Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
White Castle - 1921
A&W - 1923
McDonald's - 1940
Dairy Queen - 1940
Jack in the Box - 1951
Burger King - 1953
I've excluded places like Big Boy, as it wasn't focused on buying food in a bag for takeout and places that are now defunct. I believe that Burger Chef is defunct, but there are still a few A&W drive-ins around.
I forgot about drive-in restaurants, they boomed with the automobile culture after WW2.
I've been mostly staying in Ontario, Canada, for the past few years, and I was surprised to see so many ads for A&W, which I thought was pretty much defunct. Apparently it has almost died out in the United States, but A&W is alive and well and very popular up here. The Canadian stores were bought out in the 70s and owned and run independently of the A&W chain in the United States.
However, the very best fast-food burger I have ever had is also Canadian. It's a chain called Harvey's. Best burgers ever. My favorite part is that you can also order "frings", a combination order of french fries and onion rings.
Before fast food, what did people eat at lunch? I mean, in those days, that's even before microwaves. Perhaps fridges at work weren't common either. I'm genuinely curious as to how lunch was had/made/brought. Can anyone shed some light on the good old days?
When I was in elementary school (1950s) and in high school (1960s) I carried a brown bag lunch consisting of a home-made sandwich and a thermos of milk or juice. When I was in college, I almost always ate the so-so offerings in the student cafeteria.
As a teacher, I usually brown-bagged my lunch, but occasionally I ate the cafeteria's special offerings for the faculty.
After retirement, I went back to college for my third academic degree, and I lunched on the fairly-decent offerings from the college cafeteria.
When I went back to work in a new career following the latest stint in college, I again brown-bagged it, despite the fact that probably 95% of the office staff went out for lunch each day at a variety of local Mom & Pop places. When they would complain that their lunch cost them ~$8 per day, I mentioned that my weekly lunch bill was about $8. Most of them stared in disbelief because--apparently--taking 5 minutes in the morning to make a sandwich was too much of a burden for them. So, they continued to complain about their lunch expenses, while I saved money every week. Go figure!
Last edited by Retriever; 11-18-2022 at 02:54 PM..
In this part of California, fast food is generally tolerated and despised. Our governor wants to raise fast food worker pay to a $23/hour minimum. Some townships won't allow it within their borders. People bemoan the nutritional value. Wonder how a cooked burger can be sold for less than the cost of the meat in the store. Generally there's a headwind growing against fast food...and i really don't want to eat out of a 7-11.
The problem is...it's really convenient. It's hard to get away from the office for long and I place old tales of 2 martini lunches next to Jack and the Giant Beanstock. No idea how it was possible then, it certainly isn't now.
But I have a different question. Before fast food, what did people eat at lunch? I mean, in those days, that's even before microwaves. Perhaps fridges at work weren't common either. I'm genuinely curious as to how lunch was had/made/brought. Can anyone shed some light on the good old days?
There were places you could get a fast burger/fries before McDonald's came on the scene. I remember going to one with three friends, we all had burgers, fries, and a milk shake and ate it in the car. A McDonald's is there now, almost in the same spot. There were hot dog stands and trucks too, my family used to own one.
But I have a different question. Before fast food, what did people eat at lunch? I mean, in those days, that's even before microwaves. Perhaps fridges at work weren't common either. I'm genuinely curious as to how lunch was had/made/brought. Can anyone shed some light on the good old days?
Pies, Pasties, Pizza, Fish and Chips, Soups and broths, Oyster Bars, Whelks, Mussels, Jellied or hot eels, pie and mash, Horse chestnut stands, coffee shops, tea houses, sandwiches, frankfurters and hamburgers etc all pre-date US fast food, and food stands can be traced all the way back to the Romans.
Pie and mash is a traditional working-class food, originating in the Docks of London. It typically consists of a minced beef pie, mashed potato and a parsley sauce known as liquor, and there are still some traditional London pie and mash shops, and they usually also sell jellied eels, whilst Fish and chips grew to become a traditional staple fast food.
The Cornish pasty was linked to tin miners in Cornwall, who used the thick crust as a means to hold the pasty, and to avoid touching the food with their hands.
In northern Britain and especially in Lancashire, Tripe shops were very common, as were hotpots and stews, including Liverpool's famous Scouse stew, the word Scouse coming from a shortening of lobscouse, a stew commonly eaten by sailors throughout northern Europe.
