BURGER KING OFFERS MEAL BASKETS AT DINNER WITH AN EXPANDED MENU

Burger King has the solution to an age-old problem for fast-food restaurants - how to attract more customers for dinner.

"We'll start offering meal baskets with everything from shrimp to steak sandwiches delivered to the tables," say spokesmen of Burger King restaurants in Cape Girardeau. "We'll start offering the service in the near future."

The local Burger King restaurants two at Cape Girardeau and one each at Jackson and Scott City are among 18 owned by Mid-America Hotels, Inc., headquartered in Cape Girardeau. The group owns Burger King operations in Missouri, Kentucky, Arkansas and Illinois.

The new service was announced nationally recently by Burger King spokeswoman Cory Zywotow in Miami Fla., the home of the first-ever Burger King restaurant in 1954.

"This is a bold, big move for Burger King," said Zywotow. "Historically, when our consumers think of fast food they think of breakfast and lunch, and we've listened to our consumers who say they really want a different dining experience at dinner."

"Delivering the food to the table is nothing new for us," added the local spokesman. "We've been taking orders and serving customers at their tables for a long while. The new meal baskets, however, are new."

Orders placed at the counter are being served free at tables by employees. In some Burger King restaurants, bonuses will include free popcorn, and in some cases such sit-down restaurant touches as tablecloths and napkin rings.

Although Burger King sells 2 million of its Whoppers a day, the company discovered people were switching to pizza or food other than burgers in the evening.

Nationally, consumers told the No. 2 fast-food chain, after McDonald's, that they'd like to relax and spend more time over dinner, Zywotow said.

There is an expanded dinner menu featuring shrimp, burgers, chicken fillets and steak sandwich baskets. Baked potatoes are offered as an alternative to French fries, and a choice of salad or cole slaw is available.

Burger King, a subsidiary of Britain's Grand Metropolitan PLC, and its franchise holders operate 6,400 restaurants in 43 countries. Sales in 1991 were $6.2 billion.