Fast Food Feeding Frenzy

Cruising along Route 46 in Little Falls, New Jersey last weekend, I came upon a strange sight. A string of cars were pulled over on the shoulder which was slowing traffic across the busy highway.
As I gradually came upon the source of the slowdown, I saw streamers leading to a giant Grand Opening sign. Police were directing traffic off the highway while several confused teenagers were funneling them into the new parking spaces. North Jersey was welcoming its first Sonic Drive-In.

The double-wide Sonic had opened that same day within sight of a New Jersey landmark – the Park West Diner. It was literally a fast food feeding frenzy as drivers waited along the highway (no access roads here) for tater tots and a shake.

The scene reminded me of the first McDonald’s Restaurant I ever visited. A friend’s mother drove us to nearby Belleville to check out a new hamburger stand. It was crowded and I had to scrape off the onions and pickles but those fries sure were good. My folks preferred the diners but we hit my friend’s mother up on several occasions for a trip to the golden arches. It wasn’t fast food, it was affordable food and we became regulars when McDonald’s finally came to our town.

Allen’s official hangout in the early 1970’s was The Royal Drive-In. Located at the corner of Allen Drive and Central Expressway on the east side, The Royal was the only hangout until Dairy Queen opened on Main Street in 1973.

“We called it the figure eight,” said Honey (Bankhead) Gray, a 1974 AHS graduate. “Kids would drive up to one, see who was there, and then circle back to the other restaurant. Then we’d congregate in the Dry Goods Store parking lot at the corner of Allen Drive and Main Street between the two restaurants.”

The Sonic on East Main Street opened near Allen High School (Lowery Center) about 5 years later and shortly after that came the McDonald’s Restaurant at the expressway and McDermott. Rounding out the first wave of fast food venues was Burger King, which opened in 1983 and Taco Bell (currently Bar-B-Cuties), which opened in the late 1980’s.

These restaurants are so familiar but they have only been around for about 50 years. Many know the story of how Ray Kroc convinced the McDonald brothers to franchise their popular drive-in in 1954 but did you know that many other chains were already selling franchises by that time.

The first franchised food service chain was started by Allen and White in 1924 based around their unique root beer syrup. J. Willard Marriott opened an A&W franchise in 1927, changed the name to Hot Shoppes and began selling barbeque sandwiches. That led to today’s hotel empire.
Howard Johnson’s chain of restaurants were the first to spread across the country, mostly on the popularity of their ice cream. It was the creation of a machine that could turn liquid dairy mix into a continuous stream of soft ice cream in 1944 that started fast food’s golden years under the name Dairy Queen. One of Dairy Queen’s original partners, Harry Axene, then left to start the rival Tastee Freeze in 1950.

A chance meeting between two restaurant owners named Pete Harmon and Harlan Sanders led to the Kentucky Fried Chicken chain’s creation in 1952. Finally, a fellow named Dave Edgerton helped create the InstaBurger King chain in 1954.

For the record, Sonic was born as the Top Hat Drive-In in Shawnee, Oklahoma in 1952. The name was later changed to Sonic because “service was delivered at the speed of sound.”
From what I could see, the new Sonic staff in Little Falls wasn’t exactly serving at the speed of sound but they had only opened that morning. Maybe I will drop them a note and recommend some roller skates.