Rally’s, Green Burrito End Dual-Menu Restaurant Deal

GB Foods and Rally’s Hamburgers Inc. are ending an agreement to offer both burgers and burritos at jointly operated restaurants.

The chains had opened more than a dozen dual-menu restaurants that offer both Rally’s burgers and Newport Beach-based Green Burrito’s Mexican-style fast food. The two companies earlier had announced plans to open more dual-menu restaurants in the future.

Restaurants that were recently reconfigured to offer both menus will return to the single-menu format during the next two years, the companies said.

Some local restaurant industry observers said that the Monday announcement was ironic because of a past business conflict involving Donald Doyle, president of Louisville-based Rally’s, and Green Burrito Chairman William M. Theisen. In 1993, Doyle, then serving as chief operating officer of the Anaheim-based Carl’s Jr. chain, opposed Theisen’s plan to offer Green Burrito fare at a handful of Carl’s Jr. restaurants.

That disagreement ultimately led to the ouster of Carl’s Jr. founder and Chairman Carl Karcher, who had championed the dual-menu plan. Doyle eventually left Carl’s Jr. and Karcher subsequently returned to the company as chairman emeritus.

The Carl’s Jr. chain later agreed to offer Green Burrito fare at as many as 200 Carl’s Jr. restaurants, and company executives now credit the dual menu with helping to revitalize the burger chain’s flagging sales.