Fast Food

The authors contemplate the origins, architecture and commercial growth of wayside eateries in the USA in the 20th century. They examine the impact of the automobile on the restaurant business and offer a thorough account of roadside dining, beginning in the antebellum era.

---

Eating on the run in America has a long history, but it was the automobile that accelerated quick service and created a whole new category of food. The rise of car culture brought an explosion of roadside restaurants which served sandwiches and fried foods meant to be consumed quickly and easily, usually with the fingers: hot dogs, fried chicken and the pre-eminent roadside food, hamburgers with french fries. In this work, the authors contemplate the origins, architecture and commercial growth of wayside eateries in the USA over the 20th century. Written in the same style as their two previous texts, "The Gas Station in America" and "The Motel in America", the volume examines the impact of the automobile on the restaurant business and offers a thorough account of roadside dining. Jakle and Sculle begin with the antebellum era, when restaurants came into their own in the United States, and trace the evolution from coffee shops, main street cafes and diners, to drive-ins and drive-throughs.
Focusing on the people who created and ran these enterprises, the autors describe the rise of early franchises such as White Castle and White Tower and the later dominance of large corporations such as Burger King, Hardee's and McDonald's. The authors argue that the story of these unpretentious eating places is the story of modern American culture. At first, one-storey, wood-frame sheds were modelled on stalls at carnivals and amusement parks, where many foods that were once novelties but are now basic to the American diet - such as the hamburger and the hot dog - were popularized. Architectural experimentation was a hallmark of the late 1920s and early 1930s, with stands built as giant oranges, lemons, milk cans, inverted ice cream cones and milk cartons. By the 1950s, drive-ins and diners had become the icons of a generational subculture, places where teenagers sought freedom from parental surveillance and adult authority. In the late 20th century, the roadside restaurant (like the gas station and motel, according to Jakle and Sculle) is an essential part of the modern American landscape - where intentionally designed sameness "welcomes" every interstate driver.