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Today many of us take easy access to fast food for granted. But not so long ago, people considered those first menu items to be weird and occasionally dangerous. The first restaurant chain that thankfully changed the public’s perceptions, allowing fast food to flourish, still sells burgers and fries today. Edgar Waldo “Billy” Ingram and Walter Anderson opened White Castle (yes, the White Castle) in 1921 in Wichita, KS. Back in those days, burgers weren’t just considered unhealthy, though. A lot of consumers thought fast food hamburgers were like poison!
Ingram and Anderson dealt with the sandwich’s poor image by holding their employees and stores to high standards of cleanliness. They made every surface and the uniforms gleam. They also let customers customize their 5¢ burgers.
Those changes helped people fall in love with the White Castle fare. Then a twist of fate really put fast food on the map… specifically, the road map. In the early 1940s and after World War II, cars became more affordable. That lead to the advent of both the drive-in and the drive-thru. These kinds of restaurants created a demand for faster service, as drivers wanted to get back on the road quickly. It was the McDonald brothers who pushed the fast food industry into high gear with their creation of the Speedee System food assembly line. In 1948, Richard and Maurice McDonald reopened what had been a barbecue drive-in, this time as a burger restaurant named (you guessed it) McDonald’s. Unlike all the other burger joints, their location didn’t use specially trained short order chefs to get their meals out hot and fast.
Their decision revolutionized the fast food industry that White Castle previously kick-started. Now nearly every fast-food chain follows that model. Here are some of the first menu items that got those restaurants started.
It’s not just Harold and Kumar who think White Castle food is iconic. In 2014, TIME ranked the White Castle slider as the most influential burger of all time, placing it above the McDonald’s burger (which ranked second) and the In-N-Out burger (which ranked third). It was definitely a case of David beating Goliath. Those original five-cent White Castle burgers were so cheap because they were so small! According to the White Castle website, their first burgers were small, square, served with onions and pickle, and sold by the sack. The company follows a similar format today.
In 1927, John Fremont McCollough (AKA Grandpa) and his son H.C. McCullough started the Homemade Ice Cream Co. in Davenport, IO. They moved the business to Green River, IL, in the early ’30s and convinced a friend and customer, Sherb Noble, to do a trial of a new soft dessert they created. Noble agreed to do a sample sale on August 4, 1938, charging 10 cents for all customers could eat within two hours. He made 1,600 sales. This warm reception inspired Noble, and he opened the first Dairy Queen in Joliet, IL, in 1940. By 1947, there were 100 stores; by 1949, they started serving malts and shakes. It took another 36 years, however, for the Blizzard to debut in 1985.
It takes patience to fry the perfect chicken, and Harland Sanders certainly had that. Born in Indiana in 1890, he learned to cook by age seven, since he had to look after his two younger siblings. It was 40 years later after a slew of odd jobs that Sanders opened a service station in Corbin, KY. He pumped gas and served classic Southern dishes. Soon the food earned more popularity than the gas, so he converted it all to a restaurant. In 1936, Kentucky Governor Ruby Laffoon made Sanders an honorary colonel in recognition of his services to Kentucky cuisine. Three years later, the Colonel hit upon the mix of 11 herbs and spices and fried everything in what used to be called a pressure cooker. That made his chicken famous.
When the first McDonald’s opened in 1948, the menu was short and sweet. You could buy coffee, hot chocolate, orange-ade, root beer or Coca Cola for 10 cents each while eating a 15-cent hamburger or 19-cent cheeseburger with a side of French fries. The menu stayed pretty much the same for the next few years, but gained some extra adjectives in 1953. Then it was called “The Amazing Menu,” and it served Tempting Cheeseburgers and Triple-Thick Shakes. It wasn’t until the Filet-o-Fish became a nationwide fixture in 1965, followed by the Big Mac in 1967, that McDonald’s expanded the menu.
