Local/regional fast food chains you wish were nationwide?

[sprjus4]

Honestly, I never found In-N-Out's burgers to be anything impressive. I ate there a few times a couple years back when I visited California, and I've had it a few times in San Antonio, and it just seemed like any other burger to me. Whataburger on the other hand, beats standard McDonald's or Wendy's any day IMHO.

[planxtymcgillicuddy]

Honestly, I never found In-N-Out's burgers to be anything impressive. I ate there a few times a couple years back when I visited California, and I've had it a few times in San Antonio, and it just seemed like any other burger to me. Whataburger on the other hand, beats standard McDonald's or Wendy's any day IMHO.

I'm definitely gonna have to try Whataburger. There's a handful that's popped up in the Charlotte vicinity, but I didn't know they had. Will definitely give it a shot next time I'm down Charlotte way!

[KEVIN_224]

The one local chain I was love to see take off is Nardelli's.  Great fresh sandwich shop and you get your $$'s worth compared to Subway, plus the meat is sliced fresh and it's like a small deli with some of the offerings.

I walk by one in Cromwell (CT) nearly every day. It's in a big shopping plaza across from a Walmart Supercenter. Do they have any in Hartford County? I've only seen this one, one in Waterbury and maybe closer to New Haven.

[sprjus4]

Honestly, I never found In-N-Out's burgers to be anything impressive. I ate there a few times a couple years back when I visited California, and I've had it a few times in San Antonio, and it just seemed like any other burger to me. Whataburger on the other hand, beats standard McDonald's or Wendy's any day IMHO.

I'm definitely gonna have to try Whataburger. There's a handful that's popped up in the Charlotte vicinity, but I didn't know they had. Will definitely give it a shot next time I'm down Charlotte way!

The What-A-Burger that's up this way is not the same chain as the Whataburger in Florida, Alabama, Texas, and a couple other states. I've never personally tried What-A-Burger, but I can guarantee you they're different companies and have their own styles of making food.

[doorknob60]

In-N-Out: No explanation needed. Good, consistent food for a great price. Don't overhype it and expect it to compare with a $15 burger, but for the price it's hard to beat.

Culver's: Honestly not sure if I like Culver's or In-N-Out more, both are great. Culver's does have a location near me now, but just barely.

Dunkin: Hear me out. I know they act like a national brand. But they don't have any locations in the Northwest (Idaho, Washington, Oregon, probably others). And I like them way better than Starbucks and Tim Horton's. Would be towards the top of my fast food breakfast choices (along with McDonalds and a local bagel shop) if they opened here.

Super Deluxe: Only 2 locations, in Portland, and I've only been there once. But I'd describe them as similar to In-N-Out, and I could see them expanding some around Oregon and beyond and doing well.

Dick's: Pretty much the same thing I said above, except in the Seattle area and they've been around a lot longer.

Have not had the opportunity to try Whataburger, Shake Shack, or a lot of the other popular regional chains yet, though. Burgerville is a regional chain worth mentioning and I like it but not quite as good as the ones above IMO.

[jp the roadgeek]

The one local chain I was love to see take off is Nardelli's.  Great fresh sandwich shop and you get your $$'s worth compared to Subway, plus the meat is sliced fresh and it's like a small deli with some of the offerings.

I walk by one in Cromwell (CT) nearly every day. It's in a big shopping plaza across from a Walmart Supercenter. Do they have any in Hartford County? I've only seen this one, one in Waterbury and maybe closer to New Haven.

There's one on Queen St (CT 10) in Southington across from Price Chopper that's been there for a few years.  They opened one in Farmington near the Five Corners (US 6/Fienemann Rd/Birdseye Rd) a little under a year ago.  There's also one on the East Hartford/Glastonbury town line on Main St.

[ftballfan]

Raising Cane's gets my vote.  To their credit, they have expanded nicely but there is a lot of map to cover before they are a Big Time Player.

They get my vote as well. Stopped at one in Ohio on my way to Kings Island this past summer. They go as far north as Chicago.

[vdeane]

Burger King's parent (Restaurant Brands International) apparently has been making some effort to push cross-branding. A few years ago, I was surprised to see billboards on US 15 north of Harrisburg proclaiming "Tim Hortons - Now Open" . I stopped to find a Sheetz-sized convenience store, half of which was occupied by a fairly standard Burger King. The other side was a garden-variety convenience store. In this case, "Tim Horton's"  was a small plexiglass cabinet haphazardly stocked with about five varieties of donuts and a couple types of Timbits–all of which were hopelessly stale. Beside the cabinet were a couple of carafes of burnt coffee bearing the Tim Hortons logo–just to round out the experience. I packed some Timbits into a box and took it up to the convenience store's register where a sour-faced woman silently took my card and gave me a receipt. The experience was completely devoid of nearly everything that makes Tim Hortons special to me.

