The new menu marketing at Back Yard Burgers is fresh, summery, and fills me so full of hope each time I drive up to the speaker to make my selection. I think they even changed the real-life look of some of their food items, just so they could look good on camera. It’s not often that you find fast food that actually looks like it does in the pictures. Back Yard Burgers has done it, though.
There’s a new ‘light menu” combo, a.k.a. “The Manager’s Special” or “Bistro Combo” that you find at delis. With it, you can choose 2 non-sandwich, healthier, items, and make it a combo! Baked potato and salad, salad and soup, coleslaw and baked potato. You get the idea. It’s a first in fast food. Kudos to them.
However, there is one thing on this new menu that irks me. I’m played for a fool by BYB when I patronize…they think I have no memory, no pride. I’ll tell you the bad news first. When Back Yard Burgers created this new menu, the left out one thing - possibly the most scrumptious reason for anyone dining in the Back Yard - seasoned fries. Instead, your combo would come with regular, Sonicesque yellow fries.
In the midst of my disbelief, my eyes were constantly drawn to a food item picture in the fresh combo column, one that looked like sweet potato fries, with a big black sign slapped over it, announcing, “COMING SOON.” Yet another first, I thought, and I welcomed it, looked forward to their arrival so I could one day order the nutritious and desert-like sticks.
One day, I drove up, and the COMING SOON sign was gone! Finally, I could try out some sweet potato fries from a drive thru! Well, this is the good news, in a way, but somehow I feel like I’m not getting the good end of the stick here…there were no sweet potato fries hiding behind that suspenseful sign, no, it was their old fritters and my old friends: the seasoned fries were back!
Unfortunately, along with their new name, “Cajun Fry Shaker,” came a new price; higher, of course. They still do not come with the combos, so if you want to substitute, you have to pay even more extra.
I feel like BYB has found a way to put a sin tax on their most sought after commodity. I feel unrepresented by my fast food community. Daily, I put my hands through the fire (see logo) to pay my respects to this restaurant and this is what I get? You take away something great, make me miss it, then bring it back only to dangle it in my face with a false name and have me to reach further into my pockets to enjoy it again? Shame on you, BYB. I’ll never eat a fry at your establishment again.
Checkers would never do this to me!
Leave a comment