1. The first turnpike restaurant in the U.S. was opened by Howard Johnson on the Pennsylvania Turnpike. Howard Johnson Restaurants started opening in the late 1920s, and were some of the first franchised operations.
2. McDonald’s trademark arches aren’t golden in Sedona, Arizona. There, the arches are turquoise because city officials thought the traditional yellow would clash with the area’s famous red rocks. There’s also a set of black McDonald’s arches in Monterey, California because the city insisted on a more “sophisticated” look.
3. Taco Bell’s Mexican-inspired menu can be traced to Mitla Café, a still-operational family diner in San Bernardino that Glen Bell, Taco Bell’s founder, used to frequently visit and ask questions of the owners about several aspects of the operation.
4. Taco Bell founder Glen Bell’s wife, Martha, actually gave John Galardi the idea for the name for his hot dog franchise Wienerschnitzel.
5. 7-Eleven stores used to be called Tote’m Stores. A souvenir from an Alaskan vacation—a totem pole—inspired company executives to take on an Inuit-inspired theme. Following World War II, the name of the convenience stores were switched to 7-Eleven to reflect the then-revolutionary store hours.
6. Krispy Kreme doughnuts have their origins in the “Crescent City.” Though the franchise was founded in North Carolina, Vernon Rudolph bought the original doughnut recipe for Krispy Kreme from a New Orleans French chef.
7. Sport Clips’ founder Gordon Logan based initial expansion plans for the men-focused hair salon on the locations Southwest Airlines flew to keep travel costs down.
8. When the Carney brothers founded their business, they could only afford a sign with space for 8 letters thus the name “Pizza Hut” came to be.
9. James Monaghan, who bought DomiNick’s—the precursor to Domino’s—with his brother Tom a year earlier, traded his half of the business to his brother for a Volkswagen Beetle in 1961.
10. Colonel Harland Sanders, founder of KFC, finalized his fried chicken recipe at a motel and restaurant in Asheville, North Carolina location he ran before selling it off and returning to Kentucky. He had moved to North Carolina because his original location had been destroyed in a fire.
To view previous random and interesting fact postings, please view:
10 Random and Interesting Franchise Facts