The battle to win a greater share of the "obesity" demographic is heating up. After KFC scored big with the Double Down, a sandwich that uses two chicken breasts rather than a bun, Friendly's is now entering the fray.
The chain has debuted its Grilled Cheese BurgerMelt, which it describes this way: "This is the BurgerMelt to end all BurgerMelts. We place a thick and juicy 100% Black Angus Big Beef Burger between two whole grilled cheese sandwiches, complete with lettuce, tomato and mayo. You'll have to taste it to believe it."
Those who choose to eat one should believe this. It has 1500 calories, 870 calories from fat, 97 grams total of fat, 38 grams of saturated fat, 180 mg of cholesterol, 2090 mg of sodium, 101 grams total of carbohydrate, 9 grams of dietary fiber, 4 grams of sugar and 54 grams of protein. In short, this sandwich is a nutritional disaster.
Supermarket sandwich programs should probably not be courting this segment of the dining public by emulating these heart-attack-on-a-plate options, but they can certainly position their own sandwiches as the counter-argument. As long as the offerings are tasty and nutritionally viable — and almost any sandwich will be when the numbers are compared — this just might be the kind of hook to draw in if not the Double Down/Burger Melt lovers themselves at least their concerned family and friends.
Jan Fialkow is the managing editor of Deli Business and Cheese Connoisseur magazines.