Spangles

Brothers Dale and Craig Steven took over a Wiener King hot dog stand in Wichita, Kansas, and reopened it as Coney Island in January 1978. When they wanted to franchise in 1984 they found the name too generic to protect, so they ran a citywide naming contest, and the winner was Spangles. The chain stayed in Kansas and stayed in the family for almost fifty years, until the Stevens sold it to the Hamideh family in July 2026.

In Kansas the arrival of a Spangles is an event. The first Topeka branch took $97,000 in its first week in 2004, with cars wrapped twice around the building, and in 2006 about 250 people camped overnight through a hailstorm in Lawrence for a year of free food. Much of that fame comes from the adverts: cheap, strange local TV commercials, once made at a rate of almost one every two weeks, and slogans like “$2.99? Are you out of your mind?”

The restaurants have a 1950s diner look, and the menu is Black Angus “steakburgers” on butter-toasted buns, with sourdough versions, pita wraps, breakfast, donuts and soft-serve. Official calories are published for everything, including the 2,430-calorie Beast.

27 restaurants, all in Kansas, about half of them around Wichita.

• Wayback Burgers (United States, since 1991). A Delaware burger stand that grew into a franchise from Buenos Aires to Tokyo. Also built on beef, cheese and a double stack.
• Sonic Drive-In (United States, since 1953). Order through a speaker from your car and a carhop brings the burger. Also built on beef, cheese and a double stack.
• Jack's (United States, since 1960). Alabama’s home-grown fast-food chain, where biscuits share the menu with the Big Jack. Also built on beef, cheese and a double stack.
• A&W Restaurants (United States, since 1919). America’s oldest drive-in chain, and the burger that lost to bad maths. Also built on beef, cheese and a double stack.