History of fast food restaurants in America - Research Paper Example

Fast foods include tacos, ice creams, hot dogs, fried chicken, juices, chicken nuggets, meat pies, pizzas, sausages, chips and sandwiches. Other foods that are often served in fast food restaurants are mashed potatoes, salads and chilli. One of the main characteristic of fast food restaurants is that they often maintain a limited menu, with or without seating space. This paper will analyse the history of fast food restaurants in the US tracing its development especially from the 1920s to date.

Before the fast food restaurants gained ground, such foods as hamburger sandwiches and hotdogs had been big business in the early 1900s, their popularity bolstered by the holding of the St Louis World’s Fair. The first pizzeria in the United States of America opened in 1905 setting stable ground for the establishment of fast food restaurants (Famouswhy, 2010). Before the establishment of what is today known as the fast food restaurant in the US, White Castle, founded in Kansas’ Wichita was already established in 1921 (Howstuffworks, 2010).

Then, most people assumed that burgers that were being sold in circuses, lunch counters, carts and fairs were of low quality. The assumption was based on the belief that hamburgers were made of soiled meat and scraps gotten from slaughterhouses. Taking note of this damning misconception, White Castles owners endeavoured to ensure that this misconception was destroyed. The founders of White Castle started to prepare their hamburgers in a manner that customers would appreciate. Their restaurants prepared the hamburgers such that clients saw how the ingredients were being mixed and the food cooked (Howstuffworks, 2010).

They also painted their restaurants white and gave them names that suggested high levels of hygiene. With time, the popularity of the restaurant chain grew especially in the East and Midwest parts of the US. The