Ticket 2 Ride

I actually don’t eat much fast food these days, but I’m acquainted with fast food menus of yesterday. It’s funny looking at how these menus have changed over the years, items coming and going, supposedly based on sales and consumer preferences. Occasionally, environmental concerns and health interests have been given for items appearing and also disappearing.

The fast food restaurants I’m referring in this blog are ones dating back to the 1970s or before, not the Chipotle, Chick-fil-A, Subway type restaurants that seek to be an alternative to the classic burger and pizza joints of fast food past.

Fast food restaurants are generally not the place to get nutrition, which may be why good salads, fish and grilled chicken can be difficult to find at burger joints. Plant-based food items have generally tried and failed at these places, but there’s also Burger King’s the “impossible burger” alternative.

This blog isn’t about fast food prices, which are now obscene. The pandemic is blamed for supply-chain issues, but rising labor costs and inflation are also given, but greed and profiteering must also be called out.

My list of vanished items are more personal than comprehensive. Fast food menus change like the weather in Kansas.

McDonald’s

Fried apple pie. Also cherry pie. Hard crust and molten lava fruit filling, the pies started being baked in 1992. Currently, this is only a small, baked apple pie available. Not the same.

McDLT. Styrofoam container kept the hot side hot, and the cold side cold. This was a good idea and kept the kitchen folks from mashing the bun and toppings.

Chicken Snack Wrap. Taken off the menu in 2016. Several dressings were available. This is different from the salad shakers that were around briefly.

The grilled chicken sandwich. Variations of the McChicken and McCrispy sandwich are options on the menu, but I miss an alternative to fried.

KFC

Potato wedges. Healthy? No. My cholesterol surges just thinking about these, but I’ll live. Maybe a little longer.

Burger King

Cini-Minis. Decadent. But a good decadence. That’s my story.

Pizza Hut

Dine-in eating. Pizza restaurant choices were limited back in the 1960s. There aren’t many Pizza Hut dine-in restaurants left. I remember the light and dark beer options, although I was too young to experience that.

Taco Pizza. Real pizza? Debatable, but I liked this style. Never visited Pizza Hut much in later years, once in a while I did, mostly a nostalgia thing.

Wendy’s

Salad bar. The salad bar, baked potato and chili made Wendy’s different. The salad bar evolved into the all-you-can-eat salad superbar, then was phased out beginning in 1992. A communist conspiracy for sure.

Arby’s

Potato cakes. I remember eating these only a couple of times, but I enjoyed them.

A&W Drive-In

Frosty glass mugs. The quality of the food is lousy now. Back when it was a drive-in with carhops, food was delivered on a tray that attached to the widow of your car. The root beer was served in frosty glass mugs, the burgers were beefy, and the fries were crispy. That experience is not duplicated now. Plastic mugs don’t cut it.

Burger Chef

The Big Chef was a slightly healthier version of the Big Mac. Burger Chef hamburger patties were all flame-broiled, which also made them more flavorful too. Unfortunately, Burger Chef closed their last restaurants in 1996, absorbed by Hardee’s.

Items Gone That I Never Knew Existed

KFC – Double Down, a sandwich where fried chicken is used instead of bread. Who knew?

Popeyes — Chicken Waffle Tenders, just like it says. Tenders fried in waffle batter.

Taco Bell — Waffle Taco, yep, waffles again.

Dunkin’ Donuts — Donut Fries, interesting…

McDonald’s – Onion Nuggets, bite sized onion rings.

Sonic Drive-In – Pickle Juice Slush, pucker up.

Burger King – Bacon Sundae, chocolate and bacon.

Jack in the Box – Cheesy Macaroni Bites, how did this fail?

Taco Bell – Volcano Burrito, what a great idea for nuclear waste disposal!

McDonald’s – McLobster, yes, seriously.