You Want Briary? We’ll Give You Briary

Before Cabernet Sauvignon, before Merlot, before Sangiovese, Zinfandel was the California red wine grape. These days it has largely been reduced to making sweetish pink wines instead of classic briary reds, but it still has fierce partisans: a group called Zinfandel Advocates & Producers (ZAP), located in Rough and Ready, Calif.

Cluck of the Draw

You may remember KFC’s contest on the 40th anniversary of the introduction of the chicken bucket. It was open to married couples also celebrating their 40th, and the winners of the grand prize (a Caribbean or Mississippi River cruise) turned out to be Southlanders--Marvin and Judy Rifkin of Agoura Hills, wed April 14, 1957. The Rifkins attribute the success of their marriage to “selective amnesia.”

Three Chains in Spud Melee

Ninety-eight is shaping up as the year of the fast-food French fry wars. (Oops--”fast food” is inoperative; they want to be called “quick serve” restaurants now.) Burger King has started broadcasting ads where a claymation Mr. Potato Head announces “Decision ‘98: Try the Fry, America.” Burger King claims taste tests show its redesigned fries (they call them crispy, we’d call them chewy) winning out over McD’s by 57% to 35%.

The challenge is being taken very seriously indeed, to judge by a memo (reprinted in the Wall Street Journal) from McDonald’s USA chairman Jack Greenberg to the chain’s owner-operators. He speaks of wanting to “stop Burger King in its tracks and thwart its strategy of copying us to steal market share. . . . If we do this right and keep our eyes on our fries, we will win this battle, and make significant headway in the war as well.”

Meanwhile, Arby’s is scornfully pointing out that Burger King started working on a crispier fry that would stay warm longer two years ago--which was when Arby’s introduced just such a fry. Arby’s is accusing Burger King of playing catch-up on fries, as it were.