|
|
|
Burger warfare? It's good for the consumer
The Web site for the award-winning alternative weekly, the Philadelphia City Paper.
Burger warfare? It's good for the consumer
 |
 |
| Photos | Drew Lazor | |
If case you haven't been following the war of (mostly one dude's) words between P.Y.T.'s Tommy Up and Starr Restaurant Organization by way of SquareBurger � last week, Up, confident in the menu at his new Piazza eatery, challenged Stephen Starr's Franklin Square burger/shake shack to a taste-off via Twitter. Then SRO, without responding directly to the PaperStreet promoter, announced that they would be dropping the price of their $16 Butcher & Singer burger (left) to $5.95 for a limited time. (We tried it for lunch yesterday.)
If you know Up, you know he's not one to relinquish the last word that easily. So he trained his photon torpedoes at the Starrship Enterprise again with a counterdeal � bring a Butcher & Singer receipt to NoLibs, and you get a P.Y.T. burger (right) on the house. Up tells Meal Ticket that he'll keep his promotion going as long as B&S keeps theirs on.
Go ahead and say what you will about PR and buzz and egos and self-promotion and competition and what have you � at the end of the day, y'all have been given a golden opportunity to eat cheap-as-hell/free food here. If you consider yourself a burger fan, to fail to take advantage of both deals would be tragic.
@Holly: That was my initial thought as well so I was wondering what Up's incentive was... then I realized that he's indirectly trying to achieve his Starr vs. PYT burger concept, with our without Starr's consent. I'm still not sure about the payoff though. Word of mouth about the deal just to raise PYT awareness, perhaps?
I'm not sure that PYT is Avis to Starr's Hertz. My guess is that the Starr Org ran their promotion because it is August in the middle of a recession and the lunch business sucks. A big dining room to fill, much less to turn a couple of times. They are using the burger as a loss leader and expect to end up turning a profit on the meal from fries and drink sales. Would be interesting if Butcher and Singer took the offensive and gave everyone who purchased one of their burger and handout with PYT's offer for a free hamburger. Maybe even offer shuttle service to PYT that evening. Start a stampede. Unlikely to happen, but would cause havoc at PYT. PYT won't do all that bad. If people order a beer or two to wash down their burgers, PYT will at least break even on cost.
- barstool scientist
- Booze
- Brew Revue
- Chef Salad
- Closings
- Coffee
- Contests
- Dealage
- Dirty Dishes
- Don't Front
- Eat This Immediately
- Field Trip
- Food and Art
- Food and Holidays
- Food and Movies
- Food and Music
- Food and Politics
- Food and Sports
- Food and Web
- Food Blogs
- Food Books
- Food Events
- Food News
- Food TV
- Gifted
- Happy Hour Hopper
- How-To
- In Print
- Interview
- Meal Ticket
- Menu Time
- Not So Quickfire
- Notes from the Weekend
- On Wheels
- Openings
- Patio Drinking
- Philly Beer Week 2010
- Photos
- Private Chef POV
- Product Placement
- Recipes
- Snack Time
- Stiff Drank
- SUPPER
- Tea
- Testing
- Ticket Stubs
- Top Chef
- Vegan
- Vegetarian
- Video
- Weekly Candy
- Weird Regional Foods
- We're Here to Help
- Where'd We Eat?
- Drew Lazor's Ill-Advised Rant Factory
- Pregame
- Ill-Advised Ranting
- The Week Without Meat
- Philly Beer Week 2009
- Real Big
- Where'd I Eat Last Night?
- Top Chef Masters
- The Good Word
- Next Iron Chef
- Arterial Terrorism
- Food and Radio
