Posted on Thu, Jul. 10, 2003

McDonald's fans: Watch out for Rene

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Rene Steven was driving to a Spangles on West Street a couple of weeks ago when she saw something she didn't like: a huge line at McDonald's.

As the Spangles director of operations -- not to mention its omnipresent spokeswoman -- Steven decided to do something about it.

"OK, I'll pay somebody 20 bucks to go over to McDonald's and ask customers why they're there and not here," she said to employees, most of whom just laughed.

An assistant manager took her up on it and started asking the McDonald's customers why they liked the fast-food chain.

When the assistant manager returned, Steven told her that wasn't what she wanted. The employee had to specifically ask, "Why are you here and not at Spangles?"

This time Steven drove back to McDonald's with the employee, who took a clipboard and interviewed customers in the drive-through while Steven tried to make herself inconspicuous.

What now might be known as "The McDonald's Incident" wasn't actually all that helpful to Steven because there were "50 bazillion answers."

Spangles' business is just fine, but Steven always wants more -- especially from those McDonald's customers.

Protein style

Diners on the Atkins diet may like a new menu feature at Spangles, which on Monday will introduce "protein style" choices.

Customers can already get protein-loaded meals. This just makes ordering easier. For instance, instead of asking for sandwiches with extra lettuce and tomatoes and no bun, they can simply say they want their meal protein style.

"There are so many people out there who are on that diet," Steven says. That includes her.

"I've been on every diet in the world."

Does anyone have any idea just how many carbs are in the hamburgers that are 'protein style'??

Protein style burgers are burgers wrapped in lettuce leaves.

Yes I know I had one
But I was still wondering if there were any hidden carbs in the meat or such???

None of any real significance (unless you slather it in ketchup/catsup?) Maybe 1 gm carb in the cheese, another 1 gm or less in the lettuce/pickles/onions/tomato. Avoid the "secret sauce" - go with mayo and/or mustard.

"Protein Style", by the way, comes from one of the In-N-Out chain's code words. Oh dear, isn't the word 'protein' bad for my kidneys? Relax, a protein-style cheeseburger is 67% fat and 25% protein by calorie. (Any protein-style order, by the way, will require plenty of napkins.)

I've been up here in the boreal forest too long - what's Spangles? Bill

I think it must be a Lone-Star thing...I haven't seen any in DairyLand.

I just want a burger in a bun!! boo hoo!!