Any serious industry watcher knows Wendy’s is one of the few fast-food burger chains that doesn’t serve breakfast chainwide. Why, then, does its recently updated website feature a whole section on the morning meal? And why does the selection extend to nine food selections, including a Morning Melt Panini, steel-cut oatmeal, an egg wrap and several biscuit sandwiches? It’s not as if the fixings for those products are also used for lunch and dinner.
Last month, the chain announced that it would switch to using cage-free eggs for its breakfast products.
We’re not the only ones who’ve noticed the chain’s morning surprises. A writer for Eater.com recently tried a signature of the Wendy’s breakfast menu, the Honey Butter Chicken Biscuit, and declared it “the best breakfast sandwich of all time.” That prompted other tests, duly reported on sites like Business Insider. Even if the product is not new, the interest is.
For the record: An estimated 300 to 400 of Wendy’s 2,800 U.S. restaurants continued to offer breakfast after headquarters decided to scrap a longtime, far-reaching test of morning service about three years ago. Featured at the time was the same menu that’s now prominently displayed on the chain’s website.
During a financial analysts’ conference held around the time the breakfast program was scrapped, Wendy’s CEO Emil Brolick volunteered an answer to the question he knew to be on attendees’ minds. “Oh, and breakfast? Maybe in 2016,” he said.
As recently as last summer, right after Taco Bell added breakfast service, Brolick said publicly that his chain was in no hurry to return to the morning market.
Whatever the timeline, he won’t be around to see the return. Brolick is retiring next month.
We asked Wendy’s if there is indeed anything afoot in regard to breakfast. It had not yet responded as of this posting.