Archive for fast food

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What our favorite fast food joints looked like back in the day Part I

Posted in advertising, Americana, fast food, food, Kentucky Fried Chicken, McDonald's, pop culture with tags , , , , , on January 27, 2009 by Paxton

Vintage Burger ChefFast food franchises have been around for years. Some of the first ones were started back in the ’50s as malt shops or diners. Since then, there have been many different variations of the fast food franchise; burgers, chicken, ice cream, seafood, family-style, etc. As the type and menu changed, so have the styles, image and logo of the establishment. Many of the most popular fast food franchises of today have been around since the ’60s and if you were to travel back in time to see your favorite restaurant as it stood back in the day, you may not even recognize it.

I was perusing some of the photostreams in Flickr as well as some of my favorite fast food groups and you can see plenty of awesome pictures of fast food franchises and how they used to look back in the day.  I even remember some of them!  So let’s take a look at a few of the more popular franchises and how their “look and feel” has changed from ’60s until now.

You can click any of the below pictures to see them BIGGER.

McDonald’s

'60s McDonalds
McDonald’s began in 1940 with a restaurant in San Bernandino, CA opened by (surprise, surprise) the McDonald brothers. They developed their “SpeeDee” delivery system in this restaurant that has become the basis for all modern fast food franchises.   Ray Kroc, a salesman providing milkshake machines to the brothers, convinced them to let him franchise their operation in 1955.  Kroc bought out the brothers and took McDonald’s to the lofty heights you see today.  Due to its long history, McD’s architecture has had more face lifts than Joan Rivers.  There are so many different styles of McDonald’s restaurants that it’s almost impossible to nail down different eras of buildings.  Don’t even get me started on the different styles for the “golden arches” signs as there are too many to even begin a listing here.  I could probably do an entire article on McDonald’s architecture and store design (*note to self).  Moving along, the picture above is one of the earliest building incarnations from a McDonald’s in the ’50s – ’60s.  Many McDonald’s restaurants today are being built in this “retro” styling.  Check out the huge, modern, 2-floor McDonald’s in Chicago that was built in this style.

'70s McDonalds
This is probably one of the more familiar versions of the McDonald’s restaurant.  It’s brown roof with white striping has become iconic for McDonald’s lovers as it’s visage was used throughout the ’80s in commercials.  This style started, I believe, in the ’70s or ’80s.  There was also a version of this building with yellow striping on the roof.

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I’m in Time Magazine. WHAT. UP.

Posted in blogging, Hula Burger, McDonald's, pop culture, reviews, Time Magazine with tags , , , on September 25, 2008 by Paxton

Okay, I noticed a serious jump in my blog stats the other day and I took a look to see what the hell just happened.  Looking at my page views I see this:

A huge amount of traffic was being sent by an outside link to my article about failed McDonald’s sandwiches: The Golden Archives.  This article usually gets some hits but it was blowin’ up, yo, sur-iously.  So I clicked in to find the sites that link to it and I noticed this.

The most hits were coming from time.com. I was like, “Time.com? WTF? Not THE Time.com?” Yes, THE Time.com. I clicked the link and was greeted with an article on Time.com listing the top 50 Authentic American Experiences. Surprisingly, my blog is NOT one of the 50 Authentic American experiences.   I don’t know why.  How much more AMERICAN, or more of an EXPERIENCE, can this blog be?  And by American, I obviously mean AWESOME.  Here’s the page in question.

Within this article they are discussing the Big Mac Museum, which I would agree is an authentic American experience. In the very first sentence Time friggin’ Magazine (I say again…WHAT. UP.) sees fit to link to my blog.

Check out the Hula Burger link. That goes to my Golden Archives article here. How about that, sixth grade English teacher who said I wrote like a blind second grader? HOW YOU LIKE ME NOW?! Actually, my sixth grade English teacher didn’t say that, but she did throw a shoe across the room at a classmate. That is true. But she didn’t say I wrote like a blind second grader…I think she said epileptic first grader. But that’s beside the point because I can now bill myself as if I won an Academy Award. Like Academy Award Winner Sir Anthony Hopkins. I can now call myself Time Magazine referenced Sir Paxton Holley. Well, I added the Sir, but I have no problems going to jolly Olde England for the knighting ceremony. I’ll even pay for my own flight. You hear me Queen Mother? Hello?

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Odds ‘n Ends from the last two weeks

Posted in books, humor, personal, random with tags , , , , on September 5, 2008 by Paxton

Sniffing GlueYeah, so I missed another week last week. Crap, I don’t know how that happened. Looks like I picked the wrong week to quit sniffing glue….or did I? Seriously, I did pick the wrong week.

Had a lot going on this past week. We went up to Columbia, SC to visit friends Kathy and Himal who have chosen to live up there as they finish their PhDs. We had a blast. They were able to procure us invites to an “insider’s only” party at a place called Jillian’s. It featured free beers and appetizers from 7 to 9pm. Needless to say, we came, we drank, we danced the Cupid Shuffle. It was a grand old time. We finished the evening by stumbling our party-ed out selves over two blocks to the IHop. What was cool, was that the IHOP was housed in the old A-frame architecture that the franchise had back in the ’80s.

A-frame IHOP

I hadn’t seen an A-frame IHOP in years. There used to be one in Birmingham, AL for the longest time but it was converted into a car wash or something.