That is an issue with Tim Hortons in the US.  One year I searched for them on Google Maps as I was thinking of getting Mom a gift card for Christmas only to have a bunch of Tops locations show up instead.

[Scott5114]

Speaking of Tim Horton's, I'm surprised sister restaurant Burger King hasn't added its coffee to its menu or offered Timbits as part of its breakfast menu.

Coffee would probably be doable (assuming it could be manufactured to work in the bagged coffee dispensers BK uses), but the typical Burger King doesn't have the equipment needed to cook donuts.

If anything, the lack of doing so is probably because BKC doesn't think the Tim Horton's brand is well-known enough in other parts of the US to bother marketing it alongside Burger King. Would advertising Tim Horton's coffee really draw people to the Burger King in Corpus Christi?

[dlsterner]

Roy Rogers - There are a handful here in the Maryland/Virginia area. Although I think peak market penetration was back in the 80's, it's still holding on even though twice corporate ownership tried to kill it off.  Personally I feel Roy's roast beef sandwich is vastly superior to the ones at Arby's.  And their chicken is pretty good too.

Smashburger - Been impressed the few times I've stopped there.  Especially the Smashtots

Some places that aren't in this area yet - Zaxby's and Whataburger.  I've hear good things about Culver's, but want to eat at one before adding it to my list.

I could have sworn Maryland had Zaxby's

Not quite.  They are as far north as Virginia - the closest to me is in Chantilly VA, but still too far to go to on a whim.  Plus if I'm in that area anyway, I'm more likely to be looking for Roy Rogers.  I do like to stop at Zaxby's when driving down I-95 on my occasional trips to Florida.

[ErmineNotyours]

Dunkin: Hear me out. I know they act like a national brand. But they don't have any locations in the Northwest (Idaho, Washington, Oregon, probably others). And I like them way better than Starbucks and Tim Horton's. Would be towards the top of my fast food breakfast choices (along with McDonalds and a local bagel shop) if they opened here.

Dunkin' used to be in the northwest, after Winchell's exited and before Starbucks took over.  We've had a few incursions of Krispy Kreme, but the Puyallup location went out of business and became a Panera Bread.  No, I didn't say I wanted healthier food!

A few former Dunkin' locations exist, still selling sort of the same donuts without the franchise fee: Midway Donuts, Auora Donuts.  When I went to Washington DC I made a point of visiting some locations again.  They mostly seemed to be inside government buildings, but luckily there were several in DCA.

[Rothman]

Five Guys > In-N-Out

Steak 'N Shake would be good, though.

[jeffandnicole]

In n Out- not because it's particularly amazing but because people would finally shut up about it

Went there for the first time this summer.  The burgers are really, really good, but the lack of other menu items (have a daughter who likes chicken but not burgers) and the lack of the ability to get bacon on the burger make it a place I wouldn't go to often if it were near me.

BOOM!

This is why nearly every fast food restaurant lost its identity. They try to appeal to so many people with so many different tastes and restrictions and loud minorities that rarely does a restaurant stick to its core options.

It's also a huge cost issue to deal with these different products: equipment, storage, training, development, condiments, etc. And those costs are passed along to the consumer. So when a restaurant can stick with the basics...in this case, burgers and fries...there's a significant cost savings to the company and to the consumer.

Back when...the options were to go to two different places, or tell the others to find something or starve. In today's coddling society, we tell the restaurants what we want to eat, even though there are other restaurants that already have that very same product. Then we complain we dont like the way they do it anyway.

[Revive 755]

Raising Cane's gets my vote.  To their credit, they have expanded nicely but there is a lot of map to cover before they are a Big Time Player.

They get my vote as well. Stopped at one in Ohio on my way to Kings Island this past summer. They go as far north as Chicago.

They have a few locations around Minneapolis - St. Paul.

* I'll add my vote for Whataburger
* Zantigos - I've heard they once had a wider presence, but now they only exist around the Minneapolis St. Paul area.

[Scott5114]

Back when...the options were to go to two different places, or tell the others to find something or starve. In today's coddling society, we tell the restaurants what we want to eat, even though there are other restaurants that already have that very same product. Then we complain we dont like the way they do it anyway.

You, uh... you know by "today's coddling society" you mean "capitalism", right?

[dlsterner]

Roy Rogers - There are a handful here in the Maryland/Virginia area. Although I think peak market penetration was back in the 80's, it's still holding on even though twice corporate ownership tried to kill it off.  Personally I feel Roy's roast beef sandwich is vastly superior to the ones at Arby's.  And their chicken is pretty good too.

