Sonic Drive - In

I eat a lot of crap on the road.  Not necessarily bad food, but "bad for you" food.  I try to minimize the intake of bad food, but sometimes I find myself with a short amount of time between appointments and I have to get something in me, and quick.  And one of the places I seem to find when I'm traveling in Missouri and Kansas is a Sonic Drive-In. 

The first Sonic restaurant was opened in 1953 in Shawnee, Oklahoma by Troy Smith.  Actually, it wasn't called Sonic until 1959 - it was first known as the Top Hat Drive-In.  The Top Hat had a unique service where the people would stay in their cars and order their food off of a billboard menu via a car-side two way radio.  Then car hops would bring the food to the car.

There are now over 3,000 Sonic Drive-In's today.  And even though they tout themselves as being "America's Drive-In", they are only in 30 states, primarily in the south and western part of the U.S.    

I was first introduced to Sonic when I was working for a company out of suburban St. Louis.  One of the office guys, Steve Gollaher, who was a strapping and big 6'4", 225 lb. Missouri farm kid, went to Sonic for lunch one day and brought back his food.  Man, it smelled good (but, of course, at that point in time of day, even a shit sandwich would have smelled good to me).  But what he brought back about made me choke.  It wasn't how bad the food was - it was HOW MUCH food he brought back.  Just for himself. 

A "Super Sonic" Cheeseburger

He had a Super Sonic cheeseburger, basically two quarter pound patties with lettuce, tomato, pickle, onion and mustard on it; a foot-long chili dog (Sonic calls 'em "coneys"); a large order of french fries, and a 44 oz Dr. Pepper (their 44 ounce drinks are called "Route 44's").  And I watched in absolute amazement as he sat there and ate the whole thing before polishing off the last of the Doctor Pepper. 

I told him, "Jethro (that was my nickname for him because he could eat like Jethro Bodine on the Beverly Hillbillies), next time I come here and we do lunch, I'll buy the food if you go and get the same thing for both of us." 

And the next time I came back about three months later, I walked in the door one morning and he said, "We doin' Sonic today, boss?"  Abso-friggin'-lutely, Jethro. 

And he went and got the same thing - except I took a Coke instead of a Dr. Pepper.  Now, I can eat a lot but I was severely humbled that day. 

I got the burger down. I got the chili dog down.  There was no way that I was going to be able to even get CLOSE to begin on the fries.  So Steve ended up eating his large order of fries and MINE, too - in addition to everything ELSE he ate!  The guy was a true machine.

My normal guilty pleasure at Sonic is a Super Sonic Cheeseburger.  I always tip the car hops an extra buck when they bring the food out.  The burgers are very good for fast food.  They do remind me of a Whataburger or an In-'N-Out Burger.  The buns are toasted, the toppings are fresh.  The burger is hot and juicy. 

If I'm on the go and I need to eat, and there's a choice of Wendy's or Sonic, I'll always pull into a Sonic.  They're tough to beat. 

Comments

[Will Veber]

Cheapest?!? You need to take me to a low priced Steak 'N' Shake. I've never eaten at one.

I'll be doing an entry in my "Why I Won't Go in There" category on Steak 'N' Shake because I think it's too expensive for what you get. I do like their burgers, but not for the price.

[Dirk Keller]

What about Steak N Shake?
They are without a doubt the finest, if not cheapest, burgers in the world.
In sight, it must be right.