Back in the late Sixties there was a Wimpy Bar where I grew up in Preston.
It had to be the first burger joint in the town. It was near the Ritz cinema I think and must have been popular.
I can't recall going but my childhood memory, other than toys and books and telly, is shockingly bad.
As I've got older, like everyone, else I've seen the rise of McDonalds and Burger King. I've even seen the odd Taco Bell ring out and just last year a David Hortens, the Canadian pancake joint.
But Wimpy Bars are nowhere to be seen. Not a sausage. They were first on the scene. What on earth has happened? How come Wimpys aren't everywhere?
Do you remember them? Which other eateries have vanished?
Still a Wimpy in Basingrad and it's twin A-hole Bracknell may have one at the cine-complex, but that might have all folded now, must be 20 years since I was anywhere near the place!
ReplyDeleteH
I do remember them from my childhood Woodsy and they were the first places I had hamburgers in.
ReplyDeleteThey are still around, with over 60 in the UK, but this is a much reduced number from their heyday.
I seem to remember a character from the Popeye cartoons called Wimpy, who was always wanting hamburgers. No idea if there was a connection.
Wimpy Bars were named after J. Wellington Wimpy the character in Popeye cartoons and comics. Back in the 50's when they opened a cousin and I couldn't get enough of their hotdogs which were better in our minds than the hamburgers. The location we went to was on Baker Street in London not that far from where 221b should have been had it existed.
ReplyDeleteWe had a Wimpy bar in Richmond opposite the Odeon cinema in the late 60's. It had a Tasty Freeze soft ice cream bar inside too. Do any Moonbasers remember the Tasty Freeze comics? I think they were Gold Key publications. I also remember the red plastic tomatoes on every table, full of tomato ketchup! I bought one in an antique shop just to remind me of Wimpy's.
ReplyDeleteThere was also a Wimpy bar in Kingston on Thames...
I vaguely collect fruit-shaped condiment stuff, and I have several lemons, not just Jif, a garlic (which came with and gets topped-up with garlic-salt) and the Tomato, although I think you can still get the tomato in red, green, yellow or brown, from trade suppliers?
DeleteStill Wimpys in Borehamwood and Croxley (must be a Hertfordshire hangover 😁)
ReplyDeleteFenton
There's far more Wimpys out there than I thought there were!
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