Burger King’s Impossible Whopper is going national. Is that bad news for small restaurants?
By Tim Carman April 29 at 5:27 PM
washingtonpost.com
Following a successful test run in St. Louis, Burger King announced Monday that the chain will introduce its Impossible Whopper to more cities this summer, with the goal of adding the popular plant-based burger to menus across the country by the end of the year.
The news should thrill those who tied up phones at the chain’s outlets in the Gateway City, trying to have a mock-meat Whopper (or a dozen) shipped to California and other locales across the United States. But it will probably unnerve small, mom-and-pop restaurants that have struggled to get their hands on Impossible Foods’ alternative-meat patties since Burger King launched its new burger this month. Several restaurants in the Washington region have had to use other plant-based patties because suppliers have run out of the products from the San Francisco Bay area start-up.
At the Ted’s Bulletin chain, with five locations around the Washington region, the Impossible Burger is the fifth-most-popular sandwich on the menu, said Nick Salis, vice president of operations. The chain sells about 250 a week, he said. But since its Burger King debut, “we’ve been seeing shortages,” Salis said. Ted’s buys a couple hundred pounds of the bulk mock meat each week, but lately the supplier has had to fill about half the company’s order with a similar product from Beyond Meat, Salis said.
“The demand for it is not as good,” Salis said about the Beyond Meat substitute. “People are typically okay with the Beyond Burger as long as you tell them ahead of time.”
The Impossible Whopper, right, joined the Whopper on St. Louis area Burger King menus this month. (Tim Carman/The Washington Post)
Other restaurants report similar shortages. Big Buns Damn Good Burgers, with locations in Ballston and Shirlington, has experienced “supply interruptions for a little bit,” said Tom Racosky, co-founder and director of operations, but he added that Impossible Foods has been very responsive. At Quarry House Tavern, the popular dive bar in Silver Spring, operators have been without their supply for three weeks now, general manager Ellen Cox said.
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