Favorite Fast Food Restaurants

I'm hoping to flip the switch on more blogging here within the next few weeks. It's been a pretty hectic summer and I haven't really had the opportunity to do much writing. With summer winding down and cooler weather on the horizon, it'll give me more motivation to start writing again. But hopefully the cooler weather doesn't move in on us too fast! Because we've hardly had much of a summer as it is. It's finally gotten more summer-like and I'm hoping our fall ends up unseasonably warm. Only time will tell. I can promise that you'll see the return of "The Songs I Dig," which unfortunately has been placed on the back-burner in the meantime. I have so many songs to write about it's not funny! Rest assured, it hasn't permanently gone away. You'll see it pop back up here in a short amount of time.

I recently returned from a road trip to Central Wisconsin to visit with my sister. Overall the trip was nice, but I had hoped no problems would pop up. Unfortunately problems did occur - leaving me with a bit of a headache. I may address this at another time or not. But the main focus of this particular blog is to discuss and rank my favorite fast food restaurants. It's been awhile since I've done a blog like this, but I thought it would be something fun to do again. While sight seeing through many of the larger and smaller towns of Central and Northeast Wisconsin, you can't help but notice many of the restaurants that exist in each of those towns. It's quite expected to see a McDonald's or a Burger King in just about every town with a large enough population to sustain it. Yet others might not be as frequent. With that said, here is my ranking of favorite fast food restaurants. As always, this ranking is unofficial and very biased. Don't take my word for it.

#1 - Culver's : This fast food restaurant is most famous through most of the Midwest, although it is gradually growing and expanding its boundaries through other areas of the U.S. Culver's is famous for its butter butters and frozen custard. Not only are its hamburgers delicious, its fries cooked perfectly and always warm, and it's frozen custard to die for, but they also have numerous others items to choose from the menu. This fast food restaurant won me over as being a favorite of mine because of the wide variety of custard choices, from sundaes, to concrete mixers, slushies and so on. If you've never been to one and happy to drive upon one someday, be sure to check it out!

#2 - Wendy's : The restaurant made famous by Dave Thomas comes in a close second as favorite for me. If Culver's never expanded and entered the area, Wendy's probably would've made it as a number one choice. Nevertheless, it's still a very tasty fast food joint. Just as with Culver's, Wendy's hamburgers are very delicious, juicy, and cooked in that familiar square shaped. The fries from Wendy's are about as good as they get, cooked perfectly with the right amount of salt. It's not only about the burgers and fries, however. Their chicken and fish sandwiches are just as tasty. And how can you not include the always popular chili and frosty's!

#3 - Dairy Queen : I had considered not even including DQ on the list because where I live, it's basically just an ice cream stand and they don't even sell hamburgers or hotdogs. It's even opened just in the summer months. However, I know it's not like this everywhere. Just south of the Michigan border into Wisconsin, the DQ's there are open year-round and are enclosed buildings. They offer more than just ice cream on the menu, too. I think at one time in my life, I had a DQ hamburger and it was pretty good. However, I cannot give an honest opinion of their warm food since it's been so long. All we ever get from DQ is ice cream and it is always delicious! From their blizzards, sundaes, and ice cream cones and so much more. You cannot go wrong by making a quick stop at your local Dairy Queen.

#4 - Burger King : So next up is Burger King. Selections number four and five are going to be a bit more difficult because these are restaurants I basically go to in a pinch and are not frequented by me all that often. BK is a good selection for number four because their hamburgers are very good, being that they're flame-broiled. No other restaurant does it quite like BK. They have become famous for their whoppers and the fun-loving king they've developed as their mascot - attempting to act cool in many of their TV ads. One of their most-recent commercials had these people dressed up in hamburger costumes, playing roles as "Whopper" and "Whopper Jr." A few of those ads ended up being pretty hilarious. Another one I got a kick out of was where these two college-aged guys are eating these BK burger shots (mini burgers) and suddenly become surrounded by a group of very attractive-looking girls. One exclaims "I just want to squeeze them!" (referring to the burgers). The one guy says, "squeeze away." Gets me every time...

#5 - Hardee's : Rounding out the top five is Hardee's, which seems to be within a period of tough times, judging by the amount of closed restaurants I've been seeing within my travels. They are also known as Carl's Jr. in the western United States. As a kid, Hardee's was one of those restaurants we visited quite often. But then their quality of food diminished and eventually, it became a restaurant we rarely entered. To this day, I just cannot get myself to go to a Hardee's, even when I suddenly come to crave a Hardee's burger (and no, NEVER a thickburger - unless I want to gain a tremendous amount of weight). And their switch to Angus burgers did them no favors for me, in my opinion. They ended up giving me heart burn, unlike any other fast food burger I've ever had! But the Hardee's franchise still holds a special place in my heart, which is why sentimentally, I gave it #5 in my rankings.

And here are some honorable mentions:

-McDonald's : You might be shocked as to why McDonald's doesn't make my top five. Well, I've never been a big fan of their food overall and it was a restaurant we rarely stopped at when I was a kid and even now. However, don't be surprised if at some point, when and if I re-do this ranking, it manages to sneak into the top five. They are building a new McDonald's restaurant just two miles down the road from my new house. That easily beats out the seven or eight miles I need to travel to get to Wendy's or Culver's! I just might have to try McDonald's food a bit more often now.

-A&W : Another restaurant that seems to be having its struggles, at least locally, anyways. Within the past year, the last two A&W restaurants in the central U.P. have closed. One restaurant just a short drive from my new house closed a few years ago and was recently purchased. I was hoping someone would re-open it as an A&W but sadly, it's being converted into a different commercial business. The building is being transformed into something completely different and I find that disappointing! When they closed that A&W, they opened another one in the city of Marquette. But the location was very poor and within a few months, it was closed. I was looking forward to trying that one out, too, but it didn't stay open long enough. Now there are no more A&W's left within a short driving distance for me but it gets an honorable mention for me, basically for nostalgic reasons. Their root beer is what made them a household name and that rings true today.

Well, I hope you enjoyed my ranking of the favorite fast food restaurants. Like I said, this is only my opinion and I'm sure many of you may disagree with which restaurants belong where. And, if we had even more varieties of restaurants, I'm sure you'd see others included. There's no IHop or Sonics in Upper Michigan, that's for sure. Well, maybe eventually. And just in case you haven't heard or one or two of the restaurants featured here, maybe you learned something about them, too.