Restaurants have changed a lot during my lifetime. Different kinds of restaurants have come and gone and changed with the times. How you order has also changed. On the whole, there are more options now, though some have gone by the wayside.
While drive-in restaurants were not as popular by the time I came around as they were in the '50s and '60s, there still were some. In the Seattle area, Burgermaster is the only one that comes to mind that still exists as such. Sonic is another example, which is in this state, but not very close to me. Some of them may have had places inside to sit, but they were mainly known for providing a place to park and eat in your car. You would pull into a parking spot, which had an electronic menu with a speaker. Similar to a drive-thru, they would take your order through the machine. The obvious difference to a drive-thru would be that you were parked before ordering, as opposed to pulling up to the window and moving on before eating. When the food was ready, the servers would bring it out to your car. It generally came on special trays. You would roll your window partway down, and the tray had a notch that attached to the car window.
A variation on this was restaurants like Dick's Drive-In, a burger chain in the Seattle area (and a must-visit when you're in the area), which is still very popular and growing. Most branches don't have tables or seating, but you walk up to the window, place your order, and pay. Up until a few years ago, they only took cash. Once your food is ready, they hand it through the window, and you go back to your car and eat. Unlike the other kind of drive-in, you actually have to get out of your car to order.
Drive-in restaurants (both varieties mentioned above) generally serve(d) burgers, fries, milkshakes and the like.
Fast food restaurants like McDonald's, Burger King and others have been popular for years, and continue to be popular. Though some of them have automated, they are generally similar to how they used to be. They often have a drive-thru, where you stay in your car, order through the speaker, drive up to the window to pay and get your food, and then go park and eat. Fast food generally has the food already prepared (or nearly prepared), and they can bring it right out to you. Other kinds of restaurants, you generally have to wait for it to be prepared. In the Philippines when we were there, McDonald's' biggest competitor was Jollibee. They have been gaining in popularity in the US in recent years, but they were all over the place in the Philippines when we were there. We have one just south of Seattle (and I hear there's a new one opening in Tacoma). I went to one in Manhattan last September.
Fast food restaurants generally serve burgers, fries, milkshakes and more, but some specialize in other things as well. KFC (Kentucky Fried Chicken) and Popeyes (along with others), for example, specialize in fried chicken. If you're in the Seattle area, I highly recommend Ezell's for your fried chicken needs. (Since we don't have Cracker Barrel in this area, Ezell's is just about my only option when I have a hankering for fried okra!)
Then there was the classic diner. The biggest example I can think of is Denny's, which, though not as popular as it once was, is still pretty big around the US. Many diners were independent and not chains like Denny's (and in my experience, the independent ones are better than Denny's...but don't tell Denny's that). They often had booths along the edges of the restaurant with padded benches on either side next to a window. Next to those were standing tables with chairs or stools. (This depended on the size of the diner, as some were too small to have the free-standing tables.) Past the tables was the bar, which had taller stools for people to sit. Of course, layouts varied, but that was the general pattern in most diners I've been to. Diners also had a variety of formats for the building. Some were a fairly traditional-looking restaurant from the outside. Some looked like train cars that were placed on a foundation and converted into a restaurant (such as the one in the picture below). I think some of them actually were converted train cars.
Diners also serve burgers and fries (generally bigger and fancier than their fast food counterparts), along with milkshakes and other regular lunch items, but also fancier meals, such as fish, spaghetti, and more. They also often serve breakfast food. (Some fast food restaurants do as well, but not on plates like diners, not as fancy, and not as big portions.) Diners were often a great place to get pancakes, omelets, biscuits and gravy, and more. Some have amazing desserts.
Malt shops, though much more popular before I was born, have still endured somewhat. They often had a similar setup to diners, but specialized in cold desserts, particularly malts and milkshakes. Ice cream parlors were similar, but had vats of ice cream, and you could tell them what flavors you want, and they would scoop them out into a cone or cup. (They are still around, though I haven't heard them called parlors in years.)
Diners and malt shops often had jukeboxes in the past. Some still do, but not as many. Some had small jukeboxes on every table.
Pizza restaurants often have a similar setup to diners, but specialize in pizza (obviously). They tend to have more variety in how they are set up, as some do and some don't have places for seating. Over the years, seating has generally decreased, I've noticed. Some have no seating and only do their pizza to go. However, in the past, they almost all had tables to eat in the restaurant. Some of them also have salad bars.
