Now in select cities

Being in San Diego, with my first experience with In-N-Out Burger and seeing other places I'd heard of but never been to (like Del Taco), made me think a bit about the interesting existence of regional restaurant franchises. When you get right down to it, there aren't very many places that actually span the entire country, but there are a number of other places that are hugely popular in certain regions, and end up gaining this weird national cult status as a result. Here's a few that leap to mind:

In-N-Out: This might be the #1. People swear it's the best fast food burger, and yet it doesn't extend east of Tucson or even north of Redding, CA. You basically have to be in Vegas, California, or the big Arizona cities to see one. And the crazy thing is, they basically have four things on the menu (hamburger, cheeseburger, fries, shake). Best fast food burger? No, but better than the major national chains? Sure. Probably not deserving of its cult status though.

Sonic: Especially now that they advertise nationally even though you've got to drive a couple hours from Chicago or New York to get to one. I barely remember my one experience with Sonic, which came on a quiz bowl trip to points south; the drive-in aspect is a large part of the appeal, as focused on in their generally obnoxious ads, while the food seems secondary. My recollection of the food is nil, so that sounds about right.

White Castle: I never thought of it that way since they were around when I was growing up, but there are no White Castles west of Missouri or south of Tennessee, and they're almost completely absent from New England (though you can get frozen sliders in grocery stores in nearly every state, even ones without actual restaurant locations, New England doesn't even have those). Alma tells the story of people from California out in Chicago for a friend's wedding who insisted on going to a White Castle; this was pre-"Harold and Kumar," so they didn't even have that excuse.

Chick-fil-A: Famously closed on Sundays, the Chick-fil-A site doesn't have an easy-to-use map, but there are (as I mentioned in this week's Junk Monitor) no locations within 50 miles of Chicago, and just two dozen total within 50 miles of New York and Los Angeles. By and large they're a southeastern phenomenon, yet they're popular enough that McDonald's felt a need to rip off their signature sandwich for mass distribution. Considering how obnoxiously religious Chick-fil-A is, though (right down to doing cross-promotion with Focus on the Family), maybe I don't mind the lack of them around here so much.

Krispy Kreme: Krispy Kreme donuts are now sold in most states, though they still omit the northern midwest and most of New England. When I was growing up in New Jersey they were sort of like In-N-Out, this far-off myth of the "best donuts ever" that you could never see in your life. Even as recently as 2001, they were hard enough to find in Illinois that we drove out to the location near O'Hare just to get some. Now they're in every Jewel (although obviously not "HOT NOW").

Carvel: The Geneva store appears to have closed, meaning that there is now one Carvel in Illinois (in Wilmette); when searching for my "three nearest stores" on their website, the next two results are in Michigan, over 200 miles away. Carvel has gained national recognition on the strength of novelty cakes like Fudgie the Whale and Cookiepuss, and you can get their cakes in Jewels out here. You can probably also get perfectly adequate soft-serve at any other place that does soft-serve. But as I was saying to someone recently, when I was growing up, Carvel was ice cream. Places like Cold Stone didn't exist yet and South Orange didn't have a Baskin Robbins or a Dairy Queen. I'm pretty sure I went to Carvel more often between the ages of 6 and 14 than to any other single food-service establishment.

Carvel is an example of the desire for something springing up not around some mythical status but around having little else for so long and suddenly being deprived. I'm not sure if there's anything else I could personally put in that category, aside from maybe Blimpie.

Anyway, those are just some examples that I came up with off the top of my head, but I'd love to hear from the readers (all three of you) on this one. Places that you had as a kid and now long for? Places you hear about as awesome but don't ever see? Places you have but think other people are curious about?