Eat apps!

This is Social Media Week when bloggers, app developers, web designers, and social networkers come out from the dark to play, and this Thursday evening their playground is 4food. Which we take as a pat-on-the-back, because today (almost eighteen months after launch) we are still the only fast food restaurant where you can name and tweet your custom burgers (from over 140 million possible combinations), check-in on a stadium sized media wall, and order in-store from iPad toting hawkers using our own build-a-burger POS.

The event itself is a mobile food app showcase featuring the inventors, bundlers, and marketers of various innovative food and beverage apps. Those who invested the $30 fee get to feast on Gotham’s only truly de-junked fast food while they experience the featured apps in a radically offline social setting. If the apex of food and tech thrills you, 4food on Thursday night is the only place to be.

the whitney:

There are few more subjective opinions than best singer, best movie, best restaurant - but the most meaningful voice of our lifetime belongs to Whitney Houston (RIP), who de-junked popular music as she dragged the gospel out of church kicking and screaming and into millions of lives, becoming the first person to reach #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 with seven consecutive singles. Her performance of One Moment in Time at the 1989 Grammy’s is an amazing journey through vulnerability to victory as she soars from the bridge to freedom. At this point we don’t know for sure what killed her, but then again we do! it was junk - drugs for sure but also the weight of our expectations; not black enough for Soul Train, not straight enough for mainstream, and then in spite of the greatest performance of The Star Spangled Banner of all time (the first to take the national anthem into the Top 10 and have it certified platinum), a universal disappointment who has finally found salvation in death.

Yes, we love Whitney.

Linsanity:

No doubt Jeremy Lin has de-junked the New York Knicks and brought vitality back to our Garden and given the TEAM purpose; evidencing (if more was needed) that belief whether it is in a God, a movement, or an ideal, is far more powerful than selfish endeavor. Jeremy, you have the freedom of 4food!

ON THE BUILDBOARD CHART/CHARTBEAT:

Talking Turkey ...

One week after tying beef as the best selling protein, turkey went one better than neck and neck and topped beef by a beak (4food speak for a single sale), garnering a magnificent 38% share of all chart sales along the way.  Appropriately, in a week in which sales of each of the three best-selling user builds of all-time increased and the entire chart grew 26% to an all time high, JFAVUZZA’S Multigrain-Turkey-Spinach & Garlic-Avocado-Goat Cheese-Lettuce-Pickles-Hummus-Tzatziki Better Turkey Burger captured the #1 spot on a 48% increase in sales (following on from last week’s 43% rise). Given the value of social endorsement, or is it just that the value of our social behavior has been set by those in-the-know at Morgan Stanley at over $100 per Facebook User, one has to wonder (or at least speculate) how valuable you all are? On that point, we would ask that Joseph Favuzza, the valuable lad who created the Better Turkey Burger, contact us at info@4food.com as the information in your profile is no longer valid and we want to say hi (and congrats). At #2, less than a webbed foot behind the Better Turkey Burger, is AHARRIS’S all-time best-selling CaliBurger, which loses its perennial perch in spite of a 32% increase in sales! AHARRIS remains an enigma, a recluse, a genius inventor we have yet to meet - one rumor we give little credence to is that AHARRIS is the Executive Chef at a three star Michelin joint here in Gotham, another is that he is a soon-to-be-minted social media billionaire - either way we would love to sort fact from fiction and grab a short interview. NEWMANRA’S Cali4nication wings it all the way from #5 to #3 on a tremendous 50% sales increase, followed by RODGERSMG’S MGR Lamb Burger which flutters down from #3 to #4 despite a meaningful 15% improvement in sales. ALLAMMERICAN’S The American and ANTYSON’S Charlie Sheen tribute #winning burger each peck up a spot to #5 and #6 with The American coming out on top (what The American needs to scale the summit is Clint, fresh from his Super Bowl Chrysler commercial success, to narrate a patriotic burger spot). We are still trying to contact Charlie Sheen to invite him to accept a GoldenBurger on behalf of #winning burger and the American Diabetes Association, but all of our polite inquiries have either met with deaf ears or Charlie just does not realize that #winning burger is the best thing that has happened to him since he discovered narcotics. Help us get “his messiness” to accept the invite and we will feed you $1000 in 4food cash as well multiply our contribution to the ADA ten-fold. The biggest loser this week (apart from Madonna) is ANGELA1126’S Angela’s Veggie, which drops from #4 to #7 where it is tied with SECKLERM’S Life Forever Burger. At #9 is BOLO26’S deliriously named BEEF BURgITTO, a Multigrain-Beef-Chipotle Hominy-Pancetta Bacon-Cheddar-Lettuce-Onion-Tomato-Guacamole derivative of the tortilla original that has the “why didn’t anybody think of it before” obviousness of many big hits. A peek at BOLO26’S account reveals that he or she is also working on a Döner Kebab Burger - point being that BOLO26 is a nascent cultural burgerneer. SIRBORI’S The 1% falls a couple of places from #8 to #10 though its sales were flat - it looks like the “occupy-my-belly” movement just left the 1% behind.

