"burgerville" news and stories

Burgerville, a fast-food chain centered in the Pacific Northwest, has made a business move that feels more Big Brother than burger joint: They've started printing personalized calorie counts on their receipts.

Most people agree it's good to be an informed consumer, but it's one thing to have posted calorie counts on the wall. Customized receipts that total up all of the calories of the food you ordered, even going as far as to tell you the percentage of your daily total of fat, calories, and protein that the meal you're about to consume constitutes is something else all together. (The information, by the way, comes courtesy of Nutricate, a system from a company called SmartReceipt).

With only 39 stores, Burgerville doesn't have the vast reach of Burger King or McDonald's, and the chain is commitment to locally sourced ingredients. But although the food is first-class, it's still fast food. The menu is jam packed with burgers, fries, and real ice-cream shakes that can total 800 calories all by themselves.

If you're drinking a Coke at Burgerville, don't throw that cup in the trash.

In an effort to keep more trash from winding up in landfills, the Pacific Northwestern fast-food chain has introduced new cups, lids and straws that are compostable, KATU reported.

"It's the last major element in our packaging system to go compostable or recyclable," Alison Dennis, Burgerville's director of supply chain, told Slashfood. "As far as we know we have the most fully developed, comprehensive program of any restaurant in our industry."

Burgerville's new "ecotainer" soft drink cups and lids, created by International Paper and The Coca-Cola Company, use a plant-based coating instead of a plastic coating to make them water-resistant. The company began its recycling and composting efforts in 2007.

The last people you would imagine finding at a fast-food restaurant are health-conscious bicyclists. Yet many bike riders are angry that chains like McDonald's and Burger King don't allow them to order food at drive-thru windows.

Most fast-food eateries, large and small, will only serve customers driving a car or motorcycle. They argue it's nothing personal, but allowing cars to co-mingle with pedestrians, motorized wheel chairs and bicycles, is dangerous for everyone.

Bicyclists say they're getting a raw deal. They insist that they have as much right to be served on two wheels as their counterparts do on four. More bikers and less idling cars would also have an environmental benefit, they say.

"It makes no sense," says Wiley Norvell, the communications director for Transportation Alternatives, a New York-based bicycle, pedestrian and mass transit advocacy group. "If it's not dangerous in a bike lane with cars going 35 miles an hour, how can it be dangerous in a parking lot with people traveling less than 10 miles an hour? There are fewer safety issues than on an average street."

In the Pacific Northwest, there's a place called Burgerville. The beef is always free-range and the salads always sport local hazelnuts. But nothing compares to you, seasonal fresh strawberry milkshake. And nothing says summer is coming! like a strawberry milkshake sparkling, dripping in the sunlight as you pull away from the drivethrough. Ahhhh ... life is good here in Portland.

[Photo Sarah Gilbert]

I'd like to confess some sins of the edible variety. 

I may be a slashfoodie, a gourmet wannabe, a woman whose credentials even include the word "chef" after "position" on her résumé. But still, when I'm hungry and busy and in the car for any reason, I'll stop at the burger joint more often than not.

At least it's Burgerville. The Pacific Northwest-based fast food chain is the slowest on the burgers-and-fries scale. They get their beef from Oregon-grown, free-range cows. They get their cheddar cheese from Tillamook. They use local tomatoes when they're in season, they only make onion rings a few months a year from Walla Walla sweets. Their salads feature Oregon hazelnuts and blue cheese and they even offer apple slices in their kids' meals.

It may be fast food, but I still feel a little bit good about it. Now if I could only figure out a justification for skipping breakfast...

[Photo Sarah Gilbert, Burgerville via my husband]