The Sandwich onitially perceived as food that men shared while gaming and drinking at night, the sandwich slowly began appearing in polite society as a late-night meal among the aristocracy. The sandwich is named after John Montagu, 4th Earl of Sandwich, an eighteenth-century English aristocrat.
Today you can find numerous bakers and butchers shops selling pies, pasties and sandwiches, whilst British chains such as Greggs and Pret are popular, and also sell soups, cakes and other wares.
Cooked breakfast was also a staple throughout Britain and Ireland, as were things such as Bacon Butty's (Sandwiches) and Chip butty's (thick sliced French fries in a buttered bun), whilst oat cakes were also popular in parts of Britain such as the Staffordshire, and there are numerous different types of bread buns and cakes.
Coffee shops arrived in the 1650's and along with tea houses, and afternoon tea, accompanied by sandwiches and cakes, became another famous British tradition, whilst Britain has it's own chains of modern coffee shops such as Costa, Caffè Nero, AMT Coffee, Coffee Republic etc.
Bagels arrived in London in the early 1800s, perfuming streets from the Jewish bakeries that brought them here. It's thought the holes were devised so the bread could be easily transported on strings.
Britain's food culture was further influenced through Empire, as well as European foods, and later Post WW2 US fast food culture, and this is reflective of the variety and choice of foods now available, whether it be Italian pizzas, Indian Curry Houses, Chinese takeaways, Kebabs etc etc.
In Victorian London you had the likes of -
Quote:
Originally Posted by Victorian History
Food and drink was readily available at all hours of the day and night, purchased from individual entrepreneurs. Henry Mayhew, in the middle years of the nineteenth century, listed “The Street-sellers of Eatables and Drinkables” and included, in his list, the vendors of fried fish, hot eels, pickled whelks, sheep's trotters, ham sandwiches, peas'-soup, hot green peas, penny pies, plum 'duff,' meat-puddings, baked potatoes, spice-cakes, muffins and crumpets, Chelsea buns, sweetmeats, [and] brandy-balls … constituting the principal eatables sold in the street; while under the head of street-drinkables may be specified tea and coffee, ginger-beer, lemonade, hot wine, new milk from the cow, asses milk, curds and whey and occasionally water.
In addition, one might find “sherbet, and some highly-coloured beverages which have no specific name, but are introduced to the public as 'cooling' drinks …”
The variety of what was available was extensive and, as Henry Mayhew tells us,
The coffee-stall supplies a warm breakfast; shell-fish of many kinds tempt to a luncheon; hot-eels or pea-soup, flanked by a potato 'all hot,' serve for a dinner; and cakes and tarts, or nuts and oranges, with many varieties of pastry, confectionery, and fruit, woo to indulgence in a dessert; while for supper there is a sandwich, a meat pudding, or a 'trotter.'
In the middle years of the century, there were literally thousands of street sellers of food and drink. Mayhew estimated that there were 500 sellers of Pea-Soup and Hot Eels, alone and 300 sellers of Fried Fish. Prices were such that all but the very poorest might eat. For example, a half-penny serve of hot eels might consist of 5 to 7 small pieces with ¾ of a cup of liquid while for the same price, one might have a pint of pea soup.
Street sellers of food and drink provided refreshment, too, for those who were looking to buy the variety of other goods available at the kerbside. There one might find the vendor of matches, farthing windmills, flowers, shirt-studs, animals, fruit, vegetables, paper flags and all the needs of the poor resident in a large metropolis. Not only were there goods to be bought to separate the consumer from his or her shillings and pence, there were games to be played and all sorts of amusements. George Sims, writing at the end of the Victorian era, commented that “ the weighing chair, the shooting gallery, and the try-your-strength machine are to be found by the pavement's edge.”
One of the most popular dishes sold on the streets was jellied eel or, as it was sometimes called, eel jelly. Cheap and nutritious it was a staple in the diet of the Victorian poor. The eels were chopped and boiled in fish stock with various herbs and spices. Their naturally gelatinous texture set the stock and they were ready to be marketed. For those who have never tasted them, the flavour is similar to rollmops.
