The McDLT: Hot Meets Cold in a Styrofoam Spectacle
Remember when McDonald’s thought the secret to a perfect burger was serving it in two different containers? The McDLT kept the bottom half of the bun and meat in one container while the top half of the bun and veggies were kept in another half, preventing the heat of the burger from making the veggie bits all nasty and hot. This was back when things were not made to order, but instead were already cooked and ready to go. The burger looked absolutely ridiculous with its massive Styrofoam packaging, but kids loved the novelty of assembling their own meal.
The problem was, it was a ton of Styrofoam just at a time when people started caring about the environment. This poor sandwich was the victim of environmentalists. The McDLT disappeared not because it tasted bad, but because the world suddenly realized that creating mountains of non-biodegradable waste for a burger might not be the best idea.
McDonald’s Pizza Dreams That Lasted Two Decades
McDonald’s pizzas didn’t make it past the ’90s at most franchises, but two rogue McDonald’s locations in Ohio and West Virginia still served the fabled pies long after they were discontinued, though they finally came off the menu in August 2017. Picture walking into a McDonald’s and ordering a personal pizza alongside your Big Mac – that was actually possible for a brief, magical moment in fast food history.
To accommodate the new pies, McDonald’s restaurants would have to widen drive-thru windows and expand kitchens to make room for the ovens. Even with ultra-fast ovens, pizzas took longer to cook than many customers were willing to wait for fast food. At $5.99 to $8.99 per pie, the pizzas cost more than people were used to spending at the Golden Arches. McPizza was not really anything to write home about – it was a frozen pizza that McDonald’s threw in the oven for you.
The Bell Beefer: Taco Bell’s Strange Burger Experiment
The Bell Beefer was basically the contents of a Taco Bell taco minus one taco plus one hamburger bun. It was delightful. Taco-seasoned ground beef was piled onto a bun and topped with red sauce, shredded lettuce, and diced onions, plus tomatoes and shredded cheese in a “supreme” version. It was originally called the Bellburger and became the Bell Beefer in the 1970s.
According to the Daily Meal, it was founder Glen Bell’s way of putting something recognizable on the menu for an American public that was still discovering tacos. It sold well for years and garnered a cult following, but over time, Taco Bell proved customers didn’t need burgers from it and just wanted its Mexican-style eats. The chain removed the Bell Beefer in the ’90s, presumably assuming no one would even notice. But Bell Beefer-ites were furious to lose their favorite item, and have been lobbying for its return ever since.
The original removal of the Bell Beefer was met with “Stank Festivals,” organized sit-ins at Taco Bell locations. These protests proved unsuccessful, however — apparently, there were not enough “Stank” participants to convince higher-ups at Taco Bell to bring back the Beefer.
The Arch Deluxe: McDonald’s Most Expensive Disaster
McDonald’s spent $200 million on advertising the Arch Deluxe, more than any fast food company had spent on a product launch before. In 1996, The New York Times revealed that the company expected to make $1 billion off of the Arch Deluxe in just its first year. The adult-themed burger was officially released on May 9, 1996, at an event held at the Radio City Music Hall. The Arch Deluxe would come to be known as “the biggest product launch in the company’s history” — and eventually one of its greatest blunders.
The burger itself wasn’t terrible – it featured a potato roll as opposed to the familiar sesame-coated bun, peppered bacon, and the most important aspect was its sauce, a mustard-mayo mixture made with stone-ground mustard, not the yellow stuff. But McDonald’s made a critical error in their market research. The focus groups weren’t actually representative of the average customer. The groups were made up of volunteers, making it likely that they were fans of McDonald’s, fans of burgers, fans of trying new things, or all of the above. When they actually released the burger to the public, there was significantly less interest.
Sales had been declining at the more than 12,000 McDonald’s restaurants scattered across the US, while sales at Burger King and Wendy’s had gone up by 2.5% and 7.5%, respectively. The Arch Deluxe became such a legendary failure that it’s literally in the Museum of Failure, which is an actual museum.
Wendy’s Superbar: The All-You-Can-Eat Buffet Bonanza
Unlike many other items, Wendy’s Superbar didn’t die because it was a flop—it failed because it was too much of a hit. For a brief, wondrous period during the late ’80s and ’90s, Wendy’s offered an all-you-can-eat buffet with salad, fruit, and “Mexican Fiesta” and “Pasta Pasta” stations. The main attraction of the Super Bar was buying a baked potato and going to town with toppings.
