As part of a special promotion that got under way Monday in conjunction with the start of the UL football season, the 25 Sonic restaurants in the Acadiana area are serving a Ragin’ Cajuns burger that includes a mixture of spices and ingredients. That’s not unusual, of course, but it’s what’s on top that is the most impressive.
The bun itself carries the “Louisiana’s Ragin’ Cajuns” logo, in full color, the fleur de lis and the words right there and easily readable. And it’s edible, too.
Sonic spokesman Gary Wilkerson, the president of Kergan Brothers — the local franchisee for Sonic with 54 restaurants in Louisiana — said the imprinting of an edible logo on a hamburger bun is a first in the U.S.
“So it’s not just a shameless burger promotion,” says Wilkerson, who worked for a decade in sports at a Lafayette television station. “It sounds like one, but it’s not. We’ve been trying to find a good fit for a sponsorship for years, and now we’ve found it. We’ve seen the edible logo on things like desserts, but as far as we know it’s never been on a hamburger bun.”
“We wanted a fun and different way to support the Cajuns, and the edible logo seemed like a great fit,” says franchisee Ted Kergan. “Putting a school logo on a bun has never been done before, in the area or in any Sonic, so we’re excited to offer it on our menu.”
The burger features other south Louisiana staples, including a Tabasco brand spicy mayonnaise and a side packet of Tony Chachere’s Creole seasoning. Fried and grilled onions and pepper jack cheese give the burger enough of a kick to please even the spice-spoiled South Louisiana palates.
“It’s South Louisiana,” Wilkerson says. “It’s supposed to have a kick.”
“Every year we get requests for use of the Ragin’ Cajun trademark, but this is the most unique opportunity we’ve had,” says Cajun head coach Mark Hudsepth.
The Ragin’ Cajuns burger will be available though at least Dec. 31 and may be continued past that date; the menu item will also be promoted during tailgating activities at each of UL’s six home games.
MAY 24 Blogger Robert Mann posts this entry about the Baton Rouge Chamber's recent report on Louisiana's higher education system. It's critical to economic development, and yet our system is facing a "funding crisis" with no way to resolve it, the report says. The Chamber says control of tuition and fees must be returned to the higher ed governing boards.
MAY 24 Here's a NBC33 story about Tyrann Mathieu. He has signed with the Arizona Cardinals, inking a $3 million, four-year deal. He gets a signing bonus of $265K, but gets another, larger bonus if he doesn't get cut from the team for doing drugs. The deal reportedly includes mandatory tests and meetings for the player.
MAY 24 Jarvis DeBerry posts here about the redonkulus rhetoric that would have us believe NOLA is a safe city with a murder problem. Maybe the city's crime stats don't compare with its murder stats because you can't manipulate a murder, he says: a dead body's a dead body. It just doesn't make sense, he says, and his readers agree: a poll asks if they believe the city is safe, and more than 90 percent say no.
MAY 24 Jindal administration officials announced Thursday that the privatization of public health care is going to cost a lot more than they budgeted for, the Advocate reports here. "I'm so surprised," said no one. Anywhere. The cost they're projecting now is more than $1 billion - a lot more than the $626 million budgeted for it. And, it's more than it cost the state to operate those hospitals. So why are we doing this again?
MAY 24 Blogger CB Forgotston ridicules the recent PR campaign by the state GOP in the wake of a legislative auditor's request to both major parties. The GOP (apparently unaware that the Dems got the same request) started yammering about being targeted because it had "killed" a tax increase. CB finds that laughable, but it's also pretty funny that the GOP was comparing this episode to the IRS scandal (Because the President has so much to do with our state auditor. Right?).
MAY 24 Politico details some recent fund-raising efforts by Sen. David Vitter, which have raised the question of his future political plans. This time, it is a $5,000 per head "bayou weekend" that includes "Cajun cooking" and an all-caps "alligator hunt," the story reports. Funds raised go to a super PAC that can spend money to support Vitter in federal or state races, the story points out.
MAY 24 The pink building on Royal in the quarter was sold at a sheriff's sale Thursday, this Picayune story reports. An injunction that would have halted the sale wasn't enforced because the family failed to post a $150,000 bond, the story reports. So the owner of the mortgages on the building bought it, for nearly $7 million. Now the feuding family will have to negotiate with that company to get a lease on the building that has housed their business for close to 60 years.
MAY 23 This post in Louisiana Voice tells us about a bill by a Winnsboro lege that would require all public high school students to take at least one Course Choice online class in order to graduate. (What?) Blogger Tom Aswell says it's a monument to "waste and corruption," especially in light of the problems he's exposed with the program in recent weeks. Idaho had a similar program, but voters removed it by a 2-1 margin, Aswell says.
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