SIZE MATTERS:

On Monday, January 9, 2012 the New York City Health Department launched a “hard hitting” ad campaign encouraging us to cut our portions to reduce our risk of health problems - particularly type-2 diabetes. The unfortunate back story being that the size of a beverage at a fast food chain has increased fourfold since 1955 (from 7 to 32 ounces) while the size of a portion of fries has more than doubled (from 2.4 to 5.4 ounces).

One of the new subway posters features an overweight man with type-2 diabetes and an amputated right leg sitting behind a graphic showing how soda portions have increased over time. “Cut your portions. Cut your risk,” the text reads below.

It is a powerful and appropriate message as in 2006 (the last year for which there are figures) more than 3,000 New Yorkers with diabetes were hospitalized for amputations. Unfortunately, instead of finding one of those amputees to feature in their ads, the lazy agency (DCS) settled for digitally altering a picture of a man with all his limbs, by photoshopping his right leg off at the knee. 

The knee-jerk reaction of the American Beverage Association was to cry foul: “Clearly, the straight facts don’t support their singular attacks on our products, so they keep falling back on distortions and scare tactics that are over the top,” association spokesman Chris Gindlesperger said in a statement. “That’s disappointing.”

No, what is disappointing is that anyone would oppose a move to improve public health by reducing gluttony.

In our mission to de-junk fast food we have limited the size of our beverages to 16 ounces and developed a unique “flying saucer” shaped bun, the result is that our sodas weigh in at 40-42 calories, and taste-busting burgers like Big Fat Greek (305), Catch Me If You Can (240), Enter The Dragon (446), Green Giant (385), Giving Thanks 365 (333), Juke Joint (450), Nang Kwak Curry (405), The Piper (495), Better Turkey Burger (430), CaliBurger (475), Erica (405), MGR Lamb Burger (430), The American (445), and The 1% (470) all come in under 500 calories.

On The Buildboard Chart/Chartbeat:

With 33.8% of chart sales turkey is for the first time in Buildboard Chart history the equal of beef, thanks to JFAVUZZA’S Better Turkey Burger fluttering up 3 places from #5 to # 2 on a 43% rise in sales, NEWMANRA’S  Cali4nication at #5, and SIRBORI’S Multigrain-Turkey- Spinach & Garlic-Avocado-Manchego-Lettuce-Pickle-Tomato-Hummus-Tzatziki The 1%, which storms into the chart at #8. Our second new entry this week is SECKLERM’S Pumpernickel-Wild Salmon-Red Lentil Dahl-Pancetta Bacon-Pickle-Basil Pesto-Tzatziki Life Forever Burger, the first 4foodie salmon burger to chart this year. We are proud that in a week in which the efforts to de-junk fast food became a battleground and misinformation reigned supreme that you continued your search for great tasting and responsible nutrition.

TAKING CREDIT WHERE IT’S DUE:

 We were approached by a 4foodie last week with a lot to say; after telling us that 4food was the most underrated restaurant in New York, he lectured us that we should make more of our innovation - “take credit where it’s due.”  So here follows a short list of our innovations:

1.     We’ve Got Holes In Our Patties - enabling us to cook the patties more quickly (and evenly) from fresh (bringing fast cooking to slow food) and enabling almost infinite customization (as the hole is where we pop in the build-transforming scoops).

2.     Almost Infinite Customization - we provide so many component choices (all cooked from scratch) that there are according to CNN more than 96 billion different ways to build a (W)holeburger [http://money.cnn.com/2010/09/16/technology/4food/index.htm], though we claim a more modest 140,000,000.

3.     Name & Market Your Burger (Tweet it! Post it! Email it! Tell a friend!) - we provide a set of online tools that enable 4foodies to name and market their builds, and kick back 25-cents in $4food for every burger sold. We predict that the first $4food millionaire will be created this decade!

4.     Intelligent Recommendations - based on 4foodies’ profiles and ordering history we provide customized recommendations and real time nutritional info online, in-store, and printed on receipts.

5.     The Buildboard Chart - has become the most influential burger chart in the world, a quintessential guide to 21^st century urban food culture. 

6.     iPad Bar - Steve Jobs (RIP) may have been the father of the iPad and ushered in paperless papers, but we were first to put them in a restaurant as kiosks! [http://gizmodo.com/4food/]

7.     Interactive Menu Boards - show the store menu and your creations in real time. If we run out of a particular menu item, it is removed from the menu boards enabling us to cook in small batches and keep our food fresh.

