Fast-Food Chains Try Their Best to Reinvent Breakfast

The American penchant to eat on the run has led to some innovative food inventions, notably the Egg McMuffin, which was the actual brainchild of a McDonald’s franchisee in Santa Barbara. An egg wedged into an English muffin seems old hat now.

Fast-food operators are reshaping many traditional breakfast foods to eat on the go.

Burger King, for example, has introduced French Toast Sticks, which the company claims is a portable version of the traditional bread dipped in an egg batter and fried.

French Toast Sticks are five rectangular-shaped pieces served with their own special “dripless maple syrup-like” sauce.

“The reason for development of dripless sauce is so we can eat it in the car,” explained a spokeswoman for Burger King. “We took a very popular American food and put it into a portable and easy and fun manner to eat.”

Product testing by Burger King also seems to back up Wendy’s contention that selling omelets to the fast-food breakfast crowd is tough.

While testing its French Toast Sticks, Burger King also offered “Egglets,” small finger-sized omelets covered by a light potato casing and fried in vegetable oil. A typical order included five Egglets and came Western-style with peppers, sausage and egg and bacon.

The Burger King spokeswoman said that consumer response to Egglets was positive but that the chain is going back to the test kitchen anyway.

Consumers who sampled the product said Egglets was a good product but they wanted more than just five Egglets per serving, she said.