Passed that one on the bus to/from HS (Lane).
It’s been good gosh 30 years since I moved out of Vegas. and almost 40 since I moved there. Back then the “fast food / fast casual outpost” movement was just getting going.
Near the Strip (or in the airport as your daughter says) you could try a decent assortment of crap food from outlets that I, as a mostly southwesterner up to that point in life had never heard of.
I was there just a couple weeks ago and the modern density of out-of-area franchise eateries is amazing. From the accents I heard in some of these places it sounds like they’re more catering to folks wanting to eat familiar “we have that back home” food than adventurous folks from e.g. the northwest wanting to try some franchise eatery only available in the e.g. southeast.
This was over 25 years ago but I remember when my local Popeyes actually had “an onion ring guy” (I couldn’t get them if he wasn’t there) and they were really good.
I also personally liked Steak n Shake (it’s been a good 4-5 years, since they went from 24/7 to some very limited hours in my area and they were like THE late night place here pre-COVID) onion rings, but I’m not sure if that’s because their fries were so terrible (I can’t do shoe string bland fries that don’t taste anything like potatoes) that I always got onion rings by default. BK were never that good, but I liked their sauce. I always appreciated fast food places that at least offered some options other than fries especially when their fries resemble cafeteria food or generic frozen bake at home fries or worse.
I’ve always thought Jack in the Box has the best onion rings of any fast food place.
Burger King has my favorite onion rings of anywhere ever.
Yes, I said I can’t eat onions without getting sick. And this is true. Yet, every few years I will break down and get onion rings at Burger King, and enjoy their salty crunchiness, and then scream at myself the next morning for being so stupid, and swear to never do it again, and I won’t for years until the next time. It has been a few years, so I’m due, but maybe I won’t anymore.
(I think one reason why I like them is that the onions are minced, not actual slices of onion, and they are formed into a ring shape before being breaded. It gives it a more consistent texture and the flavor is less onion-forward.)
Maybe it’s a good thing that onions make me so sick because I could pound those Burger King onion rings by the handful if I was hungry enough.
For an even less onion-ful experience try the White Castle ones if you’re in-region. They aren’t extruded onion-mush that’s then breaded. They’re extruded pre-mixed bread+onion mush. Which is IMO appallingly short of what real ORs ought to be. But may meet your dietary restrictions without the next day regrets.
IMO the best mainstream franchise ORs come from Red Robin. Big meaty slices of real onion. So obviously not for you. But for the rest of us … Yumm!
There are better ones from local Mom & Pops around the country. Including around here. But for a national audience I’d recommend Red Robin as both plenty good enough and probably locally available.
I never heard of it until the movie came out.
Damn, now I do want to try them!
Dang. I had a boss who swore he’d never eat them again after a bad experience.
But it’s the most used vegetables in cooking. I was kind of hoping they would cure cancer so the could get onto important stuff like taking the aftertaste out of onions.
There are no White Castles in Massachusetts (there used to be a White Tower in Cambridge, but it is now occupied by a falafel joint, or used to be—probably demolished by now). (And we all know the Tower beat the Castle, not by a mile but by a slim margin.) Then four years ago I was in New Jersey and discovered the Impossible Slider, which what is this world coming to, on the other hand I’ve been veggie for years so I had to try it. And it was okay. But the shakes were the gummiest, and that’s a good thing. Could not finish mine, and after two days in my car it retained its shape and I sucked it right down. Oh yes.
Grew up in queens where we had a few. Worked at one at 16. Im in NJ now and there are a few here too. So, I’m not sure about that “geography summary.”
Yeah, I’m not sure if there’s a different "interactive map , but when I click on locations on the White Castle website and enter my Queens zip code, there are 27 WC in the immediate NYC area plus some more a bit further out in NY, NJ and I think PA
WC is strange beast, there’s none west of STL (KC shut down), only about 300+ in country, and I’ve not seen any new ones being built
What I didn’t realize, until now, is that unlike nearly all of the big fast-food chains in the U.S., White Castle doesn’t use franchisees: every one of their restaurants is company-owned (except, according to this 2019 article, a test market they were doing in Nevada at that time).
It may not help that, even compared to their fast-food rivals, White Castle is particularly known for being junk food, in an era when their competitors have been trying to offer arguably better-for-you options (grilled chicken sandwiches, salads, etc.) Even if White Castle were to push into those kinds of offerings – as far as I can tell, the only such item today is an “Impossible Slider” – it’s not what they’re known for, and I think that they’d be hard-pressed to attract consumers who are looking for better-for-you choices.
My dad took me to White Castle in Minneapolis a lot when I was growing up. There was a competitor right across from the one downtown that was called The Green Shoppe and also had the shape of a castle. I’ve always wondered if it was a purely local thing or if they could be found elsewhere as well.
I love WC sliders but especially miss the deep-fried fish sandwiches and onion rings.
I’ve never eaten at a White Castle (I’m a left coaster), but if one popped up in my neighborhood I doubt I’d go. There are a ton of other places I can get bad-for-you burgers that actually are good, as opposed to crappy gut bombs. That’s the kind of place that you need to eat at when you’re a kid and get hooked on it.