The Discontinued Wendy's Breakfast Sandwich That Should Make A Comeback

From time to time, fast food breakfasts break our hearts. McDonald's has made a years-long game of toying with our emotions on Twitter regarding the return of all-day breakfast (still with nothing to show for it). And who among us isn't still smarting from the loss of beloved limited-time offerings like the lava cake coffee from Dunkin'? 

When we get attached to certain menu items for the first meal of the day, we fall hard and fast. Take, for instance, the Mornin' Melt Panini from Wendy's. This sumptuous, hearty breakfast sandwich layered a mixture of asiago and cheddar cheeses, freshly cracked eggs, your choice of either bacon or sausage, plus a juicy tomato slice, all smooshed between two slices of thick sourdough bread and pressed on a panini grill.

Sadly, not only is the Mornin' Melt Panini no more, but it was actually just a test item that never made it out of the beta stage. It was available for a brief time between 2011 and 2012, during a previous iteration of Wendy's breakfast menu, which predates the current, successful venture that features bangers like the Breakfast Baconator. Nobody in the fast food game today has a drive-thru offering quite like the satisfying panini, and we think the world is ready for a renaissance. Why did the Mornin' Melt disappear in the first place? The answer is it's complicated.

When we stare at the vintage ads for the Mornin' Melt Panini on YouTube, it's hard to imagine how such a perfect specimen of breakfast deliciousness could have gone wrong. Reviews were favorable, and anyone with common sense and working tastebuds can tell from the pictures that this was a yummy and crave-able handheld. What led to it's downfall?

First of all, food costs for the panini were high. The same premium ingredients that made it taste so good also made the sandwich expensive to construct. The panini presses required to toast the Mornin' Melts were pricey, too. Wendy's breakfast menu at the time was not selling well, so it was hard to justify the overhead on the paninis.

Additionally, the paninis took a longer time to cook than most fast-food breakfast items. Considering that drive-thru efficiency is all about speed, that was a major strike against the Mornin' Melts. They also may have been complicated to prepare, with employee training being a reported issue. Too expensive, too fussy, too slow — all in all, the paninis never made it out of the trial stage, and Wendy's pivoted to breakfast items that challenged competitors' menus in different ways like exclusively using fresh eggs and other high-quality ingredients.