Valentine’s Day is the perfect day to propose to your beloved. You will want to do this in a memorable fashion. If your significant other loves burgers, consider proposing at their favorite diner or restaurant. Your spouse-to-be is unlikely to suspect a proposal if your date is to go for a burger. In this way, you can create a true Valentine’s Day surprise, as you ask for their hand in marriage with a bun filled with a burger, cheese, and bacon, with onion rings and fries on the side. By showing that you love your better half even when barbeque sauce is dripping down their arm, will show how much you love them at their best.

What now?

Proposing marriage is scary, doing so in a public place like a restaurant raises the stress levels a lot higher since you may have several strangers as witnesses. When planning to pop the question in a restaurant, which by their nature can be chaotic and unpredictable, here are some things you need to know to help the proposal go smoothly.

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The burger business is a multimillion-dollar industry, with lots of competition from the chain and franchised companies that can be anything from fast-food to full-service. The days of a simple cheeseburger with lettuce, tomato and ketchup have passed. The industry is now focusing on gourmet burgers made not just from beef, but also lamb, pork and rare meats like buffalo, combined with international flavors. To open a burger business requires detailed planning to ensure your burger restaurant is a success:

Research

Research the burger industry to see where there are gaps that you can fill. This will help you formulate your mission statement, for example: To provide the finest / healthiest / best tasting, etc. burgers and sandwiches in the area, together with best customer service. Whilst researching, consider the ideal location for your burger business so that it is in reach of your target market.

Business model

How do you want to serve burgers to your customers? You can be an independent fast food establishment, gourmet burger restaurant, burger delivery operation or something else. You also need to decide on the business model whether to include selling sandwiches, salads, pastries, and desserts, as well as burgers. When it comes to beverages, do you want to sell coffee, blended teas, soft drinks or alcoholic beverages.

Choose your market

Decide your customer market and consider how you will attract and retain them. Customers will visit if they see some benefit to themselves. Focus on one market first and expand as the business develops. Find your unique selling point, whether that is the quality, versatility or other uniqueness of the burgers you offer.

Analyze competitors

Hiring a business consultant to do a SWOT (Strength, Weakness, Opportunity, Threat) analysis will provide an objective point of view. A weakness could be your business not being known locally, a threat could be local competitors now or in the future. Find out how you can meet challenges, overcome weaknesses and take advantage of opportunities. Also, consider your business from the point of view of potential customers.
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Athletes come in many different sizes and shapes. When you investigate the world of competitive eating, you will find an even more varied group of contestants. But don’t let the small homemaker type or thin, lean teenager fool you. Competitive food athletes take their sport seriously. They train and they plot their activities before the big day, and most of them have found patent ways to recover afterwards. Burger eating challenges have their set of requirements and demands, but that hasn’t stopped a variety of people from making a name for themselves with burgers!

Here are some of the big names in burger challenges from the past few years:

Sonya “Black Widow” Thomas– ate a 9-pound cheeseburger in 27 minutes on January 21, 2006 (Plaza Hotel Casino. Her prize was $5,000

Don Lerman– ate 11 one-fourth pound “Cloud Burgers, in 10 minutes. Prize unknown.

Joey “Jaws” Chestnut– ate 103 Krystal Burgers in 8 minutes on October 28, 2007 (Nashville, Tennessee). He took home a $10,000 prize.”Humble” Bob Shoudt took the home the second prize with 95 burgers and a $7500 cash out.

As you can see, burger eating can be profitable. If you would like to try your luck at this unique style of competition, here are some upcoming contests:

8th Wonder– (“Clinton Station Diner,” Clinton, N.J) You, along with nine teammates are challenged to tackle the largest burger in the world. The 8th Wonder Burger is 11.5 inches tall and is 105 pounds of meat. Ten people are given 60 minutes to devour this monster. The prize for this feat is $5,000

Monster Red Ruby Challenge-(Urban Burger Restaurant, Exeter England). The challenge here is to eat 7 six ounce burger patties, 14 slices of bacon, seven slices of cheese and two large fries, in 20 minutes. You can get a t-shirt and a free meal if you are a winner at this one.

Zeus Burger Challenge– (“Clinton Station Diner,” Clinton N.J.) – This is a 12-pound burger with all the fixings. The person to finish this the fastest will win $500.

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You and your spouse love each other. You want to be able to celebrate your wedding anniversary. And that is so wonderful. Yes, congratulations to all the couples who are celebrating their anniversaries.

But you do not want to spend a lot of money at a restaurant, because paying for everyone’s meal could cost almost as much as if you were paying for a big wedding. And that right now just seems to be out of your budget because of a house payment, a car payment, paying for the kids’ university education, paying bills, paying off credit cards and trying to save up some money for your next vacation, retirement and other things such as upcoming dental procedures. Also, you want to start saving some for an emergency fund, which you and your spouse have drained for an unexpected repair recently or something else. Also, the cost of daily living seems to be getting higher, so you see the need to cut expenses where possible.

Yet you do want to have a nice anniversary party without breaking your budget. So a nice alternative would be to serve burgers at an outdoor party in your backyard. It is cheaper. You will save a lot of money and you will be able to give your guests even more food than if you had them in the restaurant as you get more food for your money; whereas there are only limited portions in a restaurant.

You can really have a lot of great variations of burgers. You don’t just have to stick with the classic hamburger, though you will likely want to have plenty of those as many people love them. You can serve nutty veggie burgers, turkey burgers and even salmon burgers. It is a nice idea to serve them by setting up a burger bar where each person can top their burgers with the toppings of their choice. You can make your burgers tasty for guests by offering tomato slices, cucumbers, hummus, feta cheese, bacon, guacamole, chili, ranch dip and more. Yes, it is a good idea to have the basic condiments too such as ketchup, relish and mustard.

 

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Burgers are one of the most popular foods in America. Nearly everyone has tried a hamburger and many people consider themselves to be burger experts, trying different burgers wherever they go. But even the most die-hard hamburger fans may not know the following 10 fascinating burger facts.

1. The first burger in America was likely created in 1900 by lunch cart operator Louis Lassen. He first served the burger as a ground beef sandwich to a worker who needed a convenient lunch on the go.

2. Americans eat nearly 50 billion burgers each year. On average this allows for 3 burgers per week for every person in America.

3. The claim for the oldest burger chain in America belongs to White Castle. Their first location was opened in 1921 where burgers cost a mere 5 cents each.

4. One of the most popular and well known burgers, the Big Mac, was introduced in 1968 and sold for 49 cents.

5. There is a Hamburger Hall of Fame located in Seymour, Wisconsin.

6. 96% of Americans eat at least one meal a year at the burger giant McDonald’s.

7. Hamburgers got their name because they were first served in Hamburg, Germany.

8. The most expensive burger in the world is $5000 due to it’s gourmet ingredients and toppings.
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