Wendy’s

1

First opened in 1969, Columbus, OH. 49 years of age.

Dave Thomas and Phil Clauss worked for KFC’s founder Colonel Harland Sanders before opening up their own some years later. The first Wendy’s was opened in an old car dealership and sold old fashioned burgers for 55 cents a piece. The restaurant was named after Thomas’ daughter, Melinda Lou, known as “Wendy” by her siblings.

Subway

2

First opened in 1965, Bridgeport, CT. 53 years of age.

Pete’s Super Submarines was the original name for the now worldwide Subway chain. It was named after Dr. Peter Buck, who was a physicist and the man who loaned Fred DeLuca 1,000 bucks to start the restaurant. He opened the place in the hopes of being able to pay his way through college, little did he know the place would blow up and become a massive success. The name was changed to Subway a year later.

Taco Bell

3

First opened in 1961, Downey, CA. 57 years of age.

Glen Bell opened up this restaurant 7 years after opening up his first drive-in restaurant. PepsiCo purchased the chain in 1978 and has since been a major player in its promotion and success. “Yo quiero Taco Bell.” was one of their most famous tag lines.

Pizza Hut

4

First opened in 1958, Wichita, KS. 60 years of age.

Frank and Dan Carney opened up the first ever Pizza Hut with only 600 dollars. The name comes from the fact that the sign they had could only feature 9 letters maximum. They wanted the word Pizza in it, and eventually they decided that Pizza Hut would work. Originally, they sold a 13 inch pizza and a 10 inch pizza. The thicker “Pan Pizza” was introduced in 1980, and today they sell everything from pizza to wings to pasta!

Burger King

5

First opened in 1954, Jacksonville, FL. 64 years of age.

Opened up by David Edgerton and James McLamore under the name “insta-burger” this chain is most famous for the “Whopper”. It first appeared on the menu for 37 cents and has since been their most popular item.

Sonic Drive In

6

First opened in 1953, Shawnee, OK. 65 years of age.

Troy Smith started his career selling goods to people with a root beer stand. After finding success, he started expanding his menu and eventually added in the ‘drive-in intercom system’. After finding success with this, he and Charles Pappe opened up another location under the name SONIC. Their motto was “service at the speed of sound.” Today, Sonic still stands as a very popular fast-food empire.

Dunkin Donuts

7

Opened in 1950, Quincy, MA. 68 years of age.

William “Bill” Rosenberg opened up the first ever Dunkin Donuts with only an 8th grade education. He sold sweet cakes, donuts by the dozen (for 69 cents) and coffee for a dime. 5 years later he had 5 locations open, and today there are over 8,000 D.D’s in 30 countries.

In-N-Out

8

Opened in 1948, Baldwin Park, CA. 70 years of age.

Harry and Esther Synder created this iconic restaurant with the idea that the burger stand could be done in a more efficient way, rather than having door-to-door style service. They decided that using a drive-thru speaker was smarter and more efficient. This was the first ever drive-thru in California.

McDonald’s

9

Opened in 1940, San Bernadino, CA. 78 years of age.

Dick and Mac McDonald opened up the first McDonald’s with the intention of selling some great barbecue products. It wasn’t long before they decided to lose that idea and replace it with a menu that featured 9 different items: hamburger, cheeseburger, three soft drinks, milk, coffee, potato chips, pie, French fries, and milkshakes. Their success slowly but surely started to take place, and now, McDonald’s is one of, if not the most famous fast food place on earth.

KFC

10

Opened in 1930, Corbin, KY. 88 years of age.

The famous fried chicken of Harland Sanders was first sold at the front of a Gas Station in Kentucky. It wasn’t long before there was a huge demand for his chicken. However, Sanders didn’t want to compromise the quality of his chicken in order to make more of it, so he started frying his chicken with a pressure cooker. To this day, his chicken is cooked under pressure.

7-11

11

First opened in 1927, Dallas, TX. 91 years of age.

7-11 isn’t exactly a fast-food place, albeit it is a place for people to quickly stop in and grab snacks and food. Hell, it’s a convenience store. It was first opened up to sell ice, but eventually started selling things like milk, eggs, sweets, and more.

White Castle

12

Opened in 1921, Wichita, KS. 97 years of age.

It cost $700 to open the first White Castle Restaurant. For 5 cents a piece, you could chomp down on one of Billy Ingram’s famous burgers. By the year 1941, the restaurant had sold over 50,000,000 of these burgers. It wasn’t until 1950 that the burgers cost more than 10 cents each.