1961 - Restaurants

Restaurants

The first Hardee's fast-food restaurant opens May 5 at Rocky Mount, N.C., serving charcoal-broiled hamburgers at 15¢, cheeseburgers at 20¢, french fries at 10¢, milk shakes at 20¢, soft drinks at 10¢, milk at 12¢, and coffee at 10¢. Wilbur Hardee, 42, opened a hamburger stand at Greenville, N.C., in the fall of last year, was soon averaging $1,000 per week in net profit, and attracted the attention of Rocky Mount businessmen Leonard Rawls Jr. and Jim Gardner, who have persuaded him to go into partnership with them. Their charcoal broiler is one of only three of its kind in America; it features a water purifying system that floats away grease and keeps the charcoal free of impurities. The success of Rawls and Gardner attracts former Baltimore Colts wide receiver Jerome J. "Jerry" Richardson and his college football teammate Charles Bradshaw, who with two other investors raise $20,000 to open the first Hardee's franchised restaurant October 19 at Spartanburg, S.C., and the chain will grow by April 2005 to have 1,894 locations in 31 states.

McDonald's hamburger stands begin a vast proliferation as Ray Kroc buys out the McDonald brothers and acquires all rights to the McDonald name for $14 million, including interest costs (see 1955). Kroc has established nearly 230 stands, borrowed $2.7 million to make his deal with the McDonalds, will have 700 outlets by 1965, and will build McDonald's into a worldwide chain. Dick McDonald, now 52, returns to his native New Hampshire; his brother Mac will die in 1971 (see 1967).

The London restaurant Cranks opens June 21 at 22 Carnaby Street with 50 seats and a vegetarian menu consisting mainly of salads, wholegrain rolls, soups, savouries, and puddings served on handthrown stoneware. David Canter and his wife, Kay, have been inspired by the 1951 Gayelord Hauser book Look Younger, Live Longer. They have gone into partnership with Daphne Swann, and they use only fresh fruit and dairy products, 100 percent wholegrain flour, eggs from free-range hens, and raw Barbados sugar to prepare dishes that are made fresh each day from these basic ingredients. Cranks branches will open in the 1970s and '80s in Covent Garden and elsewhere in London and in the West Country, making Cranks the first and only vegetarian restaurant chain in Britain.