
William Ingram's and Walter Anderson's White Castle System created the first fast-food supply chain to provide meat, buns, paper goods, and other supplies to their restaurants, pioneered the concept of the multi-state hamburger restaurant chain, standardized the look and construction of the restaurants themselves, and even developed a construction division that manufactured and built the chain's prefabricated restaurant buildings. What is certain, however, is that White Castle made the first significant effort to standardize the food production in, look of, and operation of fast-food hamburger restaurants. Most historians agree that the American company White Castle was the first fast-food outlet, starting in Wichita, Kansas in 1916 with food stands and founding in 1921, selling hamburgers for five cents apiece from its inception and spawning numerous competitors and emulators. The company also popularized the notion of "take-out" food, with their slogan "Less work for Mother". Automats remained extremely popular throughout the 1920s and 1930s. Numerous Automat restaurants were built around the country to deal with the demand. Joseph Horn and Frank Hardart had already opened the first Horn & Hardart Automat in Philadelphia in 1902, but their "Automat" at Broadway and 13th Street, in New York City, created a sensation.
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The Automat was a cafeteria with its prepared foods behind small glass windows and coin-operated slots. Some trace the modern history of fast food in the United States to 7 July 1912, with the opening of a fast-food restaurant called the Automat in New York. The Burger King Whopper sandwich made its debut in 1957 Catering trucks (also called food trucks) often park just outside worksites and are popular with factory workers. Fast-casual restaurants have higher sit-in ratios, offering a hybrid between counter-service typical at fast-food restaurants and a traditional table service restaurant. Variations on the fast-food restaurant concept include fast-casual restaurants and catering trucks.

1952) are multinational corporations with outlets across the globe. Today, American-founded fast-food chains such as McDonald's (est.

Īrguably, the first fast-food restaurants originated in the United States with White Castle in 1921.

The term "fast food" was recognized in a dictionary by Merriam–Webster in 1951. Fast-food restaurants are typically part of a restaurant chain or franchise operation that provides standardized ingredients and/or partially prepared foods and supplies to each restaurant through controlled supply channels. The food served in fast-food restaurants is typically part of a " meat-sweet diet", offered from a limited menu, cooked in bulk in advance and kept hot, finished and packaged to order, and usually available for take away, though seating may be provided. A fish and chip shop in Broadstairs, Kent, EnglandĪ fast-food restaurant, also known as a quick-service restaurant ( QSR) within the industry, is a specific type of restaurant that serves fast-food cuisine and has minimal table service.
