Fuddruckers and Prince's - I was kind of sad to see them go Red Robin is decent Beck's is not . .. well .. it's just a'ight 5 guys is ridiculously over prices What are some other places? (burger places with great shakes too) Rocket River
As a Westside Houston kid in the 80's, it was either Fudd's or Cliff's for burgers. Fuddrucker's was more fun cause you got to look at the meat counter, look at the bakery, and then go nuts with the burger fixin's bar
Plus there are a ton of local non-chain places to compete with nowadays. The kinds of places that have a signature burger with a funny name and will sponsor your kid's soccer team. Everyone in Kingwood knows if you want a really good burger, you go to Pete's or Bill's.
The Cliff's that I went to on Highway 6 had good food into the 90's and then something changed. I don't know if they were sold to new Owners or the same Owner decided to cut costs, but the Meat in the Burger was of a lower quality and I never went back.
I said it in another thread but the Fudds/Luby's failure is squarely on the heads of the Pappas family. They bought controlling interest and proceeded to run both into the ground. They could've made some changes that were easy to implement and not cost too much. Also, many of the locations were in high rent areas (the 2 in The Woodlands were perfect examples). They just didn't care and let the locations go to crap.
Personal Cracker Barrel story....my parents like that place, and one time I met them for lunch at the location on 45 South by Friendswood. My gf at the time had just dumped me and I was very down about it. While there at Cracker Barrel I heard Randy Travis' version of "It's Just a Matter of Time" for the first time on the restaurant speakers...boy the pipes on that guy. Very appropriate song for me at that time and place, and I further comforted myself with some Nestle Chunky from the retro candy section.
I miss Prince's alot. Would go to the one next to Compaq Center. I regret not supporting them at their weird last location on a golf course.
It's weird, but the best thing I ever had at Prince's was their chicken fajita baked potato...that was an all day meal
There are plenty of places that are good but not many that stand out from the rest. For me a lot of times it comes down to personal preference and price. If I want a fast food burger I'll go to DQ over whataburger ,sonic, and the rest of the places. I think they currently have the better burger. Plus its hard to beat DQ soft serve. If I'm in the Houston downtown area and want a burger I'll most likely end up at Christian's Tailgate in midtown. I'm not going to spend a couple hundred dollars on a steak when can go to the Texas Road House or a random steak and seafood place. I don't care about how much better the quality might be. I'm not going to enjoy it just because of the price.
Apparently you don't enjoy it because of the price...which is fine. My wife would prefer to go to Saltgrass. It's ok and I know what I'm going to get. I recently had dinner at Kirby's Steakhouse in The Woodlands. Their Denver cut waygu was the single best piece of meat I've ever had. It was worth every penny. I didn't enjoy it because of the price. I enjoyed it because it was f***ing delicious. But you're right, it absolutely does come down to personal preferences. There are people that frequent Pappas BBQ and Spring Creek BBQ for some reason. Are those places less expensive? Sure. But for a reason. If you're ok with that...then so be it. For me, once I've had Tejas, Franklins, Corkscrew, Truth, Pit Room, 3rd Coast, etc., I can't go back.
Nostalgia. I buy four and it lasts me a month. Loved Big Red as a spastic kid. Too sweet for me these days. I suspect there may be some red dye #2 in those bottles
I've said it before but the quality of those 3 are totally dependent on the owners/managers. In Marble Falls it's Sonic>>>Whataburger>>>>>>>>DQ. The DQ in Johnson City is literally inedible, the one in Lampasas is great. Only thing that really bugs me about Sonic is you can't get a malt...shakes only. I absolutely love that you don't have to sit in a line in a drive-thru
I get that. I was never one for the orange/purple/red sodas as a kid, and after not having one in 40ish years I couldn't even tell you what Big Red tastes like.
I agree with it leaning more towards Bubble Gum than towards being a Strawberry Soda. I wasn't fond of them either. I prefer Big Red over strawberry, orange and grape sodas. Maybe something like this for the relevant brands. Strawberry Soda -- Fanta Orange -- Orange Crush Grape -- ? Maybe the rise of Gatorade, Powerade etc cut strongly into demand for strawberry, orange and grape sodas. Fruit flavored beverages appear to still be popular with Hispanic consumers.