I work from home now but when I went into an office I brought my own food every day for years. A good thermos of hot soup will keep all day, and bring some crackers with. I made my own Larabars for snacks, or nuts and dried fruit, peanut butter and celery sticks, apples or plums or kiwi. I would premake lunches on Sundays for the week, things like hummus with olives, sliced tomato, and quinoa (this would keep in a thermal food bag at my desk all day), or a wrap with wild rice, homemade mayo, chopped apple and raisins, onion, celery, or soba noodles with shredded carrots and bok choy. I didn't bother with the refrigerators in the breakroom because there was too much theft of food items, coolers, and lunch bags. I never had a problem keeping food at my desk in a thermos or thermal style lunch bag.
I remember in the 1970s my Dad used to drive home for lunch hour and eat, then go back to work sometimes.
Here’s my personal historical perspective…. Before fast food took over
Before 1970. Most women/wives/mothers did not work outside of the home .. 70-80% did not
After 1980, most young ladies were going to college and were independent.. which is great but 70-80% worked outside of the house
So mother/wife while working all week was not going to also come home and fix a meal that took a long time - she also had to pick up kids- bring kids to sports etc. ( evenings)
So quick meals became a necessity!!!
Not only did fast foods become very popular, the frozen foods at grocery stores exploded
… being microwaveable
Remember in the 50’s 60’s there was a baby boom .. mother was raising kids, and she also had time to cook … soups and stews and casseroles and pot roasts …
Also as a side note…. Because women were more independent ( financially) after the 80’s the divorce rates increased… ( she didn’t have to tolerate much of what her mother and grandmother did). Single parents… trying to balance work and family… fast food is a necessity!!
I love some fast foods
But try to avoid it … too many carbs
So I Try to cook proteins on Sunday for the following weeks lunches and dinners
I’ve filled my freezer with the .47lb turkeys on sale now … going to cook for soup and pies
I bought pork butts for .99 lb on sale and boneless chicken breasts for 1.99 lb so cook ahead plan ahead … not only healthier but cheaper if you buy the loss leaders at grocery stores
There were places you could get a fast burger/fries before McDonald's came on the scene. I remember going to one with three friends, we all had burgers, fries, and a milk shake and ate it in the car. A McDonald's is there now, almost in the same spot. There were hot dog stands and trucks too, my family used to own one.
Remember early cartoon Popeye's Wimpy and his hamburger stand? That was when; in the '20s or '30s?
I remember in the 1970s my Dad used to drive home for lunch hour and eat, then go back to work sometimes.
My father also drove home for lunch, which my homemaker mother would have prepared. I walked home for lunch in first grade (with other kids) when we lived just blocks away from our neighborhood school. And my mother - before marriage - used to walk a mile to work in the morning (uphill) often in the snow, back down a mile home for lunch, back up another mile after lunch, back down a mile home after work, back uptown a mile for bowling or a movie with friends (they would often stop at the diner/cafeteria for a snack afterwards), then finally back down a final mile at night. No wonder she was so thin!
Remember early cartoon Popeye's Wimpy and his hamburger stand? That was when; in the '20s or '30s?
Wimpy was actually the first Americanised fast food chain in Britain opening in London in 1954.
The Wimpy brand was established in 1934 by American Edward Gold, when he opened his first location in Bloomington, Indiana, under the name Wimpy Grills. The name was inspired by the character of J. Wellington Wimpy from the Popeye cartoons created by E. C. Segar.
Whilst Wimpy failed to become that successful in the US with only 25 outlets in the Chicago area, it became popular overseas, and in 1954, Gold sold a licence to J. Lyons and Co. to use the Wimpy name in the United Kingdom.
Wimpy Grills Inc. of Chicago later formed a joint company with Lyons called Wimpy's International Inc. in 1957. Wimpy's International was based in Chicago and allowed the brand to operate Wimpy Grills in the rest of the world.
The first UK Wimpy 'BArs;opened in 1954 at the Lyons Corner House in Coventry Street, London. Its popularity led to separate Wimpy BArs, serving only hamburger-based meals. At the company's peak, in 1970, there were a thousand Wimpy restaurants across twenty-three countries.
Wimpy still exists and is owned by South African Famous Brands jho also own the likes of Steers and fellow British burger chain Gourmet Kitchen Burger (GBK), although Wimpy's high street presence is not as great as in it's heyday in the 1970's , which was before many other US fast food chains arrived in the UK and across the world.
It is quite strange that Americans don't seem to know that much regarding it's first successful international burger chain, and that everyone assumes that the first American international chains were the likes of KFC and McDonalds.
Last edited by Brave New World; 11-20-2022 at 07:43 AM..
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
