Local/regional fast food chains you wish were nationwide?

[dlsterner]

Watching the Denver Broncos home game on NFL Network, and I see the Denver home broadcast has Culver's as a sponsor.

I consider Culver's to be national now. Strong presences in the Four Corners states, and Florida now has the third-most locations behind Wisconsin and Illinois.

https://www.culvers.com/locator/view-all-locations

Missing the both the northeast and the Pacific coast, I think Culver's still has a way to go to be national.  From where I am, it's probably a few hundred miles to the nearest Culver's.  I've been to a few and wish there was one closer.

[ZLoth]

https://www.culvers.com/locator/view-all-locations

Missing the both the northeast and the Pacific coast, I think Culver's still has a way to go to be national.  From where I am, it's probably a few hundred miles to the nearest Culver's.  I've been to a few and wish there was one closer.

I put Culvers in the same category as Carl's Jr... they may serve good food (Culvers is better than Carl's Jr), but I don't think it's really worth a 30-45 minute drive from where I live. Same with Jimboy's Tacos here in DFW.

[andrepoiy]

In Canada, I wish there was a good competitor to Tim Hortons. Tim Hortons effectively wiped out the chains that were there before (Coffee Time, Country Style) and Dunkin' Donuts wasn't able to compete with Tim's.

The reason is that Tim's is very mediocre and I believe that has to do with the fact that they have little competition in their field.

McDonald's Canada has indeed taken away some market share from Tim's in coffee in recent years, but other things like donuts, pastries and sandwiches, there isn't really a big competitor.

7-Eleven

To answer the thread's question though, I wish there were more 7-Eleven in eastern Canada. 7-Elevens here generally have the cheapest gas prices.
In Canada, most of 7-Eleven's market share is in the West. In the east, most convenience store market share is taken by Couche-Tard (which owns the Circle K brand).

It's kind of funny, when you drive in Western NY, you can find 7-Elevens almost anywhere, but the moment you cross the border, you have to put in effort to search for 7-Eleven if you wanted to visit one.

E.g.: Niagara Falls, NY: 10 7-Elevens. Niagara Falls, ON: 2 7-Elevens.

[wriddle082]

Looks like I'm not gonna have to travel to Jacksonville or Atlanta to get Whataburger for very much longer.  They are now planning two in the Columbia, SC area.  One was previously announced for Irmo (northwest suburb), and today they announced one for Red Bank, which is south of Lexington (western suburb), and less than 15 minutes from my house!!!    🍔

[bing101]

White Castle and Krystals they are big in some parts of the country but not known in California.

[jeffandnicole]

Only had a Krystal on Bourbon Street in NOLA. It's, well, White Castle.

[Flint1979]

White Castle and Krystals they are big in some parts of the country but not known in California.

It'd be nice if they weren't known anywhere.

[kphoger]

I've only been to White Castle twice.

The first time was in 2003.  A young lady and I had met online a couple of months earlier, and I was on my way to see her in person for the first time.  A friend from work and I went and bought some flowers and a vase to put them in, and some vodka and cranberry juice to take back to my apartment and drink before I headed out.  After four drinks, I had him drop me off at the Metra station in Wheaton, IL.  I took Metra to Oak Park, transferred to the Green Line L, then transferred to the Blue Line at Clark/Lake, got out at Clinton, and walked to the Greyhound station.  My bus left Chicago at 1 AM and got to Saint Louis a few hours later.  Back in those days, the Greyhound station was at 13th & Cass, which I now know isn't exactly the best neighborhood to be in at 4:30 in the morning.  Not knowing that at the time, I walked out of the station in the pre-dawn darkness with my suitcase and vase of flowers, looking to see where I could grab some breakfast before transferring to my next bus to Springfield, MO.  A homeless man spotted me and quickly hobbled across the deserted street to me.  'What are you doing out here at this time of night?' he exclaimed.  He pointed down the street a block or two.  'See those boys down there?  Those are my nephews, and I can tell you, they're up to no good.'  He offered me protection to and from the 24-hour White Castle a mile up the road, in exchange for my buying him breakfast there.  So we walked up there together, had breakfast, and then headed back to the bus station.  I don't remember the breakfast food there being noteworthy in any way—neither very good nor very bad.  It was just... well, it was breakfast.  By the time of our return, dawn was breaking, but I still had an hour or so before my next bus.  In my boredom waiting, I went outside again to stretch my legs and get some sunlight.  Apparently, word of my breakfast run had spread around the neighborhood, and a man approached me and asked if I would mind accompanying him to the store to buy him a few grocery items, because he couldn't afford it.  So I did.  On the way back, some young ladies asked if I would mind going with them to the thrift store and buying some secondhand clothes for their kids.  It could see things were getting rather out of hand at that point, and my bus would be arriving soon, so I declined and headed back to the station.  When I arrived at Springfield, my lady was waiting for me in her car at the bus station, which at that time was on E. Kearney.  It was in the parking lot there that she and I first laid eyes on each other.  We've now been married for 17½ years and have three sons.

The second time was just some random day when she and I had my daughter (from a previous relationship) for the week-end, and we grabbed lunch at the White Castle at North Ave. and Gary Ave. in Carol Stream, IL.  That was the first time I'd ever had their sliders.  I remember them tasting rather different, seeming rather cheaply produced, but otherwise not bad.  They weren't exactly my favorite burger, but also not something that deserved the amount of disdain some people seemed to have for them.  They were just cheap burgers with a distinctive flavor.

[Flint1979]

Regarding White Castle, my dad and I had gone to a White Sox game in Chicago. We had got a hotel in a rather seedy area in Lansing, IL not MI and I was kind of hungry it was around midnight and I was like let's go to the Denny's up in Cal City right by IL-83 and US-6. This was in 2011-2012ish and I thought all Denny's were open 24 hours, well this one closes at midnight so I thought there about to close I'm not going to try to eat here right now. Right after I decided against going to Denny's I spotted a White Castle and thought ok I'll try this. It was the first time I had ever ate at a White Castle and to date is the last time I ate at one as well. I thought the sliders tasted like an overwhelming taste of onions and not much else and I didn't like it but settled on it since I was tired, hungry and just wanted to go back to my hotel.

Also word of advice in that area, don't ever stay at any of the cheap hotels at the Torrance Avenue exit. I know the Motel 6 and Red Roof Inn are pretty bad.

[kphoger]

I thought the sliders tasted like an overwhelming taste of onions and not much else

Probably why I didn't mind them.  I love, love, love onions.

[GCrites]

Regarding White Castle, my dad and I had gone to a White Sox game in Chicago. We had got a hotel in a rather seedy area in Lansing, IL not MI and I was kind of hungry it was around midnight and I was like let's go to the Denny's up in Cal City right by IL-83 and US-6. This was in 2011-2012ish and I thought all Denny's were open 24 hours, well this one closes at midnight so I thought there about to close I'm not going to try to eat here right now. Right after I decided against going to Denny's I spotted a White Castle and thought ok I'll try this. It was the first time I had ever ate at a White Castle and to date is the last time I ate at one as well. I thought the sliders tasted like an overwhelming taste of onions and not much else and I didn't like it but settled on it since I was tired, hungry and just wanted to go back to my hotel.

Also word of advice in that area, don't ever stay at any of the cheap hotels at the Torrance Avenue exit. I know the Motel 6 and Red Roof Inn are pretty bad.

The late 2000s-early 2010s downturn was the beginning of the end for a lot of businesses being 24-hour. By the mid-2010s many were back to 24H but as the late 2010s pressed on it began to decline again as the oversupplied Millennial labor market became less oversupplied. Then COVID.

[NWI_Irish96]

Regarding White Castle, my dad and I had gone to a White Sox game in Chicago. We had got a hotel in a rather seedy area in Lansing, IL not MI and I was kind of hungry it was around midnight and I was like let's go to the Denny's up in Cal City right by IL-83 and US-6. This was in 2011-2012ish and I thought all Denny's were open 24 hours, well this one closes at midnight so I thought there about to close I'm not going to try to eat here right now. Right after I decided against going to Denny's I spotted a White Castle and thought ok I'll try this. It was the first time I had ever ate at a White Castle and to date is the last time I ate at one as well. I thought the sliders tasted like an overwhelming taste of onions and not much else and I didn't like it but settled on it since I was tired, hungry and just wanted to go back to my hotel.

Also word of advice in that area, don't ever stay at any of the cheap hotels at the Torrance Avenue exit. I know the Motel 6 and Red Roof Inn are pretty bad.

That area is about 2 miles from my house.

[tmoore952]

Having read all of the posts (and hungry as a result since it's near my dinnertime) -

I would say Five Guys and Mission BBQ.
And both for similar reasons -- they offer vinegar as a condiment. Vinegar as a dip for pulled pork or pulled chicken in the case of Mission BBQ. Malt vinegar for fries in the case of Five Guys. I fell in love with that when in the UK.

Now yes, I have bought malt vinegar in the past for home consumption. It took us at least 10 years to go through the bottle, since it was only used when we made fries at home.

I'm married, and my wife likes both places also -- but I will say that being married does provide a built-in incentive to eat somewhat healthy, and also to not do take-out all the time in order to save money, and as a result these places are not frequented as often by us together as I probably would do if I were still single, but I will heartily partake (and spend accordingly) when we do decide to go.
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I have had In-N-Out burgers on two occasions when in San Diego. I thought they were good. I don't remember much else about the experience. Not sure if I had their shakes.