Roadside Food

Roadside food developed in response to the fast-growing American market of hungry travelers. Unlike its culinary cousin known as “fast food,” roadside food typically involves a measure of hands-on craftsmanship in its preparation and presentation; though it is still rather fast, the cuisine also requires a modicum of patience from the customer. Fast food, as the saying goes, “waits for you.”

America’s ability to produce almost anything on an assembly line served it well in the development and adoption of fast food as the unofficial national cuisine. The country’s vast expanse cultivated an obsession with travel, facilitated first by the railroads and then by the automobile. Eating habits would necessarily have to conform to this quicker pace of life, now precisely measured by mechanical clocks rather than the sun’s passage. Industrialization provided the necessary improvements in food transport, packaging, and storage that would become an absolute requirement for any successful food service operation.