Although the title for the first drive-thru restaurant is hotly contested, In-N-Out might win most beloved drive-thru at least in six states (but Colorado is getting their first location in 2020). The first one opened in 1948 in a suburb of Los Angeles, CA. Owner Harry Snyder and his wife Esther ran the stall day and night, refusing to compromise on quality by using only fresh beef, fresh potatoes, and real ice cream in the milkshakes.
While the company insisted the menu stayed the same since those early days, customers found their own ways to improvise. They created a not-so-secret secret menu of customizable options. The most popular crowd-sourced burger is done animal style. The patty is fried in mustard and topped with extra Thousand Island dressing and grilled onions. In-N-Out does acknowledge the burger, but it’s still fun to feel like you’re indulging in a secret.
Dunkin’ Donuts created a Twitter meltdown when they announced plans to drop the “Donut” part of their name in 2018. Yet the company didn’t even start with that name. William Rosen opened his first shop in 1948 in Quincy, MA, under the name Open Kettle. He first served coffee, pastries, and sandwiches. Back in those days, a cup of coffee cost 10 cents, and each donut was five cents. In 1950 Rosen saw the light and renamed it Dunkin’ Donuts. While most donut shops sold only four or five kinds, Rosen opened with an impressive 52.
The car industry boom in the 1940s helped inspire the drive-thru restaurant concept. So in 1951, businessman Robert O. Peterson opened his drive-thru restaurant, Jack in the Box, on the east-west road leading into the city of San Diego, CA. According to early adverts, the company first served hamburgers for 18 cents, jumbo shrimp with fries for 59 cents, and thick malt shakes for 22 cents. Shortly after opening, the restaurant added tacos. They fried the beef inside the tortilla and then added fillings. Don’t try to copy this process, though; it’s patented. Although the tacos remained a controversial menu item ever since, the company reportedly sells 554 million a year.
Sonic Drive-In is known for its coneys, rollerskating servers, and cult favorite cake batter shakes, but it was supposed to be a much fancier affair. Sonic founder Troy Smith had two failed restaurants already in 1953, when he bought a five-acre piece of land on the edge of Shawnee, OK. The property coincidentally contained a root beer, burger, and hot dog stand. Smith wanted to tear down the stand, which was called Top Hat, and run a steakhouse. However, he noticed how much drivers enjoyed the little food stop. They pulled up, parked, ordered, and ate in their cars.
Consequently, Smith installed an intercom system and a canopy. Then he hired those famous rollerskating servers. He more than doubled the money that first week, taking in $1,750. That persuaded him to sacrifice steaks for burgers. In addition to the food, customers received a mint with their order, symbolizing they were “worth a mint.”
The Burger King origin story started in 1953. A man named Keith G. Kramer (or Cramer, according to some sources) bought the rights to a machine called the Insta-Broiler; it had enough space to cook 12 burger patties at once and 400 in an hour. The meat rested in a wire basket so both sides cooked at the same time. The cooked patties then slid into a vat of sauce and could be slapped into a toasted bun.
Kramer/Cramer opened Insta-Burger King in Jacksonville, FL, and sold his burgers for 18 cents along with milkshakes. In 1954, he sold the restaurant to James McLamore and David R. Edgerton, Jr. They moved the operation to Miami, FL, renamed it Burger King, and switched to the flame broiling method the restaurant prefers today. Perhaps their best move came in 1957 when they invented the Whopper. Even though it cost a whopping 37 cents — 22 cents more than McDonald’s burgers — it became their signature product.
The idea of ordering a hot dog from Little Caesars seems almost barbaric to many modern people. But when the very first restaurant opened in 1959, in Garden City, MI, under the name Little Caesars Pizza Treat, they hadn’t quite found their niche. The Little Ceasars original also served chicken, shrimp, and fish. Married couple Mike and Marian Ilitch ran that spot and invested their life savings into the venture. According to the couple’s records, they sold 49 pizzas on the very first day. Even after the restaurant started to open franchises in 1962, that original shop stayed open. It finally closed in October of 2018.
