracked egg used in McMuffins.
That means franchisees — who already had to buy new equipment to offer all-day breakfast — would need to further juggle grill and oven space for an expanded menu.

McDonald's says franchisees in Kansas City also started offering a Sausage McGriddle last month in response to demand. But those restaurants aren't offering the sandwich with eggs, or biscuit sandwiches.

Despite McDonald's recent sales jump, it's still not clear exactly how all-day breakfast is benefiting the chain and whether the effects will last. The company did not say how much of the increase was from an uptick in customer visits, versus factors likes price hikes or people adding extras onto their orders.

Either way, McDonald's turnaround push is far from over. The company's U.S. customer visits fell 3 percent last year, following a 4.1 percent drop in 2014.