How Fatburger Is Making The Summer Heat Sweeter

Appetites can change like the seasons. Now that summer is arriving, cozy soups and stews make way for barbecues, fried chicken, picnics, and picnics. A lot of fast-food chains are switching up their menus, too. There's a new Girl Scouts-style shake that's coming to Jack in the Box, and McDonald's U.K. is taking its summer menu on an Italian vacation. Now, Fatburger is joining the fray with its new summertime item.

While hot dogs and hamburgers might dominate summer cookouts, Fatburger's newest sandwich handles the summer heat differently. Per a press release published by Globe Newswire, from June 14 through September 4, the Spicy Crispy Chicken Sandwich will have a spot on the menu at participating locations. It's made with "Fatburger's signature hand-breaded, crispy chicken breast with pickles, bacon, and a generous drizzle" of a popular condiment that's been featured on "CBS This Morning" and raved about by Reddit users: cult-favorite Mike's Hot Honey.

Mike's Hot Honey is pretty much exactly what it sounds like – spicy honey. It's made with honey that's infused with chili peppers and rounded out with vinegar, and it was inspired by a Brazilian pizzeria's table-top jars of chili-infused honey that the company founder tasted while on vacation in 2003. These days, it's a pretty popular condiment — so popular that some people might even think it was the inspiration for Trader Joe's new Spicy Honey Sauce. To tease the reveal of its new summer item, Fatburger really leaned in on the hot honey angle, sharing an image of a pixelated sandwich on Instagram with the caption, "Hot Honey Summer Coming June 14."

Fatburger said in a press release that the sandwich "represents the union of East Coast and West Coast: hot honey originating in the New York pizza scene and Fatburger's classic Los Angeles fare." It also capitalizes on the hot honey food trend, which according to QSR Magazine saw a 187% boost in popularity on restaurant menus between 2016 and 2020. Add to that the fact that eating spicy foods can make you sweat, and the evaporation of that sweat can make you feel cool (via Wired), and it sounds like Fatburger is trying to make its menu seem cooler by making it hotter and sweeter.