Severe lack of fast food options in this area (Charlottesville: sales, houses)

[queenswake]

I've never understood why people with money do not see the amazing potential to open franchises here. So many areas have nothing but McDonalds and Subway. Burger Kings and Taco Bells are few and far between. Same with Arby's. KFCs are often not convenient to get to. Why no Arby's/Sbarro or A&W/KFC shared buildings? Why no Little Ceasars ($5 large pizza that you don't have to pre-order would be a goldmine here)? I'm glad that Panda Express has been opening up more stand-alone locations. And there are so many more new fast casual concepts that haven't even made it here yet.

Newer built-out areas in the far suburbs seem to have more options, but why hasn't that happened closer in? There is a huge need and they are guaranteed money makers. Ever see the lines for the Taco Bell/KFC in Kingstowne? I wonder why existing franchise owners don't try to open up more.

Such a mystery to me...

[pcity]

Little Caesars is, to my knowledge, not in this part of the country. They closed up shop in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic many years ago.

S'barros is bankrupt so you probably won't see them open any new locations soon.

Since you specifically mentioned "closer-in" suburbs, I think the problem there is that they're totally built out. Any new restaurants have to replace old ones, which drives rents higher, which pushes out fast-food operators that have to operate on low margins. Down in, say, Prince William County, land is cheaper, building is easier, and it doesn't take quite as much in sales to survive.

[Fleur~de~lis]

Just read on the McAlister's Deli website that they're opening a location in Herndon. Not sure when, but I'm excited about it - great food & the very best iced tea.
Aside from the Front Royal location, looks like the Herndon shop is their first venture into NoVA - I hope they are successful!
McAlister's Deli | Restaurants

[gutter2d]

We need White Castles and Rallys!!!

My fast food favorites here are Moby Dick and Five Guys. I think the area has a decent collection of fast food places. We definitely got Mexican covered with Baja Fresh, Taco Bell, Qdoba, and Chipotle (I'm a fan of all 4). DC is a very active city so there is little demand for fast-food closer to the city. Overall what this area lacks is good sit-down restaurants when compared to ever other major city and even most smaller cities.

[HereinVA]

Originally Posted by gutter2d

We need White Castles and Rallys!!!

My fast food favorites here are Moby Dick and Five Guys. I think the area has a decent collection of fast food places. We definitely got Mexican covered with Baja Fresh, Taco Bell, Qdoba, and Chipotle (I'm a fan of all 4).

What I wish we could find around here, as far as Mexican food, are those 24 hour Taco shops they have all around the San Diego area. You know, they usually have names like Albertos, Robertos, Norbertos... They usually look a bit grungy, but are huge portions for cheap prices and taste soooooo good at 1 am!

[Bigfoot424]

Personally I wish all fast food places would go away. I've eaten in my fair share all my life but decided a year ago to seriously curtail eating at them. I think I've eaten at 2 Burger King's since then out of necessity. Our obesity problem in this country is growing (no pun intended) and the fast food places are not helping. I don't want to dictate where people can eat but with fewer fast food places I think we'll only benefit.

[ersatz]

When I was a kid Western Sizzlin and Ponderosa Steakhouses were all over the local area. Now the closest Sizzlin is in Charlottesville and the closest Ponderosa is in Chambersburg PA. What happened? I guess there's Outback but that just doesn't hit the same spot for me.

[Alicia Bradley]

Yeah, fast food (however you may personally view it) is yet another 'cuisine' (or type of restaurant, anyway) with an inexplicable lack of presence here. Really, most large cities' suburbs just have more restaurants, period, than does NoVA.. granted, space is undoubtedly one of the area's challenges in this regard. As the OP noted, there's certainly no shortage of McDonald's or Subway locations in NoVA, but Taco Bell, other fast-food (and undoubtedly sub-mediocre, but available at 3:00 am!) Mexican chains, Arby's, Burger King, random sub sandwich concepts, etc. are relatively few and far between. Sure, individual locations of these chains *exist* in NoVA, but you just see fewer in general than you would even in the suburbs of other large cities in this same (Mid-Atlantic) region. Maybe this is a point in NoVA's favor, I dunno.. but I have certainly noticed it.

Originally Posted by Bigfoot424

Personally I wish all fast food places would go away. I've eaten in my fair share all my life but decided a year ago to seriously curtail eating at them. I think I've eaten at 2 Burger King's since then out of necessity. Our obesity problem in this country is growing (no pun intended) and the fast food places are not helping. I don't want to dictate where people can eat but with fewer fast food places I think we'll only benefit.

I honestly think *most* of the eating responsible for all American obesity cases viewed as one huge (ouch.. no pun intended) data set is the bingeing that takes place in the privacy of people's own homes (or even cubes/workspaces, sometimes). Our sense of scale governing what constitutes a *normal* amount of food to be eaten for <snack1/snack2/lunch/snack3/before-bed snack/whatever> has gotten really out-of-whack. Obviously, not helping is that the number of calories in the typical McDonald's combo meal (for instance) - not to mention the typical Great American Restaurant (Coastal Flats, whatever) special - far exceeds what anyone should be consuming in one sitting. But people are WAY more likely to be irresponsible (with eating or any other behavior) to ridiculously egregious degrees in private than in public.

[dkf747]

Originally Posted by pcity

Little Caesars is, to my knowledge, not in this part of the country. They closed up shop in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic many years ago.

Nope. They're still around. I got a pizza from them a few days ago.

[Megadell]

Last thing we need is more crap overpriced processed food.