At Burger King, Dinner Is About to Be Served

Ah, sweet ambience. Soft lights. Music. Table service. And while Chardonnay isn’t on the menu yet, Burger King is dressing for dinner.

The Miami-based fast-food giant said Thursday that it will introduce table service at dinner and an expanded evening menu at its more than 5,700 restaurants across the country over the next couple of weeks. It is a move that will make Burger King the first national fast-food restaurant to do so.

“We’re responding to our customers and what they want,” said Cori Zywotow, a company spokeswoman.

With the recession still rolling and Burger King entrenched in the competitive fast-food market, some industry watchers and analysts said the company’s move toward civilized dining is a necessary nod to the bottom line. But it’s also a potentially risky one, considering the fickleness of the dining public and the fact that a regional competitor, Carl’s Jr., tried a similar experiment with poor results.

Burger King is “trying to differentiate itself in a saturated market,” said Robert F. Costello Jr., an analyst with Philadelphia-based Widmann, Siff. “Everybody is trying to beef up their market.”

In an economy where consumers are spending less and eating at home more, analysts said, Burger King is making a good strategic move in a relatively untapped area: the fast-food dinner crowd.

“This might be something that could bring customers back for dinner,” said Jeffrey F. Omohundro, an analyst for J. J .B. Hilliard, W. L. Lyons in Kentucky.

Although skeptical that a bolstered dinner service will help Burger King financially, Omohundro said he believes that the move “is innovative. I think they’re positioning themselves a notch above McDonald’s.”

Until now, Carl’s Jr., based in Anaheim and serving just the West, has been the only fast-food chain to offer table service. Carl’s started the service, which is available all day, in 1968 to “be a step above the competition,” Carl’s spokeswoman Patty Parks said.

Carl’s also tried the dinner concept, serving items such as baked potatoes and chicken. But Parks said the experiment slowed down service and has been discontinued.

Burger King’s dinner menu will include, among other things, steak sandwiches and fried shrimp. Entrees will come with a choice of baked potato or french fries and a dinner salad or cole slaw. Dinners will start at about $2.99. Customers will also get free popcorn while they await their meals--which they still must order at the counter.

Barbara Dawson, West Coast editor of the trade journal Restaurants and Institutions, said that Burger King is “hoping, I’m sure, to go after those people who can’t afford to go out to dinner and to fancy it up a little” for them.

“They’ve all been feeling the impact of the recession,” she said. “It’s just a lot of competition out there, and, with the recession, it just makes sense to go after different markets.” Dawson said Burger King’s move is a trend a lot of the fast-food restaurants are leaning toward. But the changes, especially adding a dinner menu, are not without dangers, analysts and industry watchers say.

“My own opinion is that it’s going to be really risky because then they’re trying to be like a Denny’s or a Coco’s,” said Robert Sandelman, whose Brea-based Sandelman & Associates specializes in fast-food research.

Burger King risks “straddling the fence and falling into a black hole,” Sandelman said. “They might turn off some customers who just want a regular Burger King.”

However, Zywotow said, “I don’t think it will be confusing at all, as long as we give good food and service.”