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I can has 'Cheezburger 2.0'? (photos)

Meet 4food, the New York burger joint start-up that mixes fast food with slick tech and substitutes social-media game mechanics for traditional marketing. It's either revolutionary or a horrible idea.

Caroline McCarthy
Caroline McCarthy, a CNET News staff writer, is a downtown Manhattanite happily addicted to social-media tools and restaurant blogs. Her pre-CNET resume includes interning at an IT security firm and brewing cappuccinos.
Caroline McCarthy
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1 of 8 Caroline McCarthy/CNET

4food hits midtown Manhattan

4food, a new fast-food restaurant opening in early September on East 40th Street and Madison Avenue in New York, aims to improve the burger joint experience by pulling in the components that have made the likes of Apple, Google, and Facebook so successful.

Update: A slide was removed at the request of one of the people in the photograph due to privacy concerns.

Read the related article: "Is this the burger joint of the future?"

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2 of 8 Caroline McCarthy/CNET

4food's scoreboard

At 4food, nothing is static. The digital menu displays not only a list of recommended burgers, but also the most-ordered user-devised burger concepts submitted through the 4food Web site and saved in the system. Every time someone orders a user-created burger, the person who originally devised it receives 25 cents in store credit.

Read the related article: "Is this the burger joint of the future?"

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3 of 8 Caroline McCarthy/CNET

Of course, there are iPads

4food staffers walk around the store with iPads to take customers' orders for custom burgers. Patrons can select bread, meat, filling for the donut-like hole in the middle of the burger, and toppings. Combinations will ultimately permit over 140 million possible burgers.

Order a burger at 4food, and your receipt will come with a Wi-Fi password, naturally. The three levels of seating have power outlets at every seat, too.

Read the related article: "Is this the burger joint of the future?"

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The audiovisuals

Not to be outdone, 4food's back wall is partially taken up by a massive video screen that displays a rotating lineup of information about the establishment, Zen-worthy audiovisuals and--of course--related tweets and Foursquare check-ins.

Read the related article: "Is this the burger joint of the future?"

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Inside 4food's kitchen

4food also uses exclusively biodegradable ingredients for its food and drink offerings, and contains a compost machine in the basement that can handle 400 pounds of waste in 24 hours.

Read the related article: "Is this the burger joint of the future?"

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Ordering at 4food

4food customers are invited to build burgers and pay online before actually showing up, to speed up the in-store process. The price goes up and down based on the addition and removal of ingredients, with a low point of about $5.

Read the related article: "Is this the burger joint of the future?"

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7 of 8 Caroline McCarthy/CNET

Of course there is social media, too

Perhaps the most ambitious gimmick of the 4food experience is to create a profile and log burgers that you've saved and named so that other patrons can order them--and you'll get 25 cents in store credit. Burger creators are encouraged to spread the word via Facebook and Twitter, and even to create guerilla YouTube ads for their burgers.

Read the related article: "Is this the burger joint of the future?"

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8 of 8 Caroline McCarthy/CNET

Om nom nom

Your intrepid reporter invented "The Jetsetter," a consciously pretentious salmon burger on brioche topped with a melange of Brussels sprouts, gruyere cheese, hummus, and lettuce. It costs a total of $6, which is expensive as far as burgers go overall but not too bad by New York standards.

It was, in all honesty, extremely tasty. But it's a big question mark as to whether 4food can keep up enough demand to offset the obvious costs of cutting-edge tech, high-quality ingredients, and green initiatives, not to mention a big flagship location in pricey midtown Manhattan. Idealism, after all, isn't a business model in itself.

Read the related article: "Is this the burger joint of the future?"

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