Major restaurants and stores not in your area?

[At Home]

In-N-Out, Hardee's, Sonic, Wendy's, Dunkin Donuts, Del Taco, White Castle, Krispee Creme (sometimes they are literally flown in from the mainland), and there is only one iHop. We have these places that serve plate lunches, which are essentially some kind of meat prepared in the lowest echelons of asian cooking, a scoop (as in ice cream scoop.) of rice and disgusting macaroni salad.

[Darthtiki]

Ruby Tuesday...closest one is in Nor-Cal until January when one will be in San Diego, which is still about 100 miles away

[Nighthawk]

In-N-Out is only in California, Nevada and Arizona, so that doesn't count. Everything good about In-N-Out, and nothing bad, and some bonus better things, is Whataburger. They are only southeast, but damn, that's a fine burger place.

[MarvinisaLunatic]

Bonanza Steakhouse still around anywhere?

 

We still have a couple of them around in the upper midwest. We also have their knockoff version Ponderosa as well.

 

Ponderosa and Bonanza are owned by the same company.

 

I got my R&I Mag with the top 400 Restaurant chains in the U.S. for 2006 based on sales and locations.

 

Top 10: (#) = Last year

 

1. McDonalds (1)Sales: $56.7 Billion / Locations 31,667

 

2. KFC (2) S: $14.2 Billion / L: 14,258

 

3. Burger King (3) S: $12.4 Billion / L: 11,129

 

4. Starbucks (7) S: $10.3 Billion / L: 12,440

 

5. Subway (5) S: $10 Billion / L: 26,893

 

6. Pizza Hut (4) S: $9.3 Billion / L: 12,685

 

7. Wendy's (6) S: $8.8 Billion / L: 6,673

 

8. Taco Bell (8) S: $6.5 Billion / L: 5,846

 

9. Domino's (9) S: $5.1 Billion / L: 8,366

 

10. Dunkin Donuts (11) S: $5 Billion / L: 7,293

 

Also of note, Wendy's is really getting hyped up for the wider launch of their Breakfast Menu in early 2008, with some stores already offering breakfast now.

 

If anyone wants to know where a particular chain restaurant is on the list (probably needs more than 20 locations although there are a few with less) just ask..

[At Home]

Oh by the way, everyone, Starbucks has decided to open 4 locations in this forum.

[MarvinisaLunatic]

Oh by the way, everyone, Starbucks has decided to open 4 locations in this forum.

 

Starbucks locations increased 21% last year over 2005. But Subway increased its locations by almost 10% last year and I think they are actually on pace to pass McDonalds in number of locations by the end of the decade as long as they continue on their same pace.

[Nighthawk]

Oh man, Wendy's breakfast is gonna be sweet.

[MarvinisaLunatic]

Wendy's signature breakfast item will be the Buttermilk Frescuit - a special type of biscuit that features egg, cheese and choice of sausage, hickory-smoked bacon or ham. The frescuit is square and made specifically to hold together and not crumble apart as easily as regular biscuits making it a neater on the go breakfast option.

 

The rest of their breakfast sandwiches will be on kaiser rolls which I find odd.

 

 

[CanadianChris]

We don't have an Arby's here, which pisses me off. Nearest one in Canada is nearly 2 hours away. I get cravings for a Chicken Bacon Swiss too often for it to be so far away.

 

We don't have a Dunkin Donuts anymore, either. Tim Horton's just plain drove them out of business. We must have about 50 Tim's in Ottawa, including satellites. It's getting a little out of hand.

[treble]

I think there are 2 Arby's in Peterborough, but I'm not sure if I've seen one anywhere else. Maybe in Toronto somewhere.

 

We don't have a Taco Bell anymore, they moved a few years ago and it was converted into another Tim Horton's. I hadn't gone there in years, though, so it didn't really bother me.

[Guest •]

I don't gots no Waffle House, but I think I'd get sick of it anyway.

[World's Worst Man]

There's an Arby's in Mississauga, about five minutes from my house. We pretty much have every big time fast-food joint around here, it's pretty nice. Only thing missing is a drive-through Dairy Queen, as the nearest one is about 25 minutes away.

[CanadianChris]

I think there are 2 Arby's in Peterborough, but I'm not sure if I've seen one anywhere else. Maybe in Toronto somewhere.

There's one in Kingston that looks like it's about to close down every time we visit it. There are a few in Toronto, mostly in shopping malls, I think. I know the Eaton Centre and Fairway Park Mall both have one.

[Your Paragon of Virtue]

I'm not as big a fast food guy as I was as a kid, but I have to say I wouldn't mind having most of the restaurants mentioned in this thread. Being in Canada almost all of the ones mentioned we don't have.

 

I don't know why people are defending Arby's; it's utter shit. Go to a deli if you want some good coldcuts, but there is a reason their sandwiches are like 5 for $3.

 

Something I'd like to have more of around where I am is Lick's, luckily though there's one near my work.

 

In Montreal, there's no Taco Bell or KFC (that whole conglomerate) but hey, late night poutine wherever you want!

[CanadianGuitarist]

Something I'd like to have more of around where I am is Lick's, luckily though there's one near my work.

 

I thought they were all done, save the Yonge St. location?

[Your Paragon of Virtue]

Nope, there's one near York Mills and Don Mills.

[CanadianGuitarist]

Awesome. There should be bajillions more.

 

Coupled with the short drive to the Falls, there's really nothing around here we don't have.

[King Kamala]

Arby's is O.K. I like the chicken tenders, curly fries and Jamocha Shakes (or whatever the hell they're called) but the roast beef sandwiches are shit. Which is kind of odd since that's Arby's bread and butter.

[CanadianChris]

Yeah, I don't know why anyone would touch the roast beef at Arby's. My wife really like it, though.

[Red Baron]

Arby's in the States are 10000x better than the ones in Canada.

[CanadianChris]

I've never been able to tell the difference. But I only go there for the chicken.

[Red Baron]

Mainly the better deal as well. The five for $5.95 deal is amazing, and you aren't getting ripped off like here in Canada.

[CanadianGuitarist]

It's not an ipso-facto rip off, but it certainly is by comparison (it's typically 3 for 595 in Canada).

 

Oh well. As VX said in CWDWAT, our beer makes up for it.

[alfdogg]

What are we defining as "in your area"?

[Guest Vitamin X]

Anywhere that you don't mind driving to for a bite to eat that's not too far from home. I guess that's kind of subjective, but I'd say around 15-20 miles maximum.

[alfdogg]

In that range, that eliminates pretty much everything mentioned in this thread. We do have White Castle, Ponderosa, Popeye's (I think), Hardee's, Waffle House and Ruby Tuesday. And Starbucks, but I don't drink coffee.

 

I thought I had seen a Sonic here at one point, but after looking at the Google maps it appears the closest one is in Kokomo.

 

Who here has a Culver's? Checking said maps, it looks like a Great Lakes-region chain, though I did spot a few in Texas. I have one right by where I work, and get a 10% discount. Good shit, Culver's.

Edited July 20, 2007 by alfdogg

[Guest Vitamin X]

what about a Chipotle? Eh? EH?

[Nighthawk]

Oh man, you know where I forgot about that I really like? Steak N Shake.

[alfdogg]

Baskin-Robbins we don't have, I forgot about that one. We used to have a couple of them but they closed. Also, Grindstone Charley's, I'm not sure how big of a chain that is, but ours just closed last year. We do have a Steak & Shake, though.

[King Kamala]

I miss Blimpie's. We used to have two or three of them but they're now all gone. I don't care if they're a poor man's Subway, I used to love that place.