The Superbar was essentially a food lover’s paradise disguised as fast food. You could pile your plate high with pasta salad, top a baked potato with chili and cheese, then finish with soft-serve ice cream. In the ’80s and ’90s, Wendy’s offered a “Superbar” buffet where people could get salad, fruit, Mexican fare, pasta, and more. The chain killed the “Superbar” in 1998 and discontinued all salad bars in 2006. The concept was too successful for its own good – people would camp out at the buffet for hours, making it unprofitable despite its popularity.
KFC’s Popcorn Chicken Revolution
Back in the ’90s, KFC released Popcorn Chicken. These irresistible bites of crunchy chicken were a great road trip snack—plus the popcorn box-shaped container was so convenient. Popcorn chicken was huge in the late 90s because it cut to the core of why we love fried chicken—the fried part.
Why did this bird fly the coop in the late ’90s? One theory suggests the hand-breaded chicken bits took too long to make. KFC dropped the finicky item and started shipping its products frozen. Over the years, the Colonel’s chicken bits have returned as “Original Recipe Bites” and as high-quality, all-white breast meat “Popcorn Nuggets” — but food critics at the Brand Eating blog claim the familiar crunch just isn’t there. The original popcorn chicken had a special texture that modern versions just can’t replicate.
Pizza Hut’s Outrageous Pizza Experiments
The good folks at Pizza Hut know that pizza with more cheese is better, which is why they stuffed as much cheese into their multi-layered Triple Decker pizza as they possibly could. Part of the late ’90s boom of novelty fast food items, the Triple Decker secured a permanent place in customers’ hearts. Over 20 years after its launch, a Facebook fan page still pays homage to the legendary pie.
In 1996, Pizza Hut got legendary actor Anthony Quinn to advertise their cheese-stuffed monster. Unlike stuffed-crust pizza, this thing had a dough base covered entirely in cheese, another layer of dough, and then the pizza on top. It proved to be too much cheese for most pizza fans, though the most dedicated cheese-lovers out there are still hoping it comes back some day. The Pizza Hut of the ’90s wasn’t content with normal amounts of cheese – they wanted to push the boundaries of what constituted pizza.
Taco Bell’s Breakfast Tacos and Waffle Chaos
Along with standards like breakfast burritos, the Taco Bell morning menu included a strange new beast called the Waffle Taco. As its name suggests, the Waffle Taco consisted of a taco-shaped waffle packed with breakfast taco fillings—eggs and meat—and served with syrup on the side. Although fellow breakfast items like the A.M. Crunchwrap were a hit for Taco Bell, the Waffle Taco was a miss. Soon after its debut, Taco Bell Chief Marketing Officer Chris Brandt hinted that some items “might run out of gas.” Sure enough, the Waffle Taco was taken off the menu in 2015 and replaced with the Biscuit Taco.
The Waffle Taco represented everything wild about ’90s fast food innovation – taking two completely unrelated food concepts and smashing them together to see what happened. While it failed spectacularly, you have to admire the audacity of whoever thought syrup belonged anywhere near seasoned ground beef.
McDonald’s French Fry Formula Change
While vegetarians rejoiced when McDonald’s switched from using beef fat to vegetable oil for their French fries in 1990, not everyone was pleased. As numerous sources have noted, it’s not your imagination that the fries tasted better when you were a kid. The switch in the early ’90s still has people riled up after all these years. The vegetable oil fries lack the savory flavor of old.
This wasn’t just a menu item disappearing – this was McDonald’s fundamentally changing one of their most iconic products. The beef tallow fries had a distinctive taste that many people still remember decades later. It’s proof that sometimes progress isn’t always better, especially when it comes to fast food comfort foods that people have emotional connections to.
Burger King’s Cini Minis Cinnamon Roll Revolution
Cini Minis were first introduced at Burger King in 1998 and became a fast food staple for many ’90s kids. These miniature cinnamon rolls were the perfect departure from fast food breakfast sandwich staples. Sadly, the minis were discontinued but have enjoyed short-term rereleases in the past, but have never rejoined the menu full time.
Picture tiny cinnamon rolls served hot with icing for dipping – it was like having dessert for breakfast, and Burger King didn’t even pretend otherwise. The Cini Minis represented the ’90s philosophy that breakfast could be sweet, indulgent, and completely divorced from traditional morning nutrition. They were sticky, sugary, and absolutely irresistible to anyone under the age of fifteen.
