We’ve got more than one Pret-a-Manges in Boston. There’s one near Downtown Crossing and at least one other in the Financial District. I’ve seen one or two Tim Horton’s around, too (and I know there’s one in Rochester, NY).
But, yeah, Boston doesn’t even care for fast food joints from elsewhere in the US. Several years ago Krispy Kreme made a determined attempt to colonize Boston, with one site right in the Prudential Center, one near Wellington Circle, and another not far from me in Saugus. The one in the Pru has been re-sold several times over and the one in Saugus, which had one of those watch-the-donuts-being-made assembly lines, is now a bank. You don’t challenge the Dunkin’. I doubt if we’ll see a Winchell’s here any time soon, either.
Now you made me curious if anyone has actually done that, so I Googled all the fish and chips places in my area. I did find one place called London Best Fish & Chips. But the majority of them just have some sort of nautical name. So while I guess it’s been done, it’s not as widespread as the “[American state] Fried Chicken” phenomenon in the UK.
I also found a place called Churchill Arms Pub, which sounds like someone just said “Hey, let’s name our faux British pub after a famous British person!”
Well, originally, back when it was Boston Chicken, it was, in fact, founded in, and based in, suburban Boston (Newton, specifically). After growing rapidly in the 1990s (and renaming to Boston Market), they went bankrupt in 1998, and were bought by McDonald’s; the chain has changed hands several times since then, and as you note, is no longer based in Boston.
The Wikipedia article on Boston Market notes that, when they expanded into Canada, they were sued by Boston Pizza over use of the “Boston” name in Canada.
There’s also a bunch of Kennedy Fried Chicken restaurants in New York. The one I saw used the same colors an a similar font as KFC, so it’s easy to confuse them at first glance.
It just struck me as a bit amusing because it seemed like I saw one in nearly every city I visited, and all of them were named after a different Southern state, in an attempt to sort of siphon a bit of cachet from Kentucky Fried Chicken somehow.
There are actually two Churchill Arms- one in Folsom, CA and one in London, in the general vicinity of Kensington and Notting Hill (not sure exactly which district it lies within). It’s apparently a sort of Winston Churchill shrine of sorts for tourists.
Yeah. I used to eat at the Boston Chicken on Boylston St. in Back Bay, which is long gone now. There’s a Boston Market just down the street from me, though.
I remember going to Boston Chicken (or Boston Market) in Westchester County in the early 1990s. The portion size was decent, but then when I went back to one (late 1990s or early 2000s), the chicken leg and thigh seemed a whole lot smaller. Almost as if it was from a Cornish game hen.
To be really precise, Nando’s food was inspired by that of Portuguese immigrants to Mozambique, the headquarters are in South Africa, the country with the largest number of their restaurants is the U.K., and the country with the most of their restaurants compared with the population of the country is Australia.
Incidentally, until just recently all the Nando’s in the U.S. have been in the metropolitan areas of Washington, D.C., Baltimore, and Chicago. Just recently three have opened up in Texas. One is in Dallas and the other two are in Dallas and its suburbs.
Seattle has a Chung Chun franchise - it’s a Canadian chain that specializes in Korean-style corn dogs (technically they’re rice dogs since they’re made with a rice batter). In addition to the standard dog, they also have fried cheese on a stick, a dog that’s half cheese and half sausage, dogs which are rolled in things like ramen noodles or potatoes just before being fried, or with squid ink mixed into the batter.
It’s pretty tasty street food that you can munch on while walking around Chinatown.
On a similar note, there’s American fried rice - a Thai version of fried rice with “American” ingredients like chopped hot dogs, raisins, whole fried eggs, pineapple, ketchup, and (in some versions) fun-size Snickers bars. Indonesia has a similar dish called “nasi goreng USA” with most of the same ingredients.
Another one I’ve been remembered just now is a Singaporean dish called roti John. Supposedly, sometime in the '60s or '70s, an American or British fellow (“John” being local slang for a white Anglophone) approached a Malay cook at a food stall and asked if he could make him a hamburger. The cook had never heard of a hamburger, and so, despite the language barrier between the two of them, the bloke tried to explain to him what it was and the cook tried to improvise something with the ingredients he had on hand - and the result was a sort of omelette sandwich on a baguette, with ground beef crumbles and onions cooked into the egg before the bread was pressed into it on a flattop grill, then spread with mayo and chili sauce and garnished with salad.
I’ve never had one, but it sounds absolutely delicious and I’d love to try one someday.
There’s a fried chicken chain called Bonchon Chicken. It began in Busan, South Korea. It then expanded internationally. The chain’s headquarters are in Dallas now. Most of the restaurants are now in the Philippines, the U.S., and Thailand:
