January 15, 2014
White Castle is a restaurant generally credited as the first fast food chain, known for its small, square hamburgers. Sometimes referred to as ‘sliders,’ the burgers were priced at five cents until the 1940s, and remained at ten cents for years thereafter. For several years, when the original burgers sold for five cents, White Castle periodically ran promotional ads in local newspapers which contained coupons offering five burgers for ten cents, takeout only.
White Castle was founded in 1921 in Wichita, Kansas by Cook Walt A. Anderson an insurance man Billy Ingram. At the time, Americans were hesitant to eat ground beef after Upton Sinclair’s 1906 novel ‘The Jungle’ publicized poor sanitation practices in the meatpacking industry. To invoke a feeling of cleanliness, their restaurants were small buildings with white porcelain enamel on steel exteriors, stainless steel interiors, and employees outfitted with spotless uniforms.
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February 13, 2013
The Heart Attack Grill is an American hamburger restaurant in Las Vegas (formerly located in Chandler, Arizona). It has courted controversy by serving high-calorie menu items with deliberately provocative names coupled with waitresses in sexually provocative clothing. The establishment is a hospital theme restaurant: waitresses (‘nurses’) take orders (‘prescriptions’) from the customers (‘patients’).
A tag is wrapped on the patient’s wrist showing which foods they order and a ‘doctor’ examines the ‘patients’ with a stethoscope. The menu includes ‘Single,’ ‘Double,’ ‘Triple,’ and ‘Quadruple Bypass’ hamburgers, ranging from a half pound to two pounds of beef (up to about 8,000 calories), all-you-can-eat ‘Flatliner Fries’ (cooked in pure lard), beer and tequila (shots are served in four ounce novelty syringes.), ‘butter-fat Shakes,’ and soft drinks such as Jolt and Mexican-bottled Coca-Cola made with real sugar. Customers over 350 lb in weight eat for free if they weigh in with a doctor or nurse before each burger. Beverages and to-go orders are excluded and sharing food is also not allowed for the free food deal.
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July 20, 2011
El Bulli is a molecular gastronomy restaurant near the town of Roses, Spain (near the French border), run by chef Ferran Adrià. In early 2011, management announced that the restaurant would close that summer to reopen as a creativity center in 2014. Its main objective is to be a think-tank for creative cuisine and gastronomy and will managed by a private foundation. The former restaurant accommodated only 8,000 diners a season, but received more than two million requests. The average cost of a meal was €250. The restaurant itself operated at a loss since 2000, with operating profit coming from El Bulli-related books and lectures by Adrià. The location was selected in 1961 by Dr Hans Schilling, a German, and his Czech wife Marketta, who wanted a restaurant for a piece of land he had purchased. The name ‘El Bulli’ came from the French bulldogs the Schillings owned.
The first restaurant was opened in 1964. Ferran Adrià joined the staff in 1984, and was put in sole charge of the kitchen in 1987. In 1990 the restaurant gained its second Michelin star, and in 1997 its third. Menu items have included melon with ham, pine nut marshmallows, steamed brioche with rose-scented mozzarella, rock mussels with seaweed and fresh herbs, and passion fruit trees. Texturas is a range of products by Adrià and his brother Albert. Texturas include products such as Xanthan and Algin. Xanthan gum allows the user to use a very small amount to thicken soups, sauces and creams without changing the flavor. Algin is a key component of the ‘Spherification Kit’ and is essential for every spherical preparation: caviar, raviolis, balloons, gnocchi, pellets, and mini-spheres.
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March 6, 2011
Louis’ Lunch in New Haven, Connecticut, advertises itself as the first restaurant to serve hamburgers and as being the oldest hamburger restaurant still operating. Opened as a small lunch wagon in 1895, it was also one of the first places in the US to serve steak sandwiches. Louis Lassen, a butter dealer, operated a lunch wagon where he served steak and ground steak hamburger sandwiches, made from scrap trimmings, to local factory workers. According to family legend, one day in 1900 a local businessman dashed into the small New Haven lunch wagon and pleaded for a lunch to go. Lassen hurriedly sandwiched a broiled hamburger between two slices of bread and sent the customer on his way, so the story goes, with America’s first hamburger being served.
The fourth generation of Lassens own and operate Louis’ Lunch today. The restaurant flame broils the hamburgers, the original way, in antique 1898 vertical cast iron gas stove with hinged steel wire gridirons to hold the hamburgers in place while they cook simultaneously on both sides. The patties are hand formed from ground steak made from a secret blend of five different cuts of beef. The hamburgers are prepared with cheese, tomato or onion as the only condiments or garnish; never any mustard, ketchup or mayonnaise on two square pieces of toasted white bread.
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February 27, 2011
Maoz is a chain of falafel fast food restaurants, serving purely vegetarian fare and promoting the ‘vegetarian lifestyle.’ The chain was founded by a husband and wife, Nahman Milo and Sima Bar-On, Israelis, who were living in Amsterdam. The first restaurant opened in 1991, and the first store outside The Netherlands opened in 1996. There are now 22 franchises globally, located in the Netherlands, The United States, France, Spain, the United Kingdom, Australia, and India.
Originally, restaurants offered only falafel, but the menu in some locations has since been expanded to include other vegetarian items, such as pommes frites (Belgian-style french fries). Muma Vegetarian is a copycat restaurant in Los Angeles.
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November 15, 2010
Lee’s Sandwiches is an American fast food restaurant chain specializing in Vietnamese cuisine. While originally famous for selling French baguette bánh mì (Vietnamese sandwiches), the chain has expanded its offering to many other goods, including packaged spring rolls, desserts, and other food to go items.
The first Lee’s opened in San Jose, California in 1980. There are now over three dozen locations in California, Arizona, Texas, and Oklahoma, as well as a new restaurant in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. The company has plans to expand in the Pacific states of Nevada, Oregon, and Washington.
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August 5, 2010
Blindekuh are two restaurants where patrons are served in the dark. The restaurants are located in Basel and Zürich, Switzerland. The name is derived from ‘Blinde Kuh’ (blind cow), the German name for blind man’s bluff. No lights are allowed inside a Blindekuh. Patrons are served by blind and visually impaired people. Both locations offer cultural events such as readings or concerts in the dark.
The first Blindekuh, opened on September 17, 1999 and is claimed to be the world’s first dark restaurant. The concept has subsequently been replicated elsewhere, including in London, Paris, Sydney, Amsterdam, Tel Aviv and Beijing as restaurants and multiple cities in the United States. Some dark restaurants supply night vision equipment to the wait staff.
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