8.     Tweet Your Beef! - A huge digital wall displays the Buildboard Chart, your 4square check-ins, and unedited tweeted comments in real time!

9.     Those Airliner Flap Exterior Louvers? - help keep 4food a temperate place to be without unnecessary heat gain and help keep the technology free of unwanted glare, their angle changing automatically with the pitch of the sun.

10.  In-Store Composting - our in-store tank gobbles up food waste and packaging thus significantly reducing our trash production.

The sum of these innovations is de-junked fast food.

On The Buildboard Chart/Chartbeat:

The word to describe this week’s chart action is shuffle. The Top 10 remained the top ten and the top two were the perennial West Coast duo - AHARRIS’S Brioche-Beef-Avocado & Chili Mango-Avocado-Manchego-Lettuce-Tomato-Dijon Mustard  CaliBurger at #1, and NEWMANRA’S Cali4nication at #2. The big mover of the week is Angela1126’S  Angela’s Veggie, which jumps from #7 to #3 on a 72% increase in sales.  Under Angela everything shuffles up or down or stays in place except for ANTYSON’S Charlie Sheen tribute #winning burger, which free falls all the way down to #10. Bubbling under the chart this week and worthy of a mention, if only for its deliriously satirical Occupy my Belly avatar  is Sirbori’s  Multigrain-Turkey-Spinach & Garlic-Avocado-Manchego-Lettuce-Pickle-Tomato-Hummus-Tzatziki The 1%.

STATS

STATS:

4food’s “We Know You Better” technical applications generate a lot of statistic, and as the second week of January was a Seamless Web [http://www.seamless.com/food-delivery/4food-new-york-city.19916.r] powered record breaking week, of which the highlight was a 101.5% increase in sales over the week prior and a 37% increase over the same week last year, we thought we would share a few stats with you. 

For starters, the Top 10 User Builds on the Buildboard Chart were responsible for 6% more sales than the Top 10 of our Chef’s Builds, though our new Enter the Dragon Peking duck burger celebrating this Chinese New Year has started very fast - it was the 3rd best selling Chef Build last week and joint 6th best seller overall. It is in fact our most popular new Chef Build ever.

 Referencing the chart above and limiting our sample to the Top 10 User Builds on the Buildboard Chart and our Top 10 Chef’s Builds, we can see that beef powered (W)holeburgers are 36.7% of our sales of Chef’s Builds and 40.5% of your sales of User Builds and that turkey is the stuff of 3 times as many of your builds than ours.

On The Buildboard Chart/Chartbeat:

In a week where sales of burgers on the Buildboard Chart increased 46%, the CaliBurger, AHARRIS’S Brioche-Beef-Avocado & Chili Mango-Avocado-Manchego-Lettuce-Tomato-Dijon Mustard mega-hit raised its game with a 22% increase in sales, extending its long run of weekly victories. NEWMANRA’S Cali4nication and JFAVUZZA’S Better Turkey Burger, RODGERSMG’s MGR Lamb Burger and ANTYSON’S Charlie Sheen tribute #winning burger all do Romneys, flip flopping between #2 & #3 and #4 & #5 respectively. ALLAMERICAN’S The American takes #6, followed by ANGELA1126’S Angela’s Veggie at #7. Erica (by ERICA) drops from #6 to #8 on a 60% increase in sales, disproving the aphorism that a rising tide lifts all boats! Not sure how and why ITSSERGDUH’S Shei Burger re-enters the chart at #9, but we suspect hype or a coding error because the Nights of Shei are long gone, replaced by Winter’s Solace.  Rounding out the chart this week is gf manchego, the latest of AMM40’S one-week-wonders. This one features Pressed Rice-Veggie-Spinach & Garlic-Avocado-Manchego-Lettuce-Onion-Basil Pesto. We hereby nominate AMM40 the Lou Pearlman of De-junking.

ENTER THE DRAGON:

Chinese year 4710 begins on January 23, 2012. It is the year of the Dragon!  Word is that Buddha asked all the animals to meet him on Chinese New Year. Twelve came, and Buddha named a year after each of them. He announced that the people born in each animal's year would have some of that animal's personality. Those born in dragon years are supposed to be innovative, brave, and passionate.

Our new Enter the Dragon Peking duck burger celebrates the year of the dragon. It is made with freshly house-ground duck from Long Island, seasoned with our own Chinese 5 Spice Blend. The patty is paired with a fresh Brioche bun, accompanied by the Chinese Braised Kale scoop, homemade Berry Compote condiment, with a slice of Kim Chi and finished with a crisp piece of lettuce. De-junking was never more delicious.

While next week is about China, last Thursday was about Italy, as 4food hosted its first Homemade Mozzarella Class in partnership with Side Tour. Chef ToniAnn demonstrated the process to our guests, who then went to work kneading their cheese curds, eventually becoming fully-formed cheese and the foundation of their builds. After dinner the guests went home to name and market their signature creations with 4food gift certificates and a big chunk of fresh mozzarella!

