Fast Food NYC: Fast Food & Casual Dining in New York City: Search Results

Exotic Fast Food Palace on 44th Street

16 Feb 2010

Yum! Brands' dual-brand restaurants in the suburbs seemed like a novel idea when their rollout began in the early part of the last decade. In the suburbs you went to a KFC, a Pizza Hut, or a Taco Bell - not some combination of two of the three.

However, in New York City the concept of multi-branded food courts run by restaurant management companies is nothing new. For decades these companies, such as Riese Restaurants have run multi-brand food courts, primarily catering to the corporate lunch crowd, in Midtown and Lower Manhattan, as well as Downtown Brooklyn.

Unlike their modern suburban counterparts, the New York City food courts are generally parent-company independent. Nathan's Famous Hot Dogs may be paired with a Roy Rogers, a KFC may be paired with a Dunkin' Donuts and a Subway.

A gleaming example of diverse fast food experience is offered at the food court on the corner of 44th Street & 8th Avenue, two blocks north of the Port Authority Bus Terminal and a block west of Times Square. Here four chains (Subway, Arthur Treacher's Fish & Chips, Nathan's Famous, and Church's Chicken), as well as a pizza counter, are all under one roof. It is furthermore of note that this is Church's Chicken's only location in New York City, and one of the very few of Arthur Treacher's*.

The entire food court was overhauled in early 2009 and now boasts a very clean interior.

*Note that Arthur Treacher's website keeps a very spotty list of locations (it is even down at the time of this writing). This and several others in New York City are not listed.

New York City's In-N-Out Burger Clone

14 Feb 2010

Address: 311 East 23rd St at Park Ave South. 6-Train to 23rd Street.

In-N-Out Burger, a highly-regarded, simple burger chain, only stretches as far east as Nevada and Colorado. Their statement on franchising will probably keep it this way:

"In-N-Out remains privately owned and the Snyder family has no plans to take the company public or franchise any units." - In-N-Out "History"

How do you capitalize on this geographic restriction out East? Start a clone of course! First, create a brand name and color scheme similar (but hopefully distinct) enough to draw in cravers of the real thing. Then set up your menu in a similar fashion, and you're all set!

Let's face it: New York City is the capital of borderline cease-and-desist fast food clones. There was the "Subs Ur Way" in a yellow-and-green color scheme in Greenpoint (which lasted all of two months), and, of course, the infamous hundreds of KFC brand capitlizers, be it Kennedy Fried Chicken, Kansas Fried Chicken, or even New Kantaky Fried Chicken.

Enter Fresh-N-Fast, our new In-N-Out clone, which opened its first location by the corner of 23rd St & Park Avenue South.

While In-N-Out's restaurants generally offer spacious seating, this first Fresh-N-Fast location only has a few barstools along a narrow consumption counter along its left side. The menu boards could hardly be a closer match though. The only real dissimilarity is the fact that In-N-Out's grilled cheese sandwich is a "secret menu item" while at Fresh-N-Fast it's out in the open. Take a look at the comparison below:

In-N-Out Menu Board by roboppy via Flickr

Finally, let's get to how the food actually tastes and what the experience is like. Long story short, the burger was very good (perhaps a notch under Shake Shack) and the fries were world class (similar to but a notch above Five Guys). Price was comparable to the other "upscale burger chains", a double cheeseburger and fries will cost you around $8.50. The service staff appeared somewhat confused overall - at one point it seemed they thought they had already cleared my order. The kicker was when the cashier was asked if "Animal Style" was offered here. The response was "Oh, like In-N-Out?" While you can't get "Animal Style" exactly like In-N-Out, the nearly-identical special sauce and liquid cheese is offered on the side.

Diehard In-N-Out fans will probably scoff at this clone. However, unless you plan on flying out to Las Vegas for lunch, this is the next best thing, and it tastes good. What more can matter? Fresh-N-Fast plans on opening further locations throughout the city.

European-Style McDonald's Arrives in New York City

27 Dec 2009

Address: 541 6th Ave at 14th St, Manhattan - F,V Trains to 14th St; L-Train to 6th Ave

Traditional fast food chains don't exactly have a great image in New York City. They are generally associates with 1980s decor, overflowing trash bins, dirty tables, long food and bathroom lines, and poor and slow service. This seems to have been the accepted norm for over two decades, but a recent wave of hip (and clean) chains such as Chipotle, Qdoba, and Baja Fresh is starting to shift expectations.

The McDonald's experience in New York City is generally dismal. Many, if not all of the characteristics described above tend to be part of the experience. Recently the chain has begun to attempt to change its image in the United States, entering "the coffee wars" with Starbucks and Dunkin' Donuts. Similar "warfare" has been waged for over a decade in Europe, where McDonald's has had to compete with a culture of coffeehouses and a culture generally more embracing of coffee varieties beyond plain diner-style. This experience has generally been branded "McCafé" and can be found in many larger cities outside the United States, including Montreal.

In more recent times, the "distinctly non-plain American interior" has spread to the restaurant portion of McDonald's. In Europe this generally consists of an IKEA-style interior, and that's exactly what has been brought to 6th Avenue at 14th Street.

The menu is the same as any New York City McDonald's. However, you get to enjoy your Big Mac while lounging in comfortable wide chains with high backs. Besides this lounge-like seating there is also a "laptop bar" on the second floor with cushioned bar-stool seating.

Another distinguishing feature appears to be friendlier service from the staff (which wears black uniforms). During my visit the manager stood on the customer side of the counter and reassured customers that their order was on the way. Later she asked me how my meal was. There was also far more table cleaning going on during my visit versus a regular NYC McDonald's.

One vestige of an unwelcoming NYC McDonald's peculiarly remains: The "no loitering" sign which mentions a maximum table stay of 20 minutes "while consuming food". While this rule didn't seem to be enforced (my stay was around 30 minutes), this seems rather ridiculous to me in light of what McDonald's is trying to achieve here. We all know the average Starbucks stay is more around 45 minutes. But maybe its presence is merely a formality.

All-in-all a layout rollout such as this would benefit McDonalds' image in New York City. Unfortunately, given the multitude of operators and franchisers throughout the city, I don't think we'll be seeing an abundance of these "euro-chic" McDonald's citywide anytime soon.

Fall Updates: KFC, Baja, Checkers, Submarina

28 Sep 2009

Here are some updates for the beginning of the Fall 2009 Fast Food Season:

Greenpoint's KFC / Taco Bell Opened Today

Not revolutionary news, but this new location, which replaces a strange Taco Bell / Pizza Hut / Blimpie / Carvel / random coffee place location from the late 90s, is in the modern-day Yum! Brands co-branding style like you would see in the suburbs. Quite the departure from the pick-up-only, teller-window-style KFC locations found elsewhere in the city. You can find this new location in the Key Foods Plaza.

Baja Fresh Opens 2nd Manhattan Location

Right by Times Square this location is already extremely popular. A full review will follow.

Checkers Opens 2nd Brooklyn Location

Checkers continues its expansion throughout the five boroughs by opening its second Brooklyn location on Flatbush Avenue in Prospect Park South / Flatbush.

Submarina California Update

After my recent post on the lack of progress on New York City's first Submarina California in Astoria, the kind Submarina team has responded with an update:

"Out of respect for Häagen-Dazs's busy summer season, Submarina halted construction. The Submarina is scheduled to resume construction during the 4th quarter. Submarina looks forward to introducing the Best Subs Under the Sun® to New York City."

Sounds reasonable, and I'm sure we can't wait to try a California-style sub! Be sure to check out Submarina on Twitter.

Summer's Over, Time to Eat!

2 Sep 2009

Summer is over. You know what that means: New York City's only Chick-Fil-A is reopening for another NYU semester. I'm personally leading a tour group there on Tuesday, the first day of NYU classes (although it might open a few days earlier as students are returning - remember they're always closed Sundays).

But the end of summer in New York City also means there will be less outdoor activities and more time to enjoy some quality fast food!

Here is some of the news that occurred over the summer:

Checkers opened their first Manhattan location (at least in this century).
Submarina California Subs ~~came~~ is still "coming soon" to Astoria, Queens (their first NYC location)*
Tim Hortons was scheduled to open in three Cold Stone Creameries, but I haven't found any confirmation that this happened. Remember that they're in 11 Manhattan and Brooklyn Riese locations now. Union Square is also in the pipeline.

* Correction to original post: Submarina California has not opened yet (read update).

Tim Hortons Opens in New York City

13 Jul 2009

Tim Hortons and Riese Restaurants couldn't have asked for more media coverage for today's opening of the first 12 (well, nine, more about that later) Tim Hortons in New York City.

The event was covered nationally on The Today Show, CNBC, and Fox News. Additionally it was covered through dozens of local media outlets. In fact, I was even interviewed!

The LIRR Passage location is being portrayed as the flagship, and this is where the opening ceremonies took place this morning at 6am. Over a dozen reporters and camera operators were on hand as the first curious customers entered the facility. All but maybe six or seven were not here especially for Tim Hortons, but rather were, in their morning grogginess, trying to figure out what happened to their Dunkin' Donuts, and, navigate the new menu for replacements for their usual order.

Their were a few complaints to be heard. One man asked a manager where he could find the Splenda packets that had been in a plastic container under the Dunkin' regime. He was not satisfied with the answer to simply ask for Splenda in his coffee, as he'd been doing it himself for years. Truce was found by asking the counter staff for some packets.

Several customers streamed in by surprise but immediately recognized the brand and seemed very joyful of its arrival. Some had lived in Canada and border territories where it was nothing new, others had experienced it during their travels.

I ordered a large coffee and a 12-grain bagel with cream cheese after learning that the sausage, egg, and cheese sandwich was not available this morning. The bagel tasted fresh and crispy and the coffee was all it had been hyped up to be.

The coffee is very strong caffeine-wise, but amazingly mild roast wise. I can hardly understate the strength. I drank one large coffee and one small coffee between 6:05 and 6:40, and I was completely wired until after lunch around 1:30 in the afternoon.

Tim Hortons did indeed successfully manage to convert almost all of its Dunkin' Donuts to Tim Hortons over the weekend (see the Today Show link above for some brief conversion footage). The lone closed locations today were the Amtrak Passage location, which has been closed for months for a large-scale renovation, and the two Downtown Brooklyn locations. My theory on these later locations is that they were closed to provide the Manhattan locations with additional staff on this hectic day, as there was at least some indication on Twitter that these locations were complete.

Tim Hortons had a bit of a media blunder late last week when dozens of media outlets were reporting of the mass weekend conversion but Hortons' US PR Twitter feed was denying the reports. Today, however, everyone was on board. Tim Hortons launched a special webpage for New York City, and even the Twitter feed came around in the afternoon, when an official press release was posted on the Tim Hortons website.

After the two pending Brooklyn locations open (presumably this week), and the second Penn Station location opens later this summer, there will be 13 Tim Hortons in New York City. Add the three co-branded locations expected in August, and that makes 16. While pale in comparison to the 400+ Dunkin' Donuts locations and the hundreds of Starbucks locations in the city (comparision map between 2006 Starbucks and today's Tim Hortons), these new locations are in extremely high-traffic areas. For example, while Starbucks still has two locations in the same passageway as the new Tim Hortons, Dunkin' Donuts is no longer anywhere to be found in Penn Station. Hortons is now positioned for a sizable chunk of a sizable chunk of Manhattan's coffee purchases.

Notably absent from the location map are Financial District locations. Apparently Riese is no longer selling coffee down there. This would be another key market for Tim Hortons to get into. New York City's third-largest business district, Downtown Brooklyn, will have two locations soon, covering it decently well. The Upper West Side and Upper East Side get one location each.

Besides the Flagship Times Square location, we still don't know which Coldstone Creameries will receive Tim Hortons next month. The potential locations are (see map):

Hell's Kitchen
Upper West Side
The Village
Harlem (under construction)

Harlem's under construction status makes me favor it for one location, which would leave Hell's Kitchen, the Upper West Side, and the Village location fighting over the remaining spot. I welcome any photographic evidence and/or personal accounts which might support one the other.

Tim Hortons Arriving in New York City Over the Weekend

10 Jul 2009

Last week we found out Tim Hortons will be arriving in New York City in August, opening in three Cold Stone Creamery locations. While I and several newspaper articles described this as Tim Hortons entering the "Coffee Wars" of New York City, three locations wouldn't be much of a stronghold.

Entirely independent of this co-branded arrival next month, Riese Restaurants, a major franchiser of fast food options in New York City's main economic zones, announced this past day that it's replacing its 13 Dunkin' Donuts locations with Tim Hortons. And, amazingly, will complete the conversion between the close of business Friday and the Monday morning breakfast rush.

Riese and Dunkin' Donuts have a decade-long feud which started in 1999 when The New York Post published a photo of a mouse sitting on one doughnut and nibbling on another, shot at a Riese-run Dunkin' Donuts in Midtown. The photo even got a nod on The Late Show with David Letterman. Dunkin' sued Riese and tried to remove their franchise rights.

In the spirit of that photo, which I haven't found on the internet, I have attached a photo of a chipmunk and a Tim Hortons cup!

Riese has also mentioned that its Dunkin' sales were bad outside of breakfast time, which it hopes to remedy with Tim Hortons vast sandwich offering and lower franchise fees.

Riese has already removed all mentions of Dunkin' Donuts from its website, and has not created a page for Tim Hortons yet. Thus, using the Wayback Machine, here is the list of Riese-run Dunkin' Donuts locations as of last year:

761 7th Avenue @ 50th St. New York, NY Phone: (212) 767-8347	48 New Street @ Wall St. New York, NY Phone: (212) 483-8319	152 West 34th Street bet. 6th & 7th Ave. New York, NY Phone: (212)630-0319
2547 Broadway @ 94th St. New York, NY Phone: (212)316-2915	1276 Lexington Avenue @ 86th St. New York, NY Phone: (212) 339-8868	47 East 42nd St. bet. Park & Madison Ave. New York, NY Phone: (212) 681-8501
Penn Station LIRR Level New York, NY Phone: 630-0314	Penn Station Amtrak Level* New York, NY Phone: (212)630-0320	Madison Square Garden Taxi Ramp New York, NY Phone: (212)594-0204
451 Fulton Street Brooklyn, NY Phone: (718) 237-9346	22 Court Street Brooklyn, NY Phone: (718) 624-1107	50 Fulton Street @ Cliff St. New York, NY Phone: (212)732-6551

* This location is still under a larger renovation.

Photo credit: Photo by Mark Olson. Licence Information

Tim Hortons to Enter New York City Coffee Wars

1 Jul 2009

Tim Hortons, the Canadian coffee and doughnuts chain, will enter Manhattan this August with three locations co-branded with Cold Stone Creamery. One location will be in Coldstone's flagship Times Square location, while the remaining two locations have not been leaked.

The chain will use promotions such as free coffee instead of media blitzing, The Financial Post reports. The three stores will be used as an indicator of how well Tim Hortons can perform in New York City, which already has Starbucks, Dunkin' Donuts, and McDonalds fighting over residents' and and tourists' caffeine addictions.

Currently the closest Tim Hortons is in Meriden, Connecticut.

Lunch at a Olive Garden in Manhattan

23 Jun 2009

Visited Location: 696 6th Ave @ 22nd St

Home to deals such as the Unlimited Soup, Salad, and Breadsticks and the Never Ending Pasta Bowl, Olive Garden has a very small presence in New York City with one Brooklyn and two Manhattan locations.

Unlike your average suburban "farmhouse in Tuscany" Olive Garden, the Manhattan locations feature an urban concept that premiered in 2002 with the opening of the Chelsea/Flatiron location, which, coincidentally, was the one I visited.

This restaurant is extremely large and has a single-floor layout with an attempt at the urban Italian ristorante feel. During my lunch visit the restaurant was rather quiet and about two-thirds occupied.

I came with a party of six and we all took advantage of the "Unlimited Soup, Salad, and Breadsticks" offering. It is currently being offered for $8.95 before 4pm, and makes an extremely filling lunch. The only additional food costs you may have to worry about are "dipping sauces" which are not included and not unlimited.

Reviewers on Yelp have mentioned that the "Never Ending Pasta Bowl" is also available at this location, but isn't on the menu.

The food itself was excelent, although it was sometimes hard to tell what the actual difference between the soup were - many contained almost identical ingredients. The service to our table was also excellent - unlimited food and six people essentially required our own personal waiter, who either was serving us food or getting us more food!

Overall, Olive Garden, laugh all you may at the idea, provides a great value lunch in a friendly setting. You almost forget that you are in a nationwide casual dining chain... Until, of course, you glance at the menu and notice that Budweiser, Bud Light, and Miller Light are the "premium beers," and that there apparently aren't any other options!

Lunch at a Rare Dunkin' Deli in New York City

18 May 2009

Visited Location: 395 Hudson St @ Clarkson St

Dunkin' ... Deli?

That's right... It's the strange result of Dunkin' Donuts owning the Togo's chain of sandwich shops, which has free-standing locations on the West Coast. Here in the East, Togo's apparently was dual- or triple-branded with Dunkin' Donuts and Baskin-Robins. In the late 1990s the name "Dunkin' Deli" replaced Togo's in these locations.

Dunkin' Donuts acknowledges the Deli brand's existence in the nutritional information section of its website, but otherwise makes no mention in its store locator or brand history sections.

Strange history aside, Dunkin' Deli's are extremely rare in New York City. Since not searchable on Dunkin' Donuts' site and not accurately separately listed on Google Maps and Yelp, it's anyone's guess to how many of these locations exist in New York City. I've personally been to over 50 Dunkin' Donuts in this city, however, and I know of only one: 395 Hudson St @ Clarkson St.

From the outside, apart from some Dunkin' Deli labeling, this looks like an average Dunkin' Donuts. On the inside, for the most part, this still looks like an average Dunkin' Donuts, especially now that practically all Dunkin' Donuts' offer hot food items. However, the menu board is extended to include the deli sandwiches, with selections such as a Chicken Bruschetta Sandwich and a Turkey and Bacon Club Sandwich.

There are multiple bread selections, such as white, wheat, and flat. Toasting appears to be the norm as do onions on sandwiches where you might expect someone to want them. Unlike Subway and Quiznos, personalization of toppings is not encouraged, with order reception taking place at the coffee counter, fulfillment in a separate area separated off on many sides by a solid wall, and delivery occurring from a window labeled "Sandwich Pickup".

I've had both the chicken bruschetta and turkey/bacon club sandwiches. Both had the hot toasted taste of Quiznos, and both were loaded with onions. The tomatoes on my recent turkey/bacon club had no flavor.

One important last item of discussion is price. Dunkin' Deli is not particularly competitive priced, with the small sandwiches priced around $4.99 and the large around $7.99. The small sandwiches come nowhere near in size to Subway's five-dollar footlongs, so lunch here is certainly not economical.

While not inexpensive, an occasion meal from Dunkin' Deli provides a welcome, more flavorful alternative to the suite of subs from Subway.

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