• Thunderbird4@lemmy.world
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    5 days ago

    That, and it was seen as relatively healthy for fast food. It was one of the only fast food options at the time where not everything was fried and drowning in saturated fats. Prior to Chipotle, Subway was considered the healthiest fast food chain.

    • CharlesDarwin@lemmy.world
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      5 days ago

      I do think they helped to widen what corporations thought was possible. Kind of what Starbucks did to coffee. Prior to Starbucks, most Americans probably confined themselves to Folgers.

      I see similar ideas pop up - Tokyo Joe’s, Noodles & Company, Garbanzos, Illegal Petes.

      They might not be everyone’s thing, but at least restaurants geared toward finding a fast, reasonably-priced lunch started to move beyond the burger joint or the subway shop…I think all of these started in Colorado, probably (?) influenced by Chipotle.