So that was a blast.  What else happened, oh Auburn beat Louisiana-Monroe.  It wasn’t the pass-happy offense everyone expected, but I’m hoping that they held back a bit because Louisiana-Monroe wasn’t the strongest of opponents.

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FAITH BEGORRAH!! I GOT ME A SHAMROCK SHAKE!!

Posted in fast food, food, McDonald's, pop culture, St. Patrick's Day with tags , , , on March 14, 2008 by Paxton
Shamrock Shake 1Shamrock Shake 5

The Shamrock Shake is like the Loch Ness Monster. You either believe it exists or you don’t, some people catch a glimpse of one but some never do…and they are both green. This year, I was a lucky one. I was able to capture a Shamrock Shake and hold on for dear life as if drinking this holy liquid would grant me immortality. And judging from the taste, it may just have.

The Shamrock Shake is an interesting animal. According to McDonald’s, it was introduced in 1970, which is much older than I thought. However, the McDonald’s site also says they are only available in Ireland, so, Ronald may have put a bit too much “Irish” into his shake, if you get what I’m sayin’ (In case you don’t know what I’m saying, I’m saying that Ronald McDonald put too much whiskey in his Shamrock Shake, therefore he is drunk and can’t remember the truth…). It seems many McDonald’s in certain markets across the country still sell Shamrock Shakes for a few months surrounding St. Patty’s Day. It’s the ultimate celebration of all things green and Irish.

Back in the day, the Shamrock Shake got lots of publicity push. There were several commercials and they even created a special McDonaldLand character to represent it. He was Grimace’s uncle, he was green and from Ireland. Behold the beautiful visage of Uncle O’Grimacey!!!

Uncle O'Grimacey

I am not kidding, that was a real character. Don’t believe me, click here for Uncle O’Grimacey’s McDonald’s commercial on YouTube. You can hear him in all his fake Irish accent-y glory. While researching a bit more, I found out that not only was there a Shamrock Shake, McDonald’s also created a Shamrock Sundae! Green, minty syrup was poured on top of a normal sundae in order to transform it into something appropriately Gaelic. I didn’t remember the Shamrock Sundae, but there’s proof. Click here for the Shamrock Shake/Sundae commercial on YouTube, or check the picture below from that commercial. Very, very cool. I wish they still sold the sundae version. Looks YUMMY!

Shamrock Shake 4

Last year, I searched high and low for one of these babies and was left empty-handed. There are like 4 McDonald’s around where I work and not one of them sold the mythic shake. Late last year, though, a brand new McDonald’s opened right by where I live. I was hopeful. And just the other day, I was going through the drive-thru and lo and behold…I saw the ad for the Shamrock Shake!!! When I ordered it, I’m sure it sounded indecipherable. Something like,

“HihelloIseeyouhavetheShamrockShake.CanIhaveaShamrockShake?Huh, Please?SHAMROCKSHAKESHAMROCKSHAKESHAMROCKSHAKESHAMROCKSHAKE!!!”

The guy must have thought I was a loony. That was all forgotten though, when he handed me my ice cold Shamrock Shake as if he were the Lady in the Lake and I was Arthur waiting to retrieve Excalibur for the first time. Check out the awesome green-ness of this shake! It’s a sight to behold.

Shamrock Shake 1Shamrock Shake 1

And the taste is just as good as the pictures. It’s essentially their vanilla shake mixed with mint flavoring and green coloring…and it’s AWESOME! Everything I dreamed it would be. Try dipping Girl Scout Thin Mints into it for an extra treat.

Well, that’s enough schoolgirl gushing about a minty green milkshake. Hope you are successful in finding your Shamrock before, or on, St. Patty’s Day! I’m sure my friend Collier will try to order his with that fake Irish accent that he thinks sounds like Colin Ferrell but really sounds like Will Ferrell impersonating a leprechaun.

Hope everyone has a great St. Patty’s Day. And go find your Shamrock Shake!!

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Ode to Blake’s Lotaburger – New Mexico Style

Posted in Albuquerque, Blake's Lotaburger, fast food, food, New Mexico, roadtrip with tags , , on February 14, 2008 by Paxton

Blake's Lotaburger sackI’m going on a roadtrip this weekend to visit my brother in Chicago. Thinking about that, I thought I would take a moment to discuss my last roadtrip I took back in January to Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Whenever my wife and I go on one of our trips, pretty much the only thing that’s planned ahead of time is where we are going to eat. And even then, when we are currently eating breakfast, we still plan on what’s for lunch. Then at lunch, we gotta plan dinner. It’s this vicious gluttonous cycle that continues every place we go. And I love it.

So, when we planned the January trip to visit her family back in Albuquerque, we had to come up with a list of places to eat. For me, when we head back to the Southwest, there are only two places on my list, and the first is Blake’s Lotaburger. The second is any good Mexican food place which includes a variety of places like Gardunos or any place in Old Town. But the main one, like I said, is Blake’s.

For the uninitiated, Blake’s is a New Mexico only burger joint with some of the best fast food I’ve ever eaten. Steph’s grandmother, Millie, and Aunt Terry are always accommodating and super-nice to constantly make time in our visiting schedule to eat at Blake’s. Sometimes, we are there multiple times…in a day. When there, I’ve seriously had to curb my desire to tell Aunt Terry and Millie that I think I may move all my stuff to Blake’s and just sleep there. I’ll put my sleeping bag in a booth and awaken to the smell of the meaty and toasted bunly goodness of the Blake’s burgers. Ummmmmmmmm…just thinking about it now makes my knees weak………………………………

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