Place: Tastee-Freez
Lunch: Angus Coney dog, Tastee burger, chocolate milk shake
For years, Champaign, Illinois had the only Wienerschnitzel east of the Mississipi. It was run exactly like any other Wienerschnitel. It had the same dogs and menu items made exactly the same way, had the same promotional materials, had the limited time offerings. That's kind of unusual...many chain locations out in the middle of nowhere are just a little bit odd compared to the core markets.
It finally closed about a year ago and probably should have been left at that, but the corporate Wieners (ha ha ha! see what I did there?) kept trying to find somebody to take it over.
It's finally happened. The yellow A-frame was repainted blue, and the red W started sharing space with the Tastee-Freez logo. The classic Tastee-Freez logo, even! Technically, they're calling it a Tastee-Freez, but it's really a co-branded Wienerschnitzel/Tastee-Freez.
Wienerschnitzel bought the Tastee-Freez brand seven years ago. Tastee-Freez has always been sort of a knockabout chain where franchisees bought the Tastee-Freez ice cream equipment but otherwise did their own thing. The 40 or so remaining locations continue that way, but Wienerschnitzel has added Tastee-Freez treats to over 300 of their Wienerschnitzel and Hamburger Stand branded stores.
This store, to my knowledge, is the first fully Wienerschnitzel-authorized branded Tastee-Freez outlet with a full menu created by the company. Which includes, of course, the full Wienerschnitzel hot dog menu. If it's an attempt to revive the Tastee-Freez brand and get Wienerschnitzel hot dogs more widely available in the Midwest, I'm all for it.
I had breakfast in Paris over the weekend. Paris, Kentucky, that is. Had a nice drive on some old narrow winding two-lane blacktop amidst hilly snow-covered fields immaculately maintained with stone wall fencing. Really, really beautiful. And the people of Kentucky are some of the nicest you'll ever encounter.
On Friday, I had breakfast at the Hen House, a restaurant in an old barn-like structure just off I-74 at the Mahomet, IL exit that I always thought would be fun to try. REALLY good pancakes.
Had a ticket to go to the Bengals-Browns "Battle of Ohio" game on Sunday. Didn't bother. After spending Saturday night in the cramped quarters of the Taft Theater, I really didn't think I could handle three hours on a hard plastic seat in 20-degree weather. Plus, when even the Bengals broadcast station promos say "Will they even bother keeping score?", it's hard to get excited.
I don't know...It's been hard to get excited about ANYTHING this season.
Christmas in a week?
I didn't even buy cards this year.
