The Bacon Deluxe is a

bacon Bacon is a type of salt-cured pork made from various cuts, typically the belly or less fatty parts of the back. It is eaten as a side dish (particularly in breakfasts), used as a central ingredient (e.g., the bacon, lettuce, and tomato sand ...

-topped

hamburger A hamburger, or simply burger, is a food consisting of fillings—usually a patty of ground meat, typically Ground beef, beef—placed inside a sliced bun or bread roll. Hamburgers are often served with cheese, lettuce, tomato, onion, pickles ...

offered at international

fast food Fast food is a type of mass-produced food designed for commercial resale, with a strong priority placed on speed of service. It is a commercial term, limited to food sold in a restaurant or store with frozen, preheated or precooked ingredien ...

chain

Wendy's Wendy's is an American international fast food restaurant chain founded by Dave Thomas (1932–2002) on November 15, 1969, in Columbus, Ohio. Its headquarters moved to Dublin, Ohio, on January 29, 2006. As of December 31, 2018, Wendy's was the ...

. It is Wendy's entry into the premium sandwich category, "something other hamburger chains have used to compete with fast-casual restaurants." Burger King offers the Steakhouse XT Burger and McDonald's has had an Angus Third Pounder. The Bacon Deluxe was launched with an extensive media campaign and priced at $3.99 for a single, $4.99 for a double and $5.99 for a triple, and is being launched alongside another Wendy's bacon sandwich: the

Baconator The Baconator sandwich is a cheeseburger sold by the international fast-food restaurant chain Wendy's. History The Baconator was introduced in April 2007 as part of a "back to basics" reorganization by Wendy's new CEO Kerri Anderson. The additio ...

. The single patty version debuted in October 2009 with a suggested price of $3.99 and contained 640 calories. The triple packs a "whopping 1,140 calories and more saturated fat, cholesterol, and sodium than anyone should eat in a single day," and topped a list of the five most unhealthful gourmet burgers sold by national

fast-food Fast food is a type of mass-produced food designed for commercial resale, with a strong priority placed on speed of service. It is a commercial term, limited to food sold in a restaurant or store with frozen, preheated or precooked ingredient ...

restaurant chain A chain store or retail chain is a retail outlet in which several locations share a brand, central management and standardized business practices. They have come to dominate the retail and dining markets and many service categories, in many pa ...

s. The Bacon Deluxe is made with "fresh, never-frozen North American beef with a more expensive bun and thick, center-cut applewood bacon".

Description

The single burger order contains four strips of smoked

, a beef patty, American cheese and

vegetables Vegetables are parts of plants that are consumed by humans or other animals as food. The original meaning is still commonly used and is applied to plants collectively to refer to all edible plant matter, including the flowers, fruits, stems, ...

. The double burger order contains two beef patties, four strips of smoked bacon, American cheese,

ketchup Ketchup or catsup is a table condiment with a sweet and tangy flavor. The unmodified term ("ketchup") now typically refers to tomato ketchup, although early recipes used egg whites, mushrooms, oysters, grapes, mussels, or walnuts, among other ...

and

mayo Mayo often refers to: * Mayonnaise, often shortened to "mayo" * Mayo Clinic, a medical center in Rochester, Minnesota, United States Mayo may also refer to: Places Antarctica * Mayo Peak, Marie Byrd Land Australia * Division of Mayo, an Aust ...

. The triple burger order contains three beef patties topped with four strips of smoked bacon, American cheese, fresh lettuce, tomato,

onion An onion (''Allium cepa'' L., from Latin ''cepa'' meaning "onion"), also known as the bulb onion or common onion, is a vegetable that is the most widely cultivated species of the genus ''Allium''. The shallot is a botanical variety of the onion ...

and

dill pickle A pickled cucumber (commonly known as a pickle in the United States and Canada and a gherkin in Britain, Ireland, South Africa, Australia, and New Zealand) is a usually small or miniature cucumber that has been pickled in a brine, vinegar, or ...

with ketchup and mayo.

Launch and reception

In May 2009, Wendy's/Arby's Restaurant Group President-CEO Roland Smith told analysts that Wendy's would release a new cheeseburger that:

... will feature juicier beef, an improved bun, bacon cooked from scratch in our stores and improved packaging. We believe this great new cheeseburger will strengthen Wendy's position as having the best tasting and highest quality hamburger in the QSR universe."

New buns and cooking procedures were introduced for the production of the new burger. To help promote the burger, a set of ads featuring the tagline "''You know when it's real''," began airing late as part of a media blitz. It replaced a previous slogan, "''It's waaay better than fast food.''" Ken Calwell, Wendy's chief marketing officer claimed that:

There's been a lot of folks talking about hamburgers out there. We haven't talked about our premium hamburgers for a very long time at Wendy's. ... We believe there's a lot of opportunity out there when we feature what we do best.

Scott Hume, editor of BurgerBusiness.com stated that the Bacon Deluxe is a major product launch for the new Wendy's management team, claiming that:

Wendy's needs a burger to get the attention of customers and show Wall Street investors the brand has new life. For 40 years, they've been saying 'We're better; we're fresh; we're not frozen, and that's gotten them some traction, but there's a whole new group of competitors. ... Wendy's needs to get back in the burger game.

According to market research firm

YouGov YouGov is a British international Internet-based market research and data analytics firm, headquartered in the UK, with operations in Europe, North America, the Middle East and Asia-Pacific. In 2007, it acquired US company Polimetrix, and sinc ...

's BrandIndex report, the fast feeder's buzz score rose from 30.8 on October 6 to 33.4 on October 13, 2009. The triple topped a cancer research group's list of most unhealthy fast food gourmet sandwiches with Wendy's Bacon Deluxe Triple Burger with 1,140 calories, 71 grams of fat, 31 grams of saturated fat, 290 milligrams of cholesterol, and 2,470 milligrams of sodium, beating out the

Carl's Jr. Carl's Jr. Restaurants LLC is an American fast food restaurant chain operated by CKE Restaurant Holdings, Inc., with franchisees in North & South America, Asia, Oceania, Europe and Africa. In 2016, ''Entrepreneur'' listed Carl's Jr. as No. 54 ...

Guacamole Bacon Six-Dollar Burger with 1,040 calories, 70 grams of fat, 25 grams of saturated fat, 145 milligrams of cholesterol and 2,240 milligrams of sodium; Burger King's Steakhouse XT Burger with 970 calories, 61 grams of fat, 23 grams of saturated fat, 135 milligrams of cholesterol and 1,930 milligrams of sodium; Jack in the Box's Sirloin Cheeseburger with 941 calories, 59 grams of fat, 18 grams of saturated fat, 143 milligrams of cholesterol and 1,890 milligrams of sodium; and McDonald's Angus Bacon and Cheese Burger with 790 calories, 39 grams.

References

{{Burgers Products introduced in 2009 Wendy's foods Fast food hamburgers Bacon dishes