All-you-can-eat buffets are considerably less popular than they used to be. They were fun, and oh so delicious, but I'm not complaining too much about the recent paucity of them because my eyes were always bigger than my stomach, and I'm probably still shedding pounds from all-you-can-eat feasts 20 or more years ago! They had plates at one end of the buffet, and you could load your plate(s) and eat at your table. We generally paid at the front of the restaurant.
Sit-down restaurants were (still are) generally more formal. Some of the above have been sit-down restaurants on occasion. I'm not sure if there's a more "proper" name for them, but that's what I call them. Diners fit in that category. Some require you to wait at the front until a server seats you. At others, you can find an empty table. The server then hands you a menu, and you can look at it and place your order. You generally pay when you're done eating, after the server brings you the check. Many of these have either closed or changed formats in recent years. For example, Pizza Hut in this area has generally removed their tables and only does take-out and delivery now. But there are still a bunch of sit-down restaurants around!
Steak restaurants, such as Outback Steakhouse, are much more formal (and usually expensive) restaurants. They are delicious, and always sit-down restaurants. Due to the price, we generally only go for very special occasions. They also seem to have decreased in number in this area.
Restaurants featuring food from different cultures vary by culture. Most of these have not changed much in my observation, but I will point out any changes I've noticed.
- Chinese restaurants generally serve food family style, so your group orders several dishes, and they put them on the turntable in the middle of the table, and then you dish up into your bowl and eat it with chopsticks. Some serve dim sum at certain times of the day: dumplings and other small foods that servers take around the dining room in a cart. When they come to your table, you tell them which ones you want, and they take the steaming basket of deliciousness off the cart and put it on your table. My dad was the best person to take with us to Chinese restaurants, as, having lived in Hong Kong, he ordered in Cantonese. We often got more authentic food that way, as many Chinese restaurants in the US have made adjustments to the recipes to cater to American tastes.
- To celebrate my graduation, we went to a Japanese restaurant, which had tables set in square recesses in the floor, so we sat on the floor and could still dangle our legs below the table without sitting cross-legged. Some of the dishes, they brought a portable stove out to the table and cooked it there.
- Many sushi restaurants have dishes on a conveyer belt that circulates around the room. If you see a plate that you like, you take it off the belt as it goes by. When you are done eating, you take your stack of plates, which are color coded by price, to the front and they total up the price based on how many and what color the plates are. (I generally get my sushi from the grocery store, usually found in the deli area.)
- Teriyaki restaurants are generally fairly small, and you can either call in your order or order at the front counter, and pay there too. Some of them offer free soup. They also sometimes have bubble tea. They are often closed on Sundays. They usually have tables to sit down, but it's also more common than other kinds of restaurants to get it to go.
- In Mongolian grills (which appear to have originated in Taiwan, not Mongolia), customers go to the front where they have a buffet-style bar. You take a bowl, and put rice, noodles, bean sprouts, meat, vegetables, sauces, and whatever else you might want in the bowl until it's full. You then hand the bowl to the server, who dumps it onto a flat round cooker and cooks it up, then serves it to you fully cooked. In my observation, these have declined in number in recent years, but they are a special treat when we get to one of the few remaining ones in our area. I also like it because I can usually put half of it in a box to go and get a second meal out of it.
- Vietnamese Phở restaurants serve Phở (pronounced "fuh"), which is a kind of soup with noodles, sprouts, other vegetables and meat in a broth. You can add peanuts, fresh basil, crispy shallots, and/or Sriracha sauce if you like. These restaurants also usually serve Banh mi, or Vietnamese sandwiches in a baguette containing, among other things, meat, sprouts, basil and jalapeños. (I tried ordering it without the jalapeños once, and though still good, it just wasn't the same.) In these restaurants, you generally order at the front and take the food to your table. While I haven't seen many changes in the format of these, I have noticed they have gotten a lot more popular in recent years. I also love how the owners often tend to have "phở" naming their restaurants with puns.
- Mexican restaurants such as Azteca tend to be more sit-down restaurants where you sit down at the table and a server comes to take your order. Before even ordering, they typically put baskets of fresh hot tortilla chips on the table with a couple different kinds of salsa. They refresh them until the food comes. The dishes generally consist of Spanish rice and refried beans, along with what you ordered: meat, burrito, enchilada, quesadilla, molé, or other entrées.
