Two fast food places - an Arby’s near where I work, and a KFC near my home - both closed a few months ago, and have not been filled yet. This gave me the idea for this thread:
If there was an opening for a fast food restaurant near you, which one would you want to fill it? You can include pizza chains if you want.
My first choice, taking into account what is already nearby (for example, there’s already an In & Out), is Wienerschnitzel - nothing like a Chili Cheese Dog / Chili Cheeseburger / Chili Cheese Fries combo. Papa John’s comes a close second, followed by Rally’s/Checkers, mainly because somebody came up with the crazy idea of putting mustard on a chili dog.
All the Quiznos near me have been closing over the years, no idea why. They’re being replaced by other sandwich shops - the last two were replaced by a Jimmy John’s and a Mr. Pickles, so clearly it’s not that sandwich shops as a whole are unprofitable.
Really disappointing too, since I vastly prefer Quizno’s hot sandwiches to the cold stuff that’s replacing them.
In an ideal world, In-n-Out, but they ain’t coming to Chicago anytime soon, and I’d probably gain 50 pounds in a year if they came here.
My neighborhood is in need of a good sub chain. There’s plenty of Subways in the area, but that’s it. (The Quizno’s went out of business, but I’m okay with that.) I’d vote for a Jersey Mike’s. They do exist in the area, but none near where I live.
(What’s crazy about putting mustard on a chili dog? Mustard and onions is standard for me if I’m going the chili dog route.)
The mayor of Cedar Park, Texas went on a wild campaign to get In-n-Out and it worked, so you might try that in Chicago, pulykamell. Personally I think they are over-rated; we had several near us in California and we rarely ate there. Over-rated and very crowded.
I don’t really have a vote for the OP, as we have almost every fast food place you could want here already. If we didn’t already have Jersey Mike’s and Potbelly, I’d vote for them.
Oh, I’m well aware there’s a sizable contingent who finds them over-rated. They’re my platonic ideal of a fast food hamburger and service (I’ve even gotten my picky mother-in-law who hates fast food to regularly eat there!) And the prices are fantastic, especially compared with the other burger joints I consider in their class like Fatburger and Five Guys.
That said, on the other hand, does Chicago really need yet another fast food burger joint? I think the market is over-saturated as it is, so maybe it’s not a good idea and I should save it for the treat that it is during my yearly (and sometimes more often) visits to Phoenix.
So I’ll stick with the closer outpost of Jersey Mike’s.
One of those just showed up here a few months ago. Interesting concept, a fast food restaurant solely focused on chicken fingers. And, by that, I mean literally, that’s pretty much all there is on the menu. Just chicken fingers, just one kind (so no spicy or anything like that), although you can get them in sandwich form. Chicken fingers, fries, Texas toast, and coleslaw. I think that’s pretty much all there is. I like these types of fast food establishments that focus on one thing and get rid of all the extraneous bullshit trying to please every combination of person.