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| Photo: Hardee's. |
Hardee's is having startling success with a humble Appalachian lunch meat long considered too provincial for nationwide tastes, and nobody's more surprised than the fast-food chain's top brass.
"We were concerned it would be too regional," Executive Vice-President of Marketing Brad Haley says of Hardee's new Oscar Mayer Fried Bologna Biscuit. "But sales have increased every week we've had it."
While bologna is a staple of lunch counters and school cafeterias across the South, Hardee's found inspiration for its menu item at a few roadside diners that sandwiched grilled bologna between biscuit halves for breakfast. For Hardee's, the preparation stood seductively close to the final meat frontier.
"We've done virtually every other meat you can think of on a biscuit," Haley concedes. "We've had country ham, chicken, pork chops, smoked sausage. We even had turkey."
In just one measure of bologna's perceived lowliness, self-proclaimed "toughest sheriff" Joe Arpaio tried to humiliate Maricopa County inmates by serving them unadorned bologna sandwiches. In the mountain South, bologna is so synonymous with thrift that some Appalachian restaurant owners report customers shy away from ordering it.
Recession-struck diners are apparently reconsidering that position, laying the groundwork for a minor bologna renaissance. Last year, Food City reintroduced the legendary Lay's bologna to its coolers.
More recently, small Southern farms, such as Hickory Nut Gap in Fairview, N.C., have added bologna to their lists of value-added products, geared toward locavores who'd rather not tackle a full side of beef. While artisanal bologna hasn't yet acquired the cache of, say, bacon, Haley warns against underrating the classic meat's distinct savory flavors.
"It's delicious," Haley says. "When I go to our restaurants now, Oscar Mayer bologna is what I get."
Hardee's bologna biscuit is currently served only at breakfast time, but Haley says if demand for the sandwich keeps up, its availability -- like bologna's standing with American eaters -- could change.
Have you tried the Hardee's sandwich? Let us know what you think of the fried bologna biscuit in the comments below.
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