I don't go to many fast food restaurants these days. Haven't even been in a Five Guys since last August. But I'm more than a little fascinated by the business and especially the history of the business — how chains are founded, how they expand, how they contract, etc. I've written before here about the territorial nature of the animal; how there are whole states into which In-N-Out or White Castle will not venture. Five Guys is just now creeping into California and after years of getting closer and closer, Chick-Fil-A is finally about to open in my area — at Sunset and Highland, displacing a Carl's Jr. Can Steak 'n' Shake be far behind?
As new places come in, old ones go away. The only two in the L.A. Weekly piece I miss are Kenny Rogers and Roy Rogers'. There's still a Roy Rogers' chain in the East but what it serves bears little resemblance to the menu they offered out here in the seventies. Why can't Arby's make a roast beef sandwich half that good?