Forget the challenge of building a Transformers ride in less than a year. Or coming up with a worthy sequel to the wildly popular Wizarding World of Harry Potter. Universal's got both of those covered. The real challenge for the Universal Orlando Resort is…
How do you actually make a Krusty Burger?
Universal's making fast progress on its new (and, yes, still officially unannounced) Springfield area for Universal Studios Florida. Included in that newly revamped land will be the facades of Moe's Tavern and Krusty Burger, standing where the old International Film Festival food court once stood. Universal's clearly planning to open a new restaurant in that space, as it has advertised already for personnel to work the new facility.
But if Universal's building a Krusty Burger, aren't people going to demand that Universal serve actual Krusty Burgers?
This isn't as simple as the challenge of creating Butterbeer. As successfully as Universal Orlando's executive chef, Steve Jayson, and his team nailed that task, they had it easy. People were supposed to like Butterbeer. Krusty Burgers are "the unhealthiest food in the world," vile fast food that the restaurant's owner, Krusty the Clown, wouldn't imagine actually eating. ("Ewww! I almost swallowed some of the juice!")
So what do you do? Do you honor of the spirit of hard-core, orthodox fans (think Comic Book Guy) and remain faithful to the canon, even if that means creating a new, horrible-tasting Krusty Burger to serve Universal's Simpsons fans? Or do you sell out the story and opt to serve something tastier instead?
It's fun to imagine selling nasty burgers to a horde of theme park tourists (other than us, of course), but what would you do if you were running the Universal Orlando Resort? Maybe you just slap the Krusty Burger name on your regular burgers, saving yourself the expense of developing and serving another food product? Or maybe you look for a way to avoid the issue entirely, and ask Universal Creative to work with Matt Groening to come up with some story to explain why this Krusty Burger location is selling a different type of burger than Springfield's infamous original Krusty Burger?
It's Vote of the Week time.
Please explain your answer, in the comments. Or just tell us what you'd most like to see become "real" in Universal's version of Springfield.
I answered "Create a new, awful tasting burger" to this question. Universal can market it as an awful burger six ways to Sunday, but as long as it's edible, people will go for it. "If you fry it, they will come."
I want an amazing burger for Krusty Burger. I want the best theme park counter service burger in the world.
Good luck!
Obviously, health warnings would need to be made extremely clear, but not everyone wants to go to Las Vegas, but at least once in their life, everyone wants a REAL burger!!
Correct me if I am wrong, what about a Alligator burger. It is different, the meat is in abundance, but a healthier option at the same time? Make it heart smart burger for a change?
One could be a standard burger (i.e something everyone could / would order)
The second could be the gross "novelty" burger. (For the fun people who would buy it just because)
There is a market for those who'd try it. For example, those Jones sodas like turkey & gravy & green bean casserole sell pretty well considering the contents.
And I don't necessarily think it has to be super unhealthy, just "gross". (random foods tossed together)
I also like Jeff's idea of copying the Heart Attack Grill, as long as they don't go and serve quadruple bypass equivalents to park guests (can't imagine that would sit too well after a spin on Transformers).
The thing is, though, that I'd wager 95% (or more) of the people who'd wander in there for a burger would never know that Krustyburgers are supposed to taste bad (like on the TV show). The Simpsons is only casual viewing for most people these days and few will know the minutia of the show's history. If something didn't happen last week and isn't covered in TMZ this morning then most people will not know about it.
An interesting thought for Krustyburgers is actually to make them vegetarian burgers...and not use any meet. That could be an interesting inside joke...and also a riff on the "Doublemeat Palace" burger from the old Buffy the Vampire Slayer episode (where the big secret that the burger place was hiding was actually that their burgers were made from soy and vegetables and no meat). A lot of people will think a vegetarian burger tastes weird and odd...but it is edible and a vegetarian option would be interesting for guests. The backstory could be that Krusty saves money by using only vegetarian patties and no meat in the restaurant but he lies to customers and tells them it's real meat. Maybe Homer could "expose" this to guests somehow (so that people are aware it's all vegetarian burgers inside).
I'm actually more interested in the "Flaming Moe's" drink I am sure they will make. Remember it's supposed to taste like cough syrup and have that fire element. Obviously, real flame cannot be used but maybe special cups could have flames on them? I think the cough syrup was purple so I always thought that the Flaming Moe would taste like grape. Lisa ordered a "Virgin Moe" in that episode so there was a nonalcoholic version. They will probably have it straight or frozen...maybe they will even just call it a Frozen Moe instead of a Flaming Moe.
I recommend calling them "Prion Burgers."
Krusty Burger should follow suit. Plenty of jokes about the food and service around the restaurant but a good actual product.
This article has been archived and is no longer accepting comments.