- Thai restaurants tend to be sit-down restaurants as well, though sometimes they are laid out similarly to Phở restaurants. They have a five-star rating system for how spicy you want your food. I like to order mine ไม่เผ็ด, or zero star/not spicy. I've only had to translate that into English for a server in the US once, and it's fun surprising the servers by practicing my very limited Thai knowledge. Meals generally consist of rice or noodles with meat and sauce. They also tend to be more peanut-based than other cultures. They also often do family style like Chinese restaurants.
- In recent years, I have noticed a trend in several of these, particularly Chinese and Mexican restaurants, of serving buffet style, and you build your meal at the front counter. For example, at Panda Express, you select either rice or chow mein, and then can add entrees, such as orange chicken, beef and broccoli, or a number of other options. Chipotle and Qdoba have a similar setup where you can build your own burrito (or quesadilla or other option), selecting which rice, which meat, which cheese, which other toppings you would like, and then they wrap it in a tortilla and put it in a foil wrapping (or you can order it in a bowl without the tortilla, or order the tortilla on the side). MOD Pizza has also joined in the fun with a large selection of pizza toppings and several size options for the crust. You tell them what toppings you want, they load it on the crust, and then put it in the oven. Subway and other sub sandwich restaurants have a similar setup.
- Mexican restaurants such as Taco Bell and Taco Time go for the fast food format (detailed above), but with tacos, chalupas and other Mexican options. Where most fast food restaurants offer French fries, they often go for Mexican-style tater tots (which Taco Time calls Mexi-Fries). I've noticed a decline in the number of these restaurants in recent years, but they're still around. (My brother Aaron likes to hang out with friends at Taco Bell. He calls it Talk-o Bell when he does that because he talks with them. I admire how he really makes an effort to get to know people and make them feel loved and heard. If he didn't live in Texas, I would join him sometimes!)
- Greek and Mediterranean restaurants also tend to be ones where you order at the front, pay, and go back to your table. They make the food and bring it to you. They often have gyros (meat and vegetables with pita bread), shawarma (delicious roasted meat with rice) and other dishes. I like ordering the beef and lamb mixture. They often come with hummus, olives, salad and pita bread. Greek fries are also a special treat...French fries smothered in Feta cheese and spices, sometimes also including tzatziki sauce. These restaurants seem to have gotten a bit more popular in recent years, though I haven't seen a lot...just enough so there's usually one nearby.
When I started at Wireless Advocates, I learned about the wonders of food trucks. They've been around for longer than that, but that's when I started going to them more. They park on the side of the street, usually in the same spot every day (or every other day, or specific days of the week), and you can form a line beside the truck. They take your payment and cook your food right there. When it's ready they call your name and you come up to the window to get it. There were all kinds of restaurants...Greek, Filipino, Chinese, Thai, Italian, fried chicken, Mexican, Mediterranean, you name it and there's probably a food truck for it. There are also phone apps that can tell you where the local food trucks are.
Food courts have been another great idea. They're typically in malls. As malls have declined in number in recent years, we have less food courts now. But they generally have all kinds of restaurants arranged in more or less of a circle or oval. You order your food at the restaurant of your choice and take it to any of the tables in the food court. All kinds of restaurants are represented...food from multiple cultures, diners, buffets, ice cream, dessert, fast food, hamburgers... again, you name it and it's probably in a food court somewhere (or used to be).
If you have been reading my "Days of Yore" posts, I imagine you have an idea of what's coming... Though I do sometimes go through a drive-thru, I don't often go physically to restaurants these days, opting instead to order though DoorDash or other apps on my phone. When I worked downtown, I also ordered through Peach, which delivered to the front desk at our business. Ritual offered the option to order a meal, and you could piggyback on a coworker's order. You could pay for your food in the app and one person could go to the restaurant nearby to pick up the food for everyone who ordered that day. In the past, we could call ahead to order, and either go pick up the food or have them deliver, but only certain restaurants (mainly pizza and certain fast food restaurants) had a delivery option, and the delivery people were employed by the individual restaurant. These days, especially since the pandemic, almost all restaurants have a delivery option, and they use apps such as DoorDash and Uber Eats, so a delivery person would be employed by DoorDash or other app company and go to whichever restaurant the person ordered from, then pick it up and deliver it. These apps also offer an option to tip the delivery person. Some restaurants do still employ their own delivery people, though they usually also participate in the apps. Many restaurants also let you order on their website and their own app, either for pickup or delivery.
What is your favorite restaurant?
