Curated playlist
Fast-food franchises
- 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…
- 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…
- 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…
- 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…
- Ben & Jerry'sBen & Jerry's began in 1977 as a plan to sell bagels. Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield incorporated a business for that purpose. Then they discovered the equipment was too expensive. Ice cream became the fallback, and it stuck. The company…
- 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…
- HootersHooters began as a joke that its own founders expected to fail. The American restaurant chain was incorporated in Clearwater, Florida, on the 1st of April 1983, and the date was chosen on purpose. April Fools' Day suited six local…
- 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…
- Hard Rock CafeHard Rock Cafe built its identity on a customer who wanted to claim his favorite seat. Eric Clapton was a regular at the original restaurant in London. He handed over a red Fender Lead II guitar, unsigned, and asked the management to hang…
- 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…