Last edited Mon Aug 11, 2025, 12:17 PM - Edit history (1)

It!

and was almost the ONLY such place around.

And for desert I got a Sunday and the waitress did not charge for the Sunday because she thought I was a senior.

Also, we didn’t have any pizza places, but we did have some pretty good Italian subs

K-mart. YUK

For a chili dog with a hot fudge sundae for dessert.

Regards,
Sorghum Crow

We had a favorite pizza place when the family shopped downtown.

work. Or my mother would get those awful hoagies with the mystery meat from K-Mart.

although I don’t recall eating there — just root beer after Little League, and floats. If we went to Mason City (River City in the Music Man) thirty miles west, we’d get McDonalds.

taco bvll before yum bought them. we had one in glendora ca @ citrus and foothill. nothing more than a small building and a window . u ordered att the window . mc donalds # 1 store was in azuza ca. mrs thomas fish and chips was in claremont ca.

My father would say, let’s go to White Castle!
I loved those hamburgers!

And, for an extra treat, we would then go to Carvel, for those delicious soft ice cream cones dipped in chocolate!

The best chain pizza in my town was Shakey's but they eventually went away too.

or Kelly's, with the GREEEEEN pickle!

Hamburgers 5 for a $1.00. (I was 10 and I remember the hamburgers and foot longs painted on the building)

Foot long coneys.

Fries.

Onion rings.

Spaghetti dinners.

21 piece shrimp dinners.

Fried chicken.

Whole chicken.

The largest rectangle pizzas I have ever seen.

Any kind of ice cream, float, malt, banana splits, or frozen treat on a stick.

My favorite was the foot long coneys. They were delicious.

Too poor. Fast food was killing the rat under my ground cloth and eating it fast. Before a brother knew I had it.
(My attempt at whining like a GQP white person that had no options because of black leople)

CLEVELAND — An iconic Cleveland restaurant will shut down for good at the end of March.

Old Fashion Hot Dogs in Ohio City will close its doors on March 29, according to Tom Sorma, one of the owners.

The Lorain Avenue building in which Old Fashion Hot Dogs rents space has been bought by a developer, My Place Group. The developer, Chad Kertesz, offered the owners the chance to stay and reopen the shop in the new building that will go up in place of the current one.

By email, Kertesz said in part, “We have done everything to keep [the shop] open to preserve the business including making an offer to buy the recipes and name, in addition to other attempts to keep them going. The owner declined and has told us he prefers to retire.”

https://ewscripps.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/40a187e/2147483647/strip/true/crop/1280x720+0+0/resize/1280x720!/quality/90/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fewscripps-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F34%2Fd2%2F3776ab214841941a8d34a92dcdc1%2Frich6533.png

my all-time favorite 'fast food' has always been pizza, and the favorite place to get it has always been the freshly baked pie spot. Best place for decades: Sbarro's!

we didn't have a ton of money....7 person household and the 5 of us kids were within 8 years from first to last. Once or twice a month Dad would load us all up in the station wagon, a black 1957 Plymouth Suburban Wagon, and take us to the A & W Drive-in for frosty cold root beers, burgers, and fries. This was the old-style drive in where they brought the food out to you on a tray that hooked onto the window. It was a real treat for us and all of us kids had a great time eating, playing, and even fighting in that car at the drive-in.

Friendly's and the Pewter Pot.

to Friendly's.

There used to be a place called Burger Chef about a mile away from my house and I went there after school maybe once or twice to get a burger so I would have to say Burger Chef. I don't remember ever eating at any other fast food place. (Maybe KFC once?)

I was also not allowed to chew gum or eat hog dogs. According to my mother, you just didn't know what they put in the hot dogs. Imagine my surprise, when decades later, at my employer's company picnic, I looked over to see her eating a hot dog! When I asked her why I was never allowed to eat hog dogs growing up, yet she was eating one, she simply said "They're better now."

they had over 1,000 locations at one time. They were eventually bought by General Foods Corporation and then sold to Hardee's.

I just wanted to make sure I remembered the name correctly. That was long time ago.

Pringles too. That must’ve been regional at the time.

When I was eight years old I started getting a quarter per week allowance. I would walk downtown on a Saturday afternoon, get a ten cent burger, walk to the theater for the five cent matinee double feature, and then to the public library where I used to hang out until closing browsing through the stacks.

