June 23, 2017

Meatingplace.com - Rita Jane Gabbett 

Two announcements this week reflected the continuing trend toward restaurants offering burgers that contain less or no meat. Sonic Drive-In will be testing a 3-ounce blended Slinger Burger, featuring a beef patty blended with 25 percent to 30 percent mushrooms, in certain markets for 60 days starting at the end of August, Jason Acock, Sonic's manager of communications, confirmed in an email sent to Meatingplace.

Sonic has more than 3,500 restaurants, and the test, if successful, could lead to a national rollout of the less-beef sandwich. The idea came from Menus of Change, a collaboration between the Culinary Institute of America and the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, and the associated Blended Burger Project, which encourages chefs to concoct burgers that blend at least 25 mushrooms.

The James Beard Foundation and the Mushroom Council host an annual competition for chefs serving their creations, allowing patrons to vote on their favorites.     

Impossible Burger expansion Also this week, Hopdoddy Burger Bar announced it would offer the Impossible Burger at its 11 locations in Texas. Impossible Foods’ plant-based burger is made by extracting heme from plants to create a blood-like appearance.

Earlier this year, Impossible Foods announced it is building its first large-scale production facility in Oakland, Calif., with plans to enable the company to make at least 1 million pounds of its burger product per month when fully ramped up.

The Impossible Burger will debut June 23 at 11 Hopdoddy locations, including its flagship in Austin on South Congress Avenue, as well as restaurants across Austin, Dallas, Houston and San Antonio. The burger will feature cheddar, green leaf lettuce, white onion, tomatoes and its signature "Sassy Sauce" on a brioche bun for $14. 

Hopdoddy Burger Bar CEO Jeff Chandler said the Impossible Burger aligns with its mission to serve high quality burger in terms of flavor, health and sustainability.

The chain also serves burgers made with from cattle not treated with antibiotics or synthetic hormones.

In development since 2011, the Impossible Burger debuted in July 2016 in New York City at Chef David Chang's restaurant Momofuku Nishi and is now served in nearly two dozen additional restaurants in New York, California and Nevada. (Editor’s Note: To read more about this trend, watch for our feature in the August issue of Meatingplace magazine.)