De-junking begins with fine fresh store made ingredients!

On The Buildboard Chart/Chartbeat:

CaliBurger, AHARRIS’S Brioche-Beef-Avocado & Chili Mango-Avocado-Manchego-Lettuce-Tomato-Dijon Mustard multiplatinum all-time bestseller squeaks out another week at the summit, now only 3 sales ahead of JFAVUZZA’S Multigrain-Turkey-Spinach & Garlic-Avocado-Goat Cheese-Lettuce-Pickles-Hummus-Tzatziki Better Turkey Burger. From there on down there is little shuffling of the deck until we get all the way down to # 8, where ANGELA1126’S  Multigrain-Veggie-Veggie Chili-Avocado-Lettuce-Tomato-Basil Pesto-Hummus Angela’s Veggie, HUGHTHEMAGNIFICENT’S sweet’n’sour Dali Lama inspired Pumpernickel-Lamb-Pickled Peppers-Avocado-Mozzarella-Onion-Chipotle Pepper-Sweet Chili Lamb-y Lama, and ALONAWILLIAMS’S Pressed Rice-Lamb-Mushroom & Onions-Avocado-Goat Cheese-Tomato-Garlic Mayonnaise-Ketchup-Dijon Mustard Silence of the Lamb Burger, are tied.

The Place You Go 4(good)food

Our mission is as it has been from the outset to de-junk fast food - in-store and (by adding delivery to the suite of service options available atwww.4food.com) at home and in your office. To further facilitate de-junking, from today Monday December 12th 2011, you can also order through Seamless Web (www.seamless.com) using your existing personal and corporate accounts. In 2012 we will add group ordering to our suite of online applications enabling 4foodies to invite others to “feast” - paying for none, some, or all of the entire bill!

Charlie’s Golden Moment !

In a week during which the composition and order of the chart is transformed, the biggest news is that ANTYSON’S Brioche-Beef-Mac and Cheese-Pancetta Bacon-Cheddar-Tomato-BBQ “tribute to his messiness Charlie Sheen” #winning  burger has earned GoldBurger status, with a total of 512 sales since inception. As 4food and ANTYSON each contribute 25-cents per sale to the American Diabetes Association, our total contribution is now $256 and a check for $192 (representing sales since our last contribution in April) is in the mail.  Appropriately, Charlie had yet another trademark "#winning" moment at the Michelin-starred Guy Savoy restaurant at Caesars in Vegas last week. He thought he was sending Justin Bieber a text to get him to call, and instead tweeted "310-954-7277 Call me bro, C." to his 5-million followers who quickly retweeted the message. Initially, Charlie saw the funny side and answered his phone as “Ray's Pizza” and “Winning” but by the time we called to inform him of the contribution we had made in his name and to invite him to accept a GoldenBurger on behalf of the ADA, the # had been disconnected - such is the high-price of messy fame. We are still trying to contact Charlie and to incent you to help we are offering $1000 in 4food cash for an introduction and that we will multiply our contribution to the ADA 10-fold.

In other chart news, AHARRIS’S platinum selling Brioche-Beef-Avocado & Chili Mango-Avocado-Manchego-Lettuce-Tomato-Dijon MustardCaliBurger rides an inexplicable 281% leap in sales, to retake the #1 spot from RODGERSMG’S MGR Lamb Burger, which skips a place landing a nose in front of NEWMANRA’S  Cali4nication. JFAVUZZA’S Multigrain-Turkey-Spinach & Garlic-Avocado-Goat Cheese-Lettuce-Pickles-Hummus-Tzatziki Better Turkey Burger enters the chart at #4, a beak in front of ERICA’S autobiographical Erica. At #6, ANTYSON’S Charlie Sheen tribute#winning burger lies in wait of a GoldBurger boost, ahead of two new chart entries knotted at #7: AMM40’S Multigrain-Turkey-Spinach & Garlic-Avocado-Mozzarella-Onion-Basil Pesto anna 2 follow-up to the slow selling anna, and Muy Espicy, a Pressed Rice-Turkey-Potato & Chorizo Hash-Avocado-Fontina-Lettuce-Chipotle Pepper spicy Mex combo that is TONYTYPES’ 5th attempt at chart glory having failed with knock-offs likeGiving Gluten-Free Thanks. Tied at #9 are ALLAMERICAN’S The American, looking dapper in a new avatar of Stars and Stripes, and JAMESBUCKNEY’S Multigrain-Veggie-Potato & Chorizo Hash-Pancetta Bacon-Cheddar-Lettuce-Tomato-Chipotle Pepper-Guacamole newcomerVeggieBaconPlus.