So I’m at one of our local shopping centers when a sign above an empty storefront catches my eye: “COMING SOON…FUDDRUCKER’S”.
w00t!
I’ve eaten at several in different cities and love their burgers. I can only say “about damn time!”
Question for my fellow Dopers: ever eaten at a place in a city other than yours, and then been totally stoked that they were finally opening one locally?
Lucky bastid!
On the up-side, we travel to Vegas at least 4 times a year, so we’ll get a chance to work Fuddrucker’s into the restaurant rotation.
As for the question: Totally. I am so jazzed a Famous Dave’s BBQ just opened locally. There has been a dearth of BBQ in my area, and this will go a long ways towards soothing my need for Q. It isn’t transcendant BBQ, but it is damn good.
Man, I miss my local Fuddruckers. Good stuff.
It’ll probably be about a month or two at least–they haven’t even started installing the equipment yet. But when they do, it’s on W. Flamingo in the Target shopping center west of Ft. Apache. Enjoy!
I have fond memories of Fuddruckers… and then I ate there again… Egh… such fond memories though.
Kewl! I was just about to PM you to ask for the address.
There are times you feel like Mesa Grill, and there are times you feel like Fuddrucker’s. 
You’ll get tired of it. We had one for several years. My friends and I used to go there once or twice a month. Then we grew tired of it. So did everyone else, apparently. They closed down a bit later. Every once in a while, I’ll see one. But I have no desire to enter Fuddrucker’s again. For some reason, my friends feel the same way. It’s weird because the food and service were always good.
Hey, congrats about your Fuddruckers!
Nine years ago, when I moved from Tulsa to Harrisburg, Harrisburg had NOTHING. (Okay, they had McDonalds and KFC and a few independent places). Since then, Harrisburg has gotten Target (TWO Targets!), a Super Center Wal-Mart, Chili’s, Macaroni Grill, Fuddruckers (TWO Fuddruckers!), Ruby Tuesdays (too many of them), Outback.
We still don’t have a Sonic (the closest one is about an hour drive), or a decent Tex-Mex place. (El Rodeo has gone downhill in recent years, and even then, it was only so-so).
Fortunately, if you don’t have a Fuddruckers nearby, you can get the exact same thing at Applebees, TGIFridays, O’McShenanigans, Chili’s, Ruby Tuesday, Senor Frog’s, Ground Round, Hooters, Cheeburger Cheeburger, Rocky Run, or Johnny Rockets.
No. The opposite.
I’ll mostly stay off my soapbox about this stuff, but it really drives me crazy that people – especially when the local news does it – get all hyped up, and give a ton of free publicity to a place that doesn’t need it. There are new, exciting, locally-owned places opening all the time that don’t get a lick of free pub, and could really use it. They have to build a clientelle through blood, sweat, and financial risk.
But, the Hard Rock cafe opens in Baltimore, and because the faceless corporation that owns the local TV station has SYNERGY with the faceless corporation that owns the hard rock franchise, they get location shots on their opening day.
So, sorry if I don’t get all bouncy when Hooters, or Fuddruckers or ESPN Zone opens another branch in Baltimore, while my neighbor with the coffee shop is trying to put his kids through school. But, you did ask. . .
Right, except that the food and the atmosphere are completely different at those places, but otherwise you are right, they are exactly the same.
There’s a few I miss.
Minneapolis has no:
Steak n Shake
Cheeburger, Cheeburger
Sonic
Checkers
Portillo’s
Luckily the last remaining Rocky Rococos in Minnesota is about a mile from my house.
Lucky you!! I miss our Fuddruckers. Every few months, we go up to Saskatoon for a fuddsfix.
Yep. While visiting my future wife in College Station, TX I found myself irreversably addicted to Freebirds World Burrito, and we had to go every time I was down there. Eventually they opened one in Austin, and we’d stop there when we were in the area.
FINALLY, we got one in the north Dallas area a few years ago, so we could get our burritos locally. Then one opened in Addison, and finally a month ago one opened in Richardson just down the street from the office. I’ve eaten there four times in as many weeks so far. 
We have a Fudruckers here in DC. I don’t get it to be honest. Never though they were that good.
“People can get a burger anywhere. They come to Chachkis for the service and the atmosphere.”
hehe. Many years ago I had Little Caesar’s pizza. I don’t know if I was drunk or what, but I loved it. I would then see commercials for Little Caesar’s and nearly cry that there were none in my town. Then, one opened up and I was thrilled. I must have gotten pizza there 5 or 6 times before I realized something was amiss. 
Oh, is that what it is? There’s one opening near me too, but I had never heard of it before. So I take it I should try it out when it opens?
Yeah, right.
At Johnny Rockets you can get a burger and fries with fake 50’s shit all over the walls, and get an overly chipper high school girl with 12 pieces of flair to serve it to you.
At Senor Frog’s you can get the same burger and fries with fake Mexican shit all over the walls, and get an overly chipper high school girl with 12 pieces of flair to serve it to you…
At Ground Round, you can get the same burger and fries with fake Texas shit all over the walls, and get an overly chipper high school girl with 12 pieces of flair to serve it to you…
My mistake.
That sounds soooo wrong.
Different burgers at each different chain. If you can’t taste the difference, you need to get your taste buds recalibrated. Besides, I prefer the buns at Fuddrucker’s. The chain will always be special to us as it was the first restaurant my wife and I ever ate at together.