Okay, technically Taco Bell (as we know it) didn’t sell hot dogs. Glen Bell, the founder of the store that bears his surname, sold them. Actually, he founded many stores that shared his surname. In the 1950s, Bell owned a series of less-than-revolutionary fast food restaurants in San Bernardino, CA, including Bell’s Drive-In and Bell’s Hamburgers and Hot Dogs. It was from this latter restaurant that he started selling hard-shell tacos to set himself apart from his rivals — another San Bernardino joint called McDonald’s.
Throughout the 1950s, Bell invested in a few taco stores. In 1962 he opened his own, unsurprisingly calling it Taco Bell. The first franchise owner, Kermit Becky, signed up in 1964. Two years ago, the Huffington Post published a photo of Becky with his store and a hand-painted menu. From this, we know people could order frijoles, tostadas, chili burgers, burritos (with green or red sauce) and, of course, tacos. Everything cost 19 cents each. For drinks, they offered coffee, coke, root beer, and orange soda. Soon after, Taco Bell added the Bellburger, which was taco meat in a burger bun, served with mild sauce, grated cheese, and sometimes lettuce and tomato. The simple but delicious menu worked. By 1967, Bell had 100 stores.
That’s why brothers Leroy and Forrest Raffel decided to do something different. They opened their first Arby’s, complete with the cowboy hat neon sign, in Boardman, OH, on July 23, 1964. The duo claimed the name stood for Raffel Brothers, but some rumors suggested that it actually stood for “roast beef.” From the very first day, Arby’s served roast beef sandwiches, potato chips, and huge iced teas — and their still-famous Jamocha shakes combined chocolate and coffee.
But Subway has the most locations. In 2017, they had 25,908 stores in the U.S. McDonald’s had 14,036. The feat is especially impressive because the Subway founders didn’t have any restaurant experience. The chain was co-founded in August of 1965 by a 17-year-old boy and a physics doctor. Teen Fred DeLuca wanted to make some dough before college. His business partner and investor, Peter Buck, was a family friend.
Pete’s Super Submarines opened in Bridgeport, CT, selling the freshly made submarine sandwiches we all know by smell today. The pair renamed the restaurant Subway in 1968 and kept opening stores. By 1974, they had 16 stores in Connecticut and decided to franchise.
Wendy’s was not, in fact, founded by Wendy; her father created the chain! Dave Thomas worked in restaurants from his early teens, going from busboy to cook. In 1954, his employer bought a KFC. In 1962, Thomas got the opportunity to turn around four failing KFC franchises in Columbus, OH. He turned them around alright.
Seven years after that, he took all that experience and struck out on his own. The first Wendy’s Old Fashioned Hamburgers restaurant opened in Columbus in 1969, serving chili, French fries, soft drinks, a Frosty Dairy Dessert, and hamburgers made with square patties. Thomas said the square represented the fact that his establishment didn’t cut corners, but he didn’t come up with the concept. As a child in Kalamazoo, MI, he grew up eating at Kewpee Burger, another chain with square patties.
There’s nothing like competition to inspire a new business, but it didn’t quite work out the first time around for Alvin C. Copeland Sr., a serial entrepreneur and former doughnut seller. In 1972, he opened the delightfully-named Chicken on the Run in the New Orleans, LA, suburb of Arabi. It was an attempt to compete with KFC, a chain that had a 30-year head start.
The venture failed pretty quickly, but Copeland didn’t give up; he tried again later that same year. The businessman renamed the restaurant Popeyes Mighty Good Fried Chicken after a character from 1971 hit movie The French Connection (not the spinach-swigging animated figure, although the Popeye cartoon later appeared in the chain’s commercials). Then he switched to selling New Orleans-style spicy chicken. It was a hit with the heat-loving locals, and in 1976, Copeland opened his first franchise. It wasn’t until 1983 that Popeyes introduced their super popular buttermilk biscuits around the same time as KFC.
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