Yesterday I was driving home and saw a very long line of cars queuing for something. This brought back all the bad memories from the lockdowns when people would line up to the Starbucks window in order to relive the memory of driving to work and stopping for some coffee. I did it a couple of times, too, to feel like myself again.
I wondered what people could possibly line up for in the absence of a lockdown. What can be so attractive on a freezing February afternoon?
Turns out that a Chick-fil-A opened in town and people are going cuckoo-bananas with joy. I never understood the love affair people have with Chick-fil-A. My niece comes over from Canada, desperate to go there. Locals sit in their cars for an hour. Why? It’s one of a million fast food places. OK, it’s better than Arby’s but then partially digested concrete would be better than Arby’s.
I don’t get it.
By the way, in case anybody is wondering, my favorite fast food in the US is KFC. That shit is irresistible which is why I never go.
In Europe, my favorite fast food is at those shawarma carts you can find everywhere. Wonderful stuff!
Clarissa's Blog 
I once was at an airport and the Chick-fil-a line wrapped around the entire terminal. Meanwhile the perfectly normal (and likely healthier) sandwhich shop had 0 people in line. I am with you. I don’t get it. I wouldn’t wait in that long of a line for anything. I suspect much of it is ideological since the owners are very open Christian conservatives and many liberals have boycotted it.
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I just drove by and there’s also a line. In the morning! Isn’t it considered lunch food?
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Maybe they have a breakfast menu? I guess I should add that I have never had it. I rarely rarely eat fast food (maybe once a year?). But yout fundamental point stands: how good can fast food possibly be??? And to that I would add, how good can ANYTHING be? I just won’t wait in a line that long for anything.
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I once stood in line for an hour outdoors in St Petersburg in February (which is insanely cold and windy) for… ice-cream. And once I finally bought it, a gust of wind tore it out of my hand and plonked it on the ground. I was 14, and that told me to avoid queues forever, so I’m with you on this. 🙂
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They do have a breakfast menu. IMO, the chicken breakfast biscuit is better than the standard sandwich.
That said, I don’t get waiting in such a line, either. Then again, I think the Popeye’s and (sorry, Clarissa) KFC chicken sandwiches are both better…
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It’s been ages since I could afford any of those places. I don’t miss them. It’s just as quick and considerably cheaper, in a pinch, to stop at a grocery store and pick up a few simple items of actual food: bread, cheese, pickles. Yogurt and granola. Nuts and raisins. A gallon jug of water. I keep spoons and cups in the car for this purpose. Saves a fortune on eating out, for the odd times when the schedule goes sideways and I can’t get home to get the kids lunch.
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We have so much in common, it’s funny. I also keep spoons and cups in the car for when I need to feed my kid on the fly. 🙂 So my kid doesn’t know any of these drive-through places.
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I used to do drive-throughs when I was younger. I thought they were convenient or something. Then, kids, budget constraints, just didn’t do it for a few years. When presented with the opportunity again, I tried going through a drive-through, and it was like being in purgatory. It wasn’t even that long a wait, but I was breathing the exhaust of the car in front of me, I spent the whole time thinking about how much gas I was wasting while idling in line, and then the actual commercial exchange through two windows is so awkward! How did I ever think this was OK? I think I would now pay to avoid this experience.
It is weird how much my tolerance for certain things has changed with age.
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I did a lot of fast food when my kids were growing up. I was always tired and always pressed for time, I didn’t enjoy either cooking or cleaning up afterward, and it was much easier to go to the drive-through or order takeout. I got away with it until I hit menopause (or menopause hit me). When I gained thirty pounds practically overnight, I knew something had to change. I was forced to alter my diet radically, and giving up fast food was part of the deal. It felt like deprivation at first, but now that I’ve adjusted to my new diet, learned to enjoy cooking (now that I don’t have to deal with fussy eaters), and lost forty pounds, I don’t miss fast food at all.
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“fast food”
I’m out of the US too long to say anything meaningful now and Poland has never been… strong in the street/fast food realm, but I’ll add…
The first McDonald’s where I live became, on weekends, a date destination with a live music combo…. it closed down years ago.
My favorite current fast/street food option is the Georgian Bakery (lots of them) mostly baked things with savory or sweet fillings, very good.
There are also a few sitdown places (mostly in food courts) like North Fish (a Polish company masquerading as Scandinavian-ish) or Sphinx (combination middle eastern/steak house).
Also (CW: restrooms) when travelling in the region I always welcomed the sight of McDonald’s because they had nice restrooms (a scarce resource in Central-Eastern Europe).
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