Curated playlist

Fast-food chains of the United States

McDonald'sIn 1948, the McDonald brothers fired all 20 of their carhops and cut the menu to nine items.
Burger KingBurger King reported 17,796 outlets in 100 countries on the 31st of December 2018. Nearly half of them stood in the United States. Yet in one of those countries, a hungry customer would never see the Burger King name on a sign. The chain…
Taco BellTaco Bell lists 8,212 restaurants, and more than 94 percent of them are owned and run by independent franchisees and licensees. The chain sells Mexican-inspired food such as tacos, burritos, quesadillas and nachos. Its very first…
KFCKFC keeps a copy of its founding recipe, signed by Colonel Harland Sanders, in a safe inside a vault at its headquarters in Louisville, Kentucky. Alongside it sit 11 vials holding the herbs and spices themselves. The company behind that…
Wendy'sWendy's is an American fast food chain that serves square hamburger patties on round buns. As of the 2nd of November 2023, it counted 7,166 outlets. Most of them are in the United States. The rest are scattered across places as different…
Subway (restaurant)Subway began in 1965 with a $1,000 loan between friends. Fred DeLuca borrowed the money from Peter Buck and opened Pete's Drive-In: Super Submarine Sandwiches at 3851 Main Street in Bridgeport, Connecticut. As of September 2023, the…
Pizza HutPizza Hut owes its name to a sign that could hold only eight letters. The chain began in Wichita, Kansas, in 1958, when two Wichita State University students, the brothers Dan and Frank Carney, borrowed $600 from their mother. Today the…
StarbucksStarbucks Corporation had 35,711 stores in 80 countries, and 15,873 of them were in the United States. Of the American stores, more than 8,900 are run by the company itself. The rest are licensed to other operators. As of 2022 it ranked…
Domino'sIn 1960, brothers Tom and Jim Monaghan took over a small pizza shop at 507 Cross Street in Ypsilanti, Michigan. It stood near Eastern Michigan University, and it was called DomiNick's. A $500 down payment sealed the deal, and the brothers…
PopeyesAl Copeland said he left the apostrophe out of Popeyes because he was "too poor" to afford one. He meant it as a joke, and the joke stuck to a chain that now counts 5,413 restaurants across 51 countries and territories. Popeyes Louisiana…
Shake ShackShake Shack, an American fast casual chain based in New York City, keeps a webcam on its own website. The camera points at the line outside its original kiosk, so anyone can check the wait before leaving home. On a pleasant summer weekend,…
Baskin-RobbinsBaskin-Robbins has introduced more than 1,400 flavors since it opened its first shop in 1945. That is an enormous catalog for a business that began with two men and a few small stores in Southern California. Today the chain is owned by…
Circle KCircle K sells 17 Polar Pop fountain drinks every second in the United States, a figure the company reported as of 2018. Those cups pass through a convenience store chain that, by February 2020, had more than 14,800 stores carrying its…
Tim HortonsTim Hortons, called Tim's, Timmies or Timmy's by the people who line up at its counters, now runs 6,043 restaurants in 14 countries. Its headquarters are in Toronto. The menu leans on coffee, donuts, sandwiches and breakfast egg muffins,…
Dunkin' DonutsDunkin', for most of its life called Dunkin' Donuts, once sold a doughnut built with a handle. Johnny Spartos, one of the men running the original location, convinced founder Bill Rosenberg to make a shape designed for dunking into a cup…
A&W RestaurantsA&W Restaurants began with a glass of root beer sold for 5 cents. On the 20th of June 1919, Roy W. Allen opened a roadside stand in Lodi, California. That first day coincided with a homecoming parade for soldiers returning from World War…
7-Eleven7-Eleven, headquartered in Irving, Texas, operates, franchises or licenses roughly 85,000 stores in 20 countries and territories, as of August 2024. Few retail brands have spread so widely, and fewer still have done it without a single…
Chick-fil-AOn the 17th of December 2017, Chick-fil-A broke a tradition and opened its doors on a Sunday. A power outage had left passengers stranded at Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport, and the restaurant chain prepared meals for…
In-N-Out BurgerIn-N-Out Burger opened its first Colorado restaurant in Aurora in 2020, and the wait for a burger stretched past fourteen hours. Local police had to step in to direct traffic around the lot. The crowd was not there for anything exotic. It…
JollibeeJollibee had more than 1,668 restaurants as of January 2024, and over 400 of them stood outside the Philippines. Those outlets were spread across 17 countries, from Canada and Hong Kong to the United Kingdom and Vietnam. Jollibee is the…
White Castle (restaurant)White Castle, an American hamburger chain born in Wichita, Kansas, once had to shut a brand-new restaurant for two hours because it ran out of food. That happened on the 27th of January 2015, when the chain opened its first Las Vegas…
Chipotle Mexican GrillChipotle Mexican Grill started with an $85,000 loan from the founder's father and a very specific break-even target. Steve Ells and his father calculated that the first store needed to sell 107 burritos a day to turn a profit. After one…