Many of your favorite fast food chains are only a five minute drive or less from you, but before you could find at least one of them at every plaza, mall, or on the corner of your street, they could only be found at one location in the country, and they looked nothing like what the fast food chain does today.
Here are the photos of 10 original locations of your favorite fast food chains and the story behind their sweet success.
1. Pizza Hut
Location: Wichita, Kansas
Two brothers borrowed $600 from their mom to open a pizzeria in Kansas in 1958, and the rest is history. Fun fact: the sign only had room for nine letters, so they agreed on the name Pizza Hut.
2. McDonald's
Location: Chicago, Illinois
The first McDonald's that opened in 1948 had a pretty simple menu. Did you know that the first menu items were hot dogs, and not their famous hamburgers? That being said, the McDonald brothers realized their hamburgers sold best, and now McDonald's hamburgers are one of the most famous in the world, making the company the most successful fast food chain in the world, feeding approximately 68 million people every day.
3. Wendy's
Location: Columbus, Ohio
Dave Thomas's "old-fashioned" hamburgers became quite a hit in 1969. He named the restaurant after his fourth child, Melinda Lou "Wendy" Thomas. What many don't know is that Dave was a high school dropout, and his success proved that he didn't need a degree to become a wealthy businessman.
4. Dairy Queen
Location: Joliet, Illinois
The first store opened in 1940 and served a variety of frozen products. But way before that, a father and a son were experimenting with soft frozen dairy product to come up with a recipe that would make the world fall in love.
5. Taco Bell
Location: Downey, California
Before there was Taco Bell, Glen Bell started Bell's Drive-In and Taco Tia in San Bernardino in the '50s. In 1962, he opened the first Taco Bell, serving what customers called "Tay-Kohs." The first location also featured fire pits and mariachi bands, now that was a bang for the buck - literally.
6. Jack in the Box
Location: San Diego, California
Businessman Robert O. Peterson had a snazzy idea back in 1951 of a restaurant equipped with an intercom system and drive-thru window. Some of the first Jack in the Box employees served up hamburgers to passing motorists for only a few cents.
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