Kids don't seem to have the freedom to do these kinds of things today. I was very much a "free-range" kid, even for the standards of the day. But I never see young kids out and roaming about town like we did in the 50s.

I went with my friends once in a while when I was a teenager. Never liked McDonalds, ever. There was a little place in my hometown called the Yum Yum that was good and also my mother would take us kids to A&W when my dad wasn’t going to be home for dinner, like once in a blue moon.

Those crappy K-Mart hoagies that we ate at home. ( I pulled the meat off of mine.)

The Varsity, downtown by Georgia Tech.
Biggest drive-in in the world. In its heyday, each carhop had a number and would place a numbered card under your windshield wiper to claim you as as customer. They used repartee, song, dance and humor to attract customers. Nipsey Russell, a 1960s comedian, started work there after WW II. When he became famous, the Varsity retired his number 46.

At its height, the Varsity had space for 600 cars and seating for 800 inside.

More info on Wikipedia

My favorite meal was a chili dog, a chili burger, fries and frosted orange.

The Varsity is still an institution in and around Atlanta

I make sure to visit the Varsity in Atlanta Airport when I pass through .

Best regards,
Sorghum Crow

Never use them now.

However, when we lived in Brentwood, there was no Mickey D's around, but we went to Big Boy (not "Bob's Big Boy," this is the older version) a lot. Didn't discover McDonald's until will moved to Philly when I was 10.

Gotta admit, though, the Double-R Bar Burger at Roy's was great.

-- Mal

... maybe an Acme or A&P. That is literally right down 51 from where I used to live.

-- Mal

Kenny Kings started as a drive in and then bought the rights to make Kentucky fried chicken.
It became more of a sit down restaurant.
My favorite memory is the onion rings. No place has come close since.
https://www.facebook.com/KennyKingsFamilyRestaurant/

Way back when they still had the fire pit.

As a little child in New York, I loved the place. It was somehow both old-fashioned and futuristic at the same time.

We had locally owned pizza joints, Chinese take out, and Jewish deli’s to choose from. Also diners - NY style diners. We also had Nathan’s which I guess is fast food. Why choose McDonalds or Burger King when you can get a fresh slice of pizza?

Basically the same as White Castle.
On my twelfth birthday my mom knew I wanted twelve Kristal Burgers. I ate them all in an hour or so.

but kept 'em down.

low slung green stucco building of most modest proportions, it had a window where orders were placed and picked up, a fairly large gravel parking lot with a string of yellow lightbulbs strung cattywampus across it, and the absolute BEST damned tacos I ever ate in my entire life.
Wish I could tell you the name of the place, but not only can I not recall its name, I don't recall seeing a sign with a name anywhere on the place. We just called it the taco place.
Second fave was probably A&W, and I recall Minuteman had pretty good burgers.

later, when I could drive Big Boy!

There was one 'fast food' place within 40 miles of my house. It was originally a 'Dairy King' (if you remember those), but passed through several owners depending on who wanted to keep the old place running. There is something there to this day, however, so it must have been kept useable for a very long time.

Once we moved to where one could get fast food on a regular basis, it was Wendy's. (Gods, I remember when Wendy's opened its doors. Sheesh!) But, I was already 17 by then.

Dairy Queen and the A&W Drive-In, both closing in November and reopening in April, I suppose it was Dairy Queen because it was close enough to the school where we could ditch the cafeteria food and have one of DQ's loose-meat sandwiches for $.35. Until November, that is.

around here other than Big Boy and a Burger Chef.

in Boulder, CO. You could watch the cooks throwing the pizza crust up in the air. It was kind of cheesy, pun intended, but us kids loved it.

Marysville. WA

was the big bucket in the sky, yep, Colonel Sanders. My very first fast food was from Kentucky Fried Chicken, and Mom still had a paper menu from the place when it opened, and Harlan Sanders had autographed it for her. It was so ingrained in my mind, that to me, KFC's cole slaw still tastes the best to me!

My kids favorite was Arby's.

A local burger joint between school and home

then go to the restaurant in the basement of Ogilvie's Department store and order the French fries only. It wasn't a fast food chain but it was delicious.