Monday, December 7, 2009

How would you define or what would qualify an eatery as a fast food restaurant?

13 comments:

erin said...

If I want it drunk or hungover and it will inevitably make me sick the next day, it's fast food.

Aimee said...

A food chain that has a drive up window.

Andrew said...

any place where you have to fill up your own soda at a soda fountain = fast-food.

pinchie said...

I would define fast food by price point, greasiness and drive-up window. For example, I don't consider Panera or Cosi fast food. Subway may be the exception to the rule, though, because it is cheap yet nongreasy and does not have a drive-thru.

Cate said...

an aside before i answer: i was a rhetoric tutor for other athletes my senior year. a bunch of the girls i tutored had to read Fast Food Nation and then write a paper that first defined a fast food restaurant and then defended that definition. it was so depressing helping them with that paper - they could barely write and i really felt like the schools they grew up in had failed each of them.

that said... a fast food restaurant is more like a manufacturing line than a restaurant. the food isn't actually cooked, its heated and prepared.

Leslie said...

I really don't know the answer to this question. I know that the staples, McDonalds, Burger King, Taco Bell are fast food. But does Fast Food stop at a dollar menu and a drive-up window? Would Chipotle or Baja Fresh count? How about Sonic? I just don't know. Would Five Guys count? I guess this really isn't an answer, more of a brainstorm...

Brett said...

anything that isn't made to order is fast food, though not everything that is made to order is not fast food.

the tie breaker is drive thru window.

Dan S said...

I use a very broad definition of fast food, and would say any chain restaurant, that takes more than 5 min to prepare and you have to do one of the following:

1) order the food from the counter
2) order the food from your car
3) pick up your own food
4) clean your own area when finished.

Always exceptions to the rule, I wouldn't clasify Vapiano's as fast food, but it fits this definition.

Also, Cosi for lunch is fast food, for dinner it's not. (they have table service at night)

beenu said...

any place sans waiters/waitresses and you have to bus your own tray.

Dan said...

Needs to have a majority of the following characteristics:

1) food ordered and served at a walk-up counter and/or a drive-through window
2) seat yourself
3) food served in a wrapper
4) all meals under $10

Unknown said...

a drive-through window and/or you have to order at a counter (even if the food is then brought to your table)

and ROLL TIDE!

Justin said...

Eateries DO NOT have locations at rest stops.

Fast food restaurants HAVE locations at rest stops.

The Chris Bannon Blog said...

A spork