Smashburger - Been impressed the few times I've stopped there.  Especially the Smashtots

Some places that aren't in this area yet - Zaxby's and Whataburger.  I've hear good things about Culver's, but want to eat at one before adding it to my list.

And one more that I forgot earlier - Mission BBQ

[TheHighwayMan3561]

All our Tim's shut down due to a dispute between the franchise owner and corporate. I'm not the kind of person who regularly frequents their offerings as I rarely drink coffee and don't really like donuts.

[jeffandnicole]

Back when...the options were to go to two different places, or tell the others to find something or starve. In today's coddling society, we tell the restaurants what we want to eat, even though there are other restaurants that already have that very same product. Then we complain we dont like the way they do it anyway.

You, uh... you know by "today's coddling society" you mean "capitalism", right?

Yep. And note the irony...

While restaurants are free to sell whatever they want...burgers, fries, chicken, couches, whatever...there are downsides. While the restaurant with everything will win everyone's approval if you're trying to find one place to go to, let me remind you of this, which is the subject of this thread:

The chains that are often cited as those people would like to see expanded stick to one core offering. And that was often repeated in this thread: In-&-Out and Five Guys for example.

[SectorZ]

I want Roy Rogers back. Used to have them on the Mass Pike, along with the rest area off I-84 at exit 1. There was also one in Vernon CT (I think - it was near the Buckland Hills Mall). I hate that we have such a proliferation of McDonald's, Burger King, and Wendy's, who combined aren't as good as Roy Rogers.

I also want Krispy Kreme back. Allegedly they were attempting another New England comeback but I've not seen it set in motion yet. Tim Horton's coming back would also be nice, since they used to have a presence in areas along 395 in Connecticut.

Since they went Chapter 11 I doubt those outside of New England will ever see them expand to you, but D'Angelo Sandwich Shops would make for a nice nationwide chain. Their parent company, Papa Gino's, is good, too, but doesn't really stand out as much.

[webny99]

Culver's is another great suggestion. They're a quality, afforable Midwestern version of everything that makes a good burger chain.

[formulanone]

In n Out- not because it's particularly amazing but because people would finally shut up about it

Went there for the first time this summer.  The burgers are really, really good, but the lack of other menu items (have a daughter who likes chicken but not burgers) and the lack of the ability to get bacon on the burger make it a place I wouldn't go to often if it were near me.

BOOM!

This is why nearly every fast food restaurant lost its identity. They try to appeal to so many people with so many different tastes and restrictions and loud minorities that rarely does a restaurant stick to its core options.

For every consumer icon that's stuck around for decades, there's many more that also closed up for a failure to evolve or didn't keep with changing demands. In-n-Out was also smart not to over-saturate the market, where a lot of companies over-expanded. Eventually, the "new" cools off and business slows down a little. The next new thing comes along and steals away a little more of the action.

Back when...the options were to go to two different places, or tell the others to find something or starve. In today's coddling society, we tell the restaurants what we want to eat, even though there are other restaurants that already have that very same product. Then we complain we dont like the way they do it anyway.

...and that's how we got more businesses and corporations, for better or for worse. Someone spots the niche and fills it. But it's tough to know what's a trend that lasts and what's just a fad. To avoid floundering, they want our opinion (if it's constructive and/or we throw money at it), but they're not immune from trends and changing tastes.

McDonald's is a huge target for everything that's wrong with fast food, but they keep on trying something new (even if it's just a twice-recycled idea with a watered-down end result) along with their core basics. Probably because they can afford to target markets and try it out.

That said, we're getting a Culver's in the next year, but that makes about 6-7 different fast food hamburger joints in the Huntsville/Madison area. While I'm glad for that, there's something to be said for variety. And thus, the cycle repeats itself...

[US 89]

Five Guys > In-N-Out

Not if you're on a budget. In-N-Out, while not absolutely to-die-for amazing, tastes better than your typical fast food burger and is easily the best burger for value.

[Rothman]

Five Guys > In-N-Out

Not if you're on a budget. In-N-Out, while not absolutely to-die-for amazing, tastes better than your typical fast food burger and is easily the best burger for value.

I really don't know about that.  I was really underwhelmed by their burgers the couple of times I've eaten there.

[kphoger]

Re:  Whataburger

They have good burgers, but I don't like their fries.  For me, I can make do with pretty much any chain's burgers (except McD's), so the fries are what I really go by.

[renegade]

Gotta throw this one out there:  One or more of the Cincinnati chili chains could expand up this way and I would think I'd died and gone to Heaven.