We don't have ^those here in Cali. The only chain we eat at for dinner is Olive Garden. For breakfast (we rarely go out) it would be Coco's or Marie Calendar's. Lunch and occasional dinner is Subway even though it's a take-out mainly, not a sit-down restaurant. We all love Subway in this house.

 

Dean,

You can still hit the fast food places while on the road.

We stick with Wendy's. More healthy choices. Baked potato (don't ask for the cheese sauce though), chili, salads. Just watch some of the "deluxe salads" they can put a lot of fat and non healthy items on top of a salad.

As mentioned, Subway is good too. A veggie sub or a turkey sub works.

PS : They also have cookies there.

 

If I'm just looking for a quick lunch along the interstate then I'll go to one of the fast food chains. But if I'm in a town for a few days then I prefer to find little mom-and-pop places.

 

Thanks, that's good to know. I like Wendy's chili, so that's no great sacrifice over their burgers. I noticed that french fries are conspicuously missing from your list, though.

 

Carraba's is an Outback restaurant along with Bonefish, Cheeseburger in Paradise, Roy's, Flemings, Selmon's and a number of others.
Maccaroni Grill is not one of those under the OSI umbrella. (I have a friend that manages an Cheeseburger otherwise known as CIP.)

I also like PF Chang's.

 

Although we have eaten at Carrabbas in FL and VA we have not eaten at the one that is about five miles from our house. As we perfer to support the local independents that we enjoy given the choice.

It is my understanding that Carrabba's and Outback is a joint venture. The brothers that own Carrabba's know how to cook, and run the "back end" of a restaurant, but did not know the how to manage the "front end". On the other hand, Outback had developed some rather "sophisticated" software (for the restaurant business) to turn the tables over while at the same time optimizing the dining experience for the customer.

Note the next time one visits an Outback or Carrabba's that the hostess stand shows the restaurant layout with a grid of the tables. That grid, has an LED that shows the "dining status" of the party at any given table on the grid. It is color coded and is tied into the ordering system of the stage of the meal that the party is currently engaged in. (I.E., Cocktails, Appetizers, Salads, Entree, Dessert, etc) . This enables them to "SEE" the status of how many tables will be coming available based on where in the "meal cycle" any given table is at and therefore predicting how long it will be for an incoming party to be seated.

 

^^ Yeah, I've seen that. (And how many people do you suppose still think that Outback is an Australian import?)

One thing it's fun to do at places like that is to order dessert first. HPH

 

As a kid I remember stopping at Howard Johnson's restaurants (mostly along the PA Turnpike) because the food was predictable (and consistently mediocre) in my opinion.

I guess that this thread reflects the "Mallization" of America as well when it comes to restaurant chains. By eating at the chain restaurants one knows what to expect. Unfortunately, many jewels, or at least unique experiences are lost in this process.

For example: At the Nellysford (VA) run back in November of 2003, Rodney had arranged for us to have BBQ at a "unique" little place that has really good BBQ (and the world's most unusual cole slaw). It is also the only restaurant that I can remember that I have been to that has an "out house" (really more of a remote rest room in a different building with running water).

One would also miss a classic diner such as the Tastee 29 on RT 29 on Fairfax. It is on the National Historical Register as a land mark.

http://www.29diner.com/

Given the choice of having a unique experience that you have heard is "probably" good versus a chain what is your preference?

What do you think?

 

When you reference Roy's? Which restaurant are you referring too? Not Roy Yamiguchi's? Is that what you mean?

 

In-N-Out Burger
Local places of interest.