Columbus, Ohio natives know that the best ice cream in the country, and possibly the world, is at Jeni’s.
They ship, too, and at reasonable rates as long as you’re not too far out west. There’s not a bad flavor in the bunch, but my favorites are the Gravel Road, Riesling Poached Pear Sorbet, Bourbon Buttered Pecan, Honey Vanilla Bean (the only vanilla ice cream I’ve ever loved), and the seasonal Browned Butter Almond Brittle.
Fat Mo’s burgers.
A Nashville area local chain started by an immigrant success story, their burgers are fresh, cooked to order and absolutely rock.
Buffalo’s homers hate chains and indie restaurants that may seem slick or scalable in some way, so much so they’ll often claim that restaurants that open a second branch, or even remodel, lose their quality and “authenticity”. There’s also a bunch of local chains that really don’t have national equivalents, such as Ted’s (charcoal-broiled hot dogs) and Anderson’s (custard and beef-on-weck).
That being said:
Mighty Taco > Taco Bell. They’re both still pretty bad; Buffalo has perhaps the worst Mexican food in the country.
Just Pizza > pizza chains. Buffalonians love their Buffalo-style pizza, and the national pizza chains have only a tiny presence in the market.
Otherwise, in Buffalo, local chains are basically mom-and-pop restaurants with two to five branches; painted or box signs with a Pepsi logo and phone number, generic 1980s restaurant supply interior furnishings, and very little standardization of food, service and appearance even among the different locations. The menu may be identical, but what’s served to you will vary from location to location. There’s a couple of exceptions – Mighty Taco and Anderson’s – but neither have any ambition of extraregional expansion.
That’s a bit scary.
ralph124c, that would be a good idea for a thread. Local chains that do it worse than bigger chains. I know a few of those…
For this discussion, I have two examples…
Raising Canes. Just chicken fingers, fries, and Cane sauce. Yummy…
El mesón. Puertorrican fast food place, serving sandwiches. Mmm…
Yes! I live in the greater Dayton/Cincinnati area, where the local ice cream chain that gets shoved down our collective throat is Graeter’s (http://www.graeters.com/ - hey, even Oprah likes it! :rolleyes:). But a local gourmet grocery chain (http://www.dorothylane.com/) stock’s Jeni’s pints, and HOO-BOY! is that shit tasty! (And expensive @ $9 a pint.) After trying both the Gooey Butter Cake (heavenly) and the Brown Butter Almond Brittle (orgasmic), I daresay that I don’t think it’s impossible for this ice cream to be beaten. And that’s the truth, not hyperbole.
I like Culver’s enough to eat there several times a month. It’s a Wisconsin-based burger & ice cream place that is a cut or two above Burger King and McD’s, yet doesn’t attract near the business because it’s not constantly marketing limited-time menu items, prizes and other crap. In fact, despite the quality of food, a lot of Culver’s customers seem to be pretty down-market folks, in contrast to the wide demographic of the national chains. I only hope they can keep doing what they do the way they do it.
New Zealand chain Burger Fuel is terrific. I was there last week & they have deleted quite a few items off their menus though. What remains is still good though.
New Zealand chain Hells Pizza is way better than Pizza Hut - but there are better owner operated ones (in Auckland anyway)
Cassano’s Pizza King/Marion’s Piazza in Dayton, Ohio, has the best thin-crust pizza.
Jerry’s Bar in Chillicothe, Ohio, also has a damn good thin-crust pizza.
Five Guys Burgers and Fries in the Washington, D.C., area
Elevation Burger in Northern Virginia
Mario’s Pizza in Northern Virginia
Ray’s Hellburger in Northern Virginia
It’s not a chain, but the place that I immediately thought of when I discovered this thread was Troni’s Pizza in Dayton (http://tinyurl.com/yfw8y2w), which has the closest to true NY-style pizza that I’ve ever come across in Ohio.
Another standout is Taqueria Mercado (http://www.escapelatino.com/mercado/index) in Fairfield, OH. This place isn’t Tex-Mex, it’s the real deal, serving up tripa, birria, lengua and other non-Tex-Mex, but tasty tacos and tortas.
As far as local chains go, probably the ones that get mentioned all the time as being missed the most by people who grew up in the region but moved away, are:
Cassano’s Pizza (http://www.cassanos.com/), a place that serves “Dayton-style” pizza (thin, crispy, almost cracker-y crust with liberal amounts of salt on the bottom, all cut up into teeny, tiny squares). I give it a B-.
LaRosa’s Pizza (http://www.larosas.com/), specializing in inexplicably beloved, sub-par (I hate to even characterize it as) pizza.
And, of course, the two big (around here) Cincinnati chili chains, Skyline (http://www.skylinechili.com/) and (the slightly superior) Gold Star (http://www.goldstarchili.com/), both of which are bested by the independent chili parlors (http://roadfood.com/Restaurant/Reviews/119/camp-washington-chili-parlor , http://roadfood.com/Restaurant/Reviews/513/blue-ash-chili , http://roadfood.com/Restaurant/Reviews/1166/price-hill-chili).
Marion’s is head and shoulders above Cassano’s, IMO.
ETA: What I meant was that I do think it’s impossible to find an ice cream better than Jeni’s.
There is a place called McGrath’s Fish House, based out of Portland OR, which also has a couple of locations in Idaho and one here in Utah (it looks like about 12 restaurants in total) that does an excellent job with seafood—It is about the same price as Red Lobster (maybe even a bit less expensive) but the food is absolutely exceptional; (light years above anything Red Lobster ever put out) I am talking really, REALLY good, fresh seafood at affordable prices.
I try and recommend McGraths to anyone who enjoys seafood, as it is one of my favorites—I highly encourage anyone to give them a shot, as you will surely be impressed with the quality of their food…
Freebirds World Burrito is a great, fast, burrito place that currently has several locations in Texas. The first opened in 1990 in College Station, right across the street from my alma mater Texas A&M University (actually it was apparently a single Santa Barbara location that transplanted itself to Texas) It was hugely popular and in the years since I graduated they’ve gradually expanded to about 30 locations. They actually opened one up just 15 minutes from my house recently, and I was so excited!
They are miles better than Chipotle–which I don’t dislike, but every time I’ve ever had a Chipotle burrito I’ve been thinking “Man, I wish there were a Freebirds nearby.” They have a lot more selection among kinds of tortillas, meats, and other ingredients compared to Chipotle.
There’s a small sub chain in the Chicago burbs called Rammy’s (just three or four locations, I believe).
They’re VERY similar to Potbelly in a lot of ways, but they’re just plain better. Better portions for the price, better food, and generally good service. And the local one just added some hot food to their menu and now have the best cheese fries I’ve ever had (especially if you ask them to top 'em with giardanera.
I checked their restaurant locator, and the one we used to go to in Kent, OH, appears to be gone. They did have really good wings. But the best thing of all was their Brandy Alexander, which was essentially a spiked milkshake.
Speaking of Freebirds, I think Austin has to be the world’s capital of the mini-chain. Freebird’s, Amy’s Ice Creams, P. Terry’s, Austin Java, Texadelphia, Kick Butt Coffee, Austin’s Pizza, Which Wich, Dan’s Hamburgers, Burger Tex, Culver’s, TerraBurger, Rudy’s Barbecue, Chuy’s … the list goes on and on and on.
Las Cruces, New Mexico has a local hamburger chain called Burger Time. Meh. There’s also Blake’s Lotaburger, a New Mexico-only institution; great burgers, but the service is sloooooooooow.
Whatburger used to be pretty good, but it slacked. The best burgers in town are now at Shoney’s, of all places.
Salsa’s is the best Texmex I’ve ever encountered. They lean a bit more on the Mex side, but still provide all the things to qualify as tex. (In particular, not crappy supermarket refried beans and Velveeta-like cheese dip every other Texmex place I’ve been to uses. They make everything from scratch.)
Everything else I can think of that is good isn’t a chain at all.
ETA: Pizza Pro is the best chain-style pizza I’ve had. It’s technically not a local chain though, and it made the top 500 list.
So, elmwood, what did you think of Dirty Martin’s Cum-Bak Place? It’s the one hamburger joint I remember from my time in Austin.
We used to go to one of the original Ground Rounds in Strongsville, Ohio, back when they started in 1969 and the early 1970s. I remember them telling us that the peanut shells were good for the wood floor. They showed silent films on the walls.
In the Akron area are the best burger drive-ins in the world: Swensons (no apostrophe) and Sky-Way. Here’s Michael Stern’s Roadfood review of Swensons: http://www.roadfood.com/Restaurant/Reviews/3760/swensons, including the carhops who run (run!) to get your order, and the Sky-Way web site. http://www.skywaydrive-in.com/
You can’t do any better.