Wendy’s is continuing its rollout of Aussie stores.
A long-banned Wendy’s burger has made a quiet return in the US amid speculation it might soon come to Australian stores as well.
While just a handful of Australian Wendy’s are currently operational, the brand has revealed huge plans to spread across the country.
And the T-rex burger might just help them do it – a 3000-calorie monster that costs more than AUD $40 and includes nine beef patties and nine slices of cheese.
The huge meal comes with a challenge – finish it in nine minutes to win a prize.
The T-rex was quietly resurrected at a Wendy’s in Oklahoma, with staff saying it would soon be available across the state.
The original T-rex burger began as a joke advertisement in Sports Illustrated magazine but when customers actually began trying to order the meal one Canadian Wendy’s leant into the joke and offered it for real.
Wendy’s HQ ended up stepping in and ending the T-rex’s reign of terror but the legend has persisted for years.
What a heart stopper… The T-rex.
People were quick to joke about the burger’s return on social media.
“What is the special prize? A heart attack?” one person said.
“As someone who likes to eat [and] goes to the gym, I’d eat this. Just the sheer amount of protein,” another said.
Australians are no strangers to meal challenges and many can be found at pubs and other eating establishments right across the country.
The T-rex could be a way for Wendy’s to keep tapping into the Aussie culture if they brought the gargantuan burger here.
The burger empire, famous for its square beef patties and Frosty desserts, opened its first Victorian site in June.
The latest commercial push in Australia followed a record-shattering launch in Queensland, where opening-day sales figures at Brisbane and Gold Coast outlets broke the company’s global records.
The cult-favourite chain has locked in 20 locations across Queensland, New South Wales, and Victoria over the next two years, building toward a massive multi-store footprint over the next decade.
While Wendy’s has remained tight-lipped on exactly where the next Victorian locations would surface, he promised substantial developments were imminent.
“We’ve got a strong leadership team that are built for 200 restaurants, not for two,” Richard Wallis, president of Wendy’s parent company Flynn Group, said.
Wendy’s Australia plans to open 200 stores in the next ten years as it grows its footprint nationally.
Wendy’s launched its first store in Melbourne in 1982, then expanded to 11 outlets before the Aussie stores collapsed in 1985 with an $8 million debt.
Mr Wallis said the company’s previous historical strategy failed because it did not understand what Australian consumers actually wanted.
“My understanding is that when the Wendy’s brand moved to Australia back then, there was a very similar execution from what happened in the US,” he said.
“Therefore, it came in with basically the whole US menu that reflected what Americans really wanted from Wendy’s.”
This time, the international fast-food playbook has been completely rewritten.
“What I think we’ve done differently is the brand is definitely the Wendy’s US brand, but that’s really where it stops,” Mr Wallis said.
“If you look at the way we’ve designed the asset, the way we’ve designed the restaurant, the food … it’s 100 per cent Australian beef, it’s 100 per cent Australian chicken.”
The company spent 15 months researching and testing products appropriate for the local market before launching the current rollout.
For the Australian operation, the menu features fresh, local chicken hand-breaded directly inside the stores.
-Additional reporting by Belinda Palmada