Lincolnite

This post sucks. Wtf, let’s just b*tch about fast food for a minute? Okay, bro.

Amigos is cheap fastfood. It’s not great. It’s way better than Taco John’s and even if it wasn’t, what’s the point here?

Imma get a cheesy for lunch, because they are delicious.

Sweet posts, bros! The point was that these are two odd marketing strategies for these local companies. Also, Amigos is garbage.

I always thought they had gotten rid of the Yankee Burrito (hot dog with cheese in a tortilla, fried) because it may not be real good for you

I think these popular local joints are relying on their past popularity and quality to sustain them.  Amigos, Valentino’s, Runza, have all gone downhill in the past decade.  Well, Amigos has always been gross, but portion sizes have gone down and prices up.  Runza used to have the best fast food burger, now not true. 

Here’s the deal with Valentino’s.  They had two types of their pizza: the low-quality stuff you get at football games and then the better stuff from the restaurant (not buffet.)  Now it is all game-day quality.

Now it is all game-day quality.

Bingo.

I think Runza’s burgers are back and as good, if not better than, before. For awhile they went away from their looser, juicier, hand-patted patties to the thin, preformed ones found under the golden arches. But the original burgers appear to be back. While I still get a hankering for McDonald’s or Burger King, I do think Runza’s burgers are back on top of the fast-food heap.

I think that Runza burgers are actually very good, and better than either McD’s or BK. However unfortunately, it doesn’t have what it takes to stand out among the crowded burger market like some of the really popular regional chains that have gained national reputations lately like Five Guys or In n’ Out.

At times I wonder to what extent the actual Runza sandwich would be popular outside of Nebraska. Sometimes I think it might be very successful in other midwestern states. I do think there is a market for a fast-food, old-school Euro style sandwich chain. Someone just needs to do it right, and yes, the marketing approach will be key.

They have tried it outside of Nebraska. They once offerred franchise opportunities. I don’t think it went well.

No doubt that their marketing sucks, too. My kids enjoy a kids meal from there. I’m the one in the family that really doesn’t ever want to go - nothing about their menu or the decor or ambiance or anything lures me in. If I do go, I stick with a salad, but I can get a similar salad for a better price elsewhere, or a larger salad for the same price elsewhere.

If there’s anywhere that small-r runzas could be successful, it’s here in Kansas City. Many people are familiar with the (effectively) identical sandwich, the bierock. The large population of former Nebraska residents doesn’t hurt, either.

A Runza opened a little over a year ago in the Kansas suburbs. At the time it opened, it was intended to be the first in about a dozen or so opening in the area…it’s still the only one.

I took a bunch of my coworkers to Runza a couple months ago. They *really* play up the Nebraska ties in the restaurant’s decoration, and at least half the crowd besides our group were former Nebraskans. My coworkers’ impression of the food mirrored the consensus here: good burgers, decent fries/rings, no love at all for the runzas themselves (too doughy, meat too bland, not fans of cabbage).

Runza itself may be beyond repairing. The quality and like-ability of the food is a subjective issue, but everyone can agree that the marketing approach sucks. Its just about as generic and industrial one can get for a cheap fast food environment/vibe.

Someone needs to try a more upmarket piroshki/stuffed sandwich type of chain. That *might* work well in some markets. Even in places like Seattle, people love good piroshki. One of the most popular and well loved places in Pike’s Place market is a piroshki joint. It just has to be done right.