Burger News You Can't Use: Kazakhstan To Get Carl's Jr. Before Philadelphia

via the Marketing Daily blog (click)

From the article “Carl’s Jr. Tackles Texas” comes the distressing news that planned expansion for the west coast burger chain includes 121 more locations in Texas plus plans to open

…Carl Jr.’s first units in China, Pakistan and Kazakhstan.

In what seems like a past life (but which was only a past career) I spent the bulk of my time on the west coast, and my personal burger take is that the east coast’s best burgers are of the greasy spoon and diner variety while the west coast excels at fast-food type burgers.  Need convincing?  That’s an easy one: In-N-Out Burger.  And while I am in the majority that fawns over INO, I have to admit I always loved eating at Carl’s Jr. and to this day admire how they run and market their business (in an evil-genius sort of way).  They are 100% unashamed of how nutritionally poor their burgers are and have in fact opted to exploit the “negatives.”   In doing so they have culled a tremendous following.

Great article on Carl’s Jr. from Conde Naste’s Portfolio magazine 2/08

So I’m loading up on travel info about Kazahkstan (I promise this is the only time I will ever link to the CIA on my blog – click) in hopes of enjoying a Six Dollar Burger (or would that be a 768 Tenge Burger?) on the shores of the Caspian Sea.

And for those that might say I can just go to a Hardees (both owned by CKE Restaurants, Inc.) I would argue – it just isn’t the same.  Maybe it’s just California Dreamin’, but fast food burgers just taste better on the left coast.