The Panera Bread Co. bakery-and-cafe chain says yes. But a judge said no, ruling against Panera in its bid to prevent a Mexican restaurant from moving into the same shopping mall.
Panera has a clause in its lease that prevents the White City Shopping Center in Shrewsbury from renting to another sandwich shop. Panera tried to invoke that clause to stop the opening of an Qdoba Mexican Grill.
But Superior Court Judge Jeffrey Locke cited Webster's Dictionary as well as testimony from a chef and a former high-ranking federal agriculture official in ruling that Qdoba's burritos and other offerings are not sandwiches.
The difference, the judge ruled, comes down to two slices of bread versus one tortilla.
"A sandwich is not commonly understood to include burritos, tacos and quesadillas, which are typically made with a single tortilla and stuffed with a choice filling of meat, rice, and beans," Locke wrote in a decision released last week.
In court papers, Panera, a St. Louis-based chain of more than 900 cafes, argued for a broad definition of a sandwich, saying that a flour tortilla is bread and that a food product with bread and a filling is a sandwich.
Qdoba, owned by San Diego-based Jack in the Box Inc., called food experts to testify on its behalf.
Among them was Cambridge chef Chris Schlesinger, who said in an affidavit: "I know of no chef or culinary historian who would call a burrito a sandwich. Indeed, the notion would be absurd to any credible chef or culinary historian."
What if it has a kaiser roll? Those LOOK like Buns? Is it a burger or a sandwich? It's like a bun with no sesame seeds.
"I'm looking for love. Real love. Ridiculous, inconvenient, consuming, can't-live-without-each-other love." - Carrie Bradshaw
"The danger of an adventure is worth a thousand days of ease and comfort" - Paulo Coehlo
Live your life like it's your last day on earth
Life is not how many breaths you take, but how many moments take your breath away.
Well, what about a veggie burger? that has a bun, BUT NO BEEF PATTIE.
hmmmm? answer me that!
heck law is obviously LAME.
"I'm looking for love. Real love. Ridiculous, inconvenient, consuming, can't-live-without-each-other love." - Carrie Bradshaw
"The danger of an adventure is worth a thousand days of ease and comfort" - Paulo Coehlo
Live your life like it's your last day on earth
Life is not how many breaths you take, but how many moments take your breath away.
I never said a veggie burger was a burger, because it's not. Tree-hugging hippy food is not burger material. You could put your granola, Berkenstocks or whatever in the bun and that doesn't make it so. That's the point of our HECK law, not any ol' jerk item in between a bun is a burger. Not now, not ever.
Dekka00 said this in post #10 : a burger is a sandwich. It is between two pieces of bread, made from wheat, that has been cooked with yeast in it.
You could call a burrito a "wrap" if you were so inclined, but a sandwich it is not.
But buns are different that normal bread. By that rational then a flour tortilla is bread too.
Plus, when you have a burger pattie in between any kind of bread then it's a hamburger, not a sandwich. If it's chicken, grilled or fried on bread I'd be so inclined to call it a sandwich. Still, the bun factor negates that and it becomes a chicken burger.
There should be a trial for this case and all of you should be on the jury.
"I'm looking for love. Real love. Ridiculous, inconvenient, consuming, can't-live-without-each-other love." - Carrie Bradshaw
"The danger of an adventure is worth a thousand days of ease and comfort" - Paulo Coehlo
Live your life like it's your last day on earth
Life is not how many breaths you take, but how many moments take your breath away.
We live in a world that has sandwiches, and those sandwiches have to be guarded by men with the balls to not call them burgers or burritos. Whose gonna do it? You? You, Dekka? I have a greater responsibility than you could possibly fathom. You weep for the burger fans, and you curse the burrito lovers. You have that luxury. You have the luxury of not knowing what I know. That calling a sandwich a sandwich, while tragic, probably clears up a lot of confusion. And my existence, while grotesque and incomprehensible to you, stops confusion. You don't want the truth because deep down in places you don't talk about at McDonalds, you want me eating that sandwich, you need me eating that sandwich. We use words like bun, mustard, lettuce. We use these words as the backbone of a life spent defending sandwiches. You use them as a condiment. I have neither the time nor the inclination to explain myself to a person who rises and sleeps under the blanket of the very sandwich law that I provide, and then questions the manner in which I provide it. I would rather you just said thank you, and went on your way, Otherwise, I suggest you pick up a sandwich, and stand a post. Either way, I don't give a damn what you think you a sandwich is!
11-13-2006 06:23 PM
