Do you remember the food carousels?

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coasterboy
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Do you remember the food carousels?

Post by coasterboy »

I remember from my first visit, that several of the restaurants had these food carousels...

The food was cooked in the back, and this carousel rotated the fisnished burgers, fries and drinks out front so that you could pick up what you needed, and then go check out at the register.

I believe this was the cases at A La' Burger, but was probably in use other places as well. It was really kind of funky!

I wonder when they disappeared?
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RLAiello
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Post by RLAiello »

Ah yes the legend of the food carousel! I have heard about this for years (when I worked at the park especially) but don't remember ever seeing them. I'm not denying they existed, I just would love to see a picture of one.

Steven? :)

I remember when my sister worked at A-La Burger as a supervisor, we figured out where the carousel must have been... you could see the openings in the walls where the food would go out and come in, and the re-patched floor where the carousel used to be.
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Post by SFGAmLover »

Sounds interesting! Roughly how big were these carousels? Did they constantly spin, or did they stop and go? Thanks for the info!
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Post by RLAiello »

SFGAmLover wrote:Sounds interesting! Roughly how big were these carousels? Did they constantly spin, or did they stop and go? Thanks for the info!
From what I was told they were constantly moving, albeit slowly. And the size was pretty big... can't estimate how large... but big enough to cycle a lot of food across the front.

Apparently they were taken out pretty early-- the person who told me about them had worked at the park since it opened, and he said it was during the Marriott years. I can't imagine they were all that practical, and they probably had their share of mechanical problems which led to their removal.

That is ALL speculation of course.... if anyone has more accurate info, please share!
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coasterboy
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Post by coasterboy »

The carousels were at least 20 feet in diameter, with about a third facing the public. They moved very slowly.

The problem was, when it was crowded, everyone pushed to the left side, where the food came out, and everytime there was a tray of burgers that came out, there was a mad scramble to get them before they were gone.

I guess there was more demand than supply!
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SFGAmLover
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Post by SFGAmLover »

20 ft in diameter? :shock: Wow!
Did the carousels have multiple levels or just one?
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Post by coasterboy »

Just one level.
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Post by BrianPlencner »

I remeber seeing these at the park (Burgers on the Run in Co. Fair comes to mind), but I also have seen them outