We eat there all the time, but do you ever stop to wonder how some of our favorite fast food restaurants got their names? Here’s the history on why we call them what we do:
- Chick-fil-A - Way back in 1946, Samuel Truett Cathy and his brother opened a restaurant called The Dwarf Grill in Hapeville, Georgia. Cathy invented his simple chicken sandwich in 1964 and wanted to emphasize that it was made with the best part of the chicken, the chicken fillet. So he called the sandwich the Chick-fil-A, and eventually his restaurant was called that too.
- Chipotle - Founder Steve Ells says it was “just like a light bulb went off,” when he came up with the name Chipotle. Some warned it was too obscure or hard to pronounce, but he stuck with it and it worked.
- Domino’s - Brothers Jim and Tom Monaghan bought a pizza shop in 1060 called DomiNick’s, but after some drama, the original owners decided to retain the rights to the original name. And the story goes, a delivery driver came up with the new name as a deadline for an ad in the phone book pressured them to decide fast.
- Wendy’s - Founder Dave Thomas always wanted to have a restaurant and when he finally got the chance in Columbus, Ohio in 1969, he named it after his daughter Melinda’s nickname. Rumor has it he tried all five of his kids’ names before going with Wendy’s.
- McDonald’s - Ray Kroc may have turned the golden arches into the restaurant we know today, but in 1954 brothers Dick and Mac McDonaldstarted the small, but successful eponymous burger spot in San Bernardino, California.
- Starbucks - Co-founder Gordon Bowker was supposedly brainstorming with friends when an ad pal friend said words that start with “st” were powerful. So when the group later saw an old map that had a town called Starbo on it, Bowker was reminded of Starbuck, the “Moby Dick” character, and an empire was born.
- Subway - It started as Pete’s Super Submarines in 1965, was changed to “Pete’s Subway” after one of the owners, and in 1974 it became simply, Subway.
Source: Fox News