You may be amused to learn that it is commonly expected in many sit-down restaurants in western Europe that one will eat one’s burger entirely with knife and fork. Fast-food burgers are eaten out of hand, and are wrapped accordingly for convenience. But if you go to, say, a bistro in Paris, and get their burger, it will be given to you with a large fork and a steak knife, and if you try to pick it up, you’ll get the wrinkled-nose “ah, a tourist” look from the server.
For this style of burger, it actually does make sense, anyway, because a brioche bun does not hold its shape very well after absorbing moisture from the tomato, beef patty, etc. The knife and fork really is the best way to eat it. And as a transplanted American, I have cheerfully adopted the practice.
Maybe you’re a secret European.
Huh, and here I thought that brioche buns for sandwiches were a distinctively American thing. Good to know that Europeans share our predilection for overly-sweetening foods.
The link indicates it was in the 1980s. I was in West Texas for most of the 1980s and have absolutely no memory of the Pizza Burger despite Burger King being one of my go-to places. My first stint in Thailand was 1988-90, and Burger King was in Bangkok. Living up North, I’d go berserk and hit all the Western fast-food places whenever I went down to Bangkok – Burger King, Dunkin’ Donuts, Swensen’s Ice Cream, Pizza Hut among others. I am certain there was no Pizza Burger there either, but promotions often don’t carry over internationally.
It’s from 2010:
That link indicated the pesto was incorporated in to a mayonnaise.
This video from the time says the Pizza Burger was exclusive the the Whopper Bar in Times Square.
Here’s another photo:
