Restaurant unveils 1,690-calorie sandwich

September 01, 2011|Devra First, Globe Staff

Photo/Denny's

So says the headline on the Yahoo! homepage. The extreme sandwich is from Denny's. It's the Mac 'n' Cheese Big Daddy Patty Melt, a "hand-pressed beef patty topped with our NEW creamy Mac ’n Cheese, melted Cheddar cheese and zesty Frisco sauce on grilled potato bread." Served with a side of fries, naturally.

The sandwich has also gotten press from Eater, Huffington Post, New York Daily News, and plenty more. It follows in the footsteps of Denny's fried cheese melt (fried mozzarella sticks within a grilled cheese sandwich), a footlong cheeseburger from Carl's Jr., IHOP's Pancake Stackers (cheesecake sandwiched between pancakes), Burger King's Meat Monster (two beef patties, a chicken breast fillet, two slices of cheese, and bacon, only available in Japan), and more.

Of course, KFC's Double Down is the one that started it all: bacon and two kinds of cheese between two chicken fillets, no bread required. When the sandwich launched in April 2010, there was public outcry about how unhealthy it was. (No more unhealthy than some salads, it turned out.) There were also stellar sales. Stephen Colbert ate one on TV. Bloggers fell on it like ravenous wolves. New York Times restaurant critic Sam Sifton was photographed eating one whilst taking notes.

Is it any wonder restaurants keep launching new extreme sandwiches? If we really think these high-calorie, high-fat, high-sodium bombs are so awful, maybe we should all just stop talking about them. Enough said.