An open letter to McDonald’s

Dear McDonald’s,

I love your breakfast burrito. When you added all-day breakfast a year or so ago, I was delighted, because it meant I could get your breakfast burrito any time.

Your breakfast burrito is the perfect size — small, but you can order as many as you like to fill you up. I also like that it’s not stuffed with tater tots or hash browns. I love tater tots and hash browns, but I prefer them as a side item, not in the burrito. Your breakfast burrito is a perfect synergy of eggs, cheese and sausage, with your wonderful hot picante sauce as a condiment.

But there’s a problem.

A freshly-prepared McDonald’s breakfast burrito is a thing of beauty. But the breakfast burrito ages under a heat lamp, more so than anything else you sell. After just a little period of time, the tortilla starts to stick to the wrapper, and when you pick up the burrito you leave a doughy mess on the wrapper — and sometimes create a hole in the burrito through which the fillings can escape. A few minutes more, and the tortilla starts to dry out and get tough at the ends of the burrito, where it’s folded in on itself.

When I go to your restaurant and order a breakfast burrito, I never know which one I’m going to get — Dr. Burrito or Mr. Hyde. I know your business plan requires you to be a quick-service restaurant, and that depends on having certain items made up ahead of time. But this does not work for the breakfast burrito.