Curated playlist
Fast-food hamburger restaurants
- 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…
- 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…
- Hardee'sOn the 25th of August 2025, the Hardee's in Millvale, Pennsylvania closed without warning. It had served its neighborhood for 52 years. With that shutdown, the chain disappeared from Greater Pittsburgh. Only a single restaurant in Western…
- Carl's Jr.Carl's Jr. began in 1941 with $311 borrowed against a Plymouth automobile. A truck driver named Carl Karcher and his wife Margaret added $15 of their own savings. Together that money bought them a hot dog cart. That small purchase is the…
- 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…
- Sonic Drive-InSonic Drive-In began in 1953 as a walk-up root beer stand called the Top Hat, somewhere in Oklahoma. Today it counts more than 3,400 locations across the United States. Since 2018 it has belonged to Inspire Brands, the parent of Arby's,…
- Jack in the BoxJack in the Box, the fast food chain headquartered in San Diego, once greeted drivers with a clown and a promise. A giant clown projected from the roof, and a smaller clown head sat atop a speaker, where a sign read, "Pull forward, Jack…
- 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…
- Dairy QueenDairy Queen sold more than 1,600 servings of a brand-new dessert in the first two hours it was on sale. The seller was Sherb Noble, who ran an ice cream store in Kankakee, Illinois. The dessert was soft serve, and that first rush hinted at…