海角大神

McDonald鈥檚 next week will introduce premium-price聽Bacon Clubhouse聽beef and chicken burgers in an attempt to regain its pricing equilibrium after a long spell of Dollar Menu & More budget-price promotion.

McDonald鈥檚 describes the Bacon Clubhouse as 鈥淭hick-cut Applewood smoked bacon, caramelized grilled onions, white Cheddar, crisp leaf lettuce and fresh tomato, all lovingly layered on a quarter pound of 100% pure beef, then topped with聽Big Mac special sauce. Served on our artisan roll.鈥� The chicken version can be ordered with crispy or grilled chicken. The sandwich was initially tipped on the聽聽site.聽 The sandwich is priced at $4.39 to $4.69 and officially joins the menu March 10.

Of course, the Bacon Clubhouse really is just another Quarter Pounder variation, made a little different by the聽first-time聽use of the Big Mac鈥檚 iconic special sauce on another sandwich.

But the burger鈥檚 grilled-onion-and-bacon lineage is interesting. It dates to 2011, when McDonald鈥檚 tested an聽, using its third-pound Angus patty and topping it with Dijon mustard sauce, grilled onions, hickory-smoked bacon, white Cheddar and American cheeses and steak sauce. Remove the steak and mustard sauces and you get the聽聽that McDonald鈥檚 tested in 2012 in San Diego.

Now that the Angus patties are gone from McDonald鈥檚, a quarter-pound patty is the largest on hand. Keep the bacon, grilled onion and white Cheddar from the Clubhouse Angus and add lettuce, tomato and a shiny bun and you have鈥�the Bacon Clubhouse.

The Bacon Clubhouse is already included on the McDonald鈥檚 USA聽, indicating its imminent national availability. Nutrition details are聽720 calories聽for the sandwich, which has 40 grams of fat, 51 carbs and 1,470 mg of sodium. In other words, it鈥檚 an indulgence but a quite pleasant alternative to all the crusty cod sandwiches added for Lent.

惭别补苍飞丑颈濒别,听Red Robin Gourmet Burgers聽is extending its 鈥淔inest鈥� line of high-end burgers that it began last November with the聽. Now the line gets two new burgers.

Red Robin calls聽The D.G.B.聽(shown at left) 鈥減erhaps our Finest burger yet.鈥� The name is an acronym for 鈥淒amn Great Burger.鈥� The build is oven-roasted tomatoes, savory roasted-garlic a茂oli and fresh arugula tossed in citrus olive oil dressing atop a half-pound Angus beef patty.

Also new to the Finest line is a Black & Bleu burger. It, too, has a half-pound Angus beef patty, topped with saut茅ed blackened portobello mushrooms, grilled onions, house-made blue cheese sauce and blue cheese crumbles with Dijon sauce.

The Smoke & Pepper burger is menu priced at roughly $13.49, balancing the $6.99 Tavern Double at the low end. Red Robin hasn鈥檛 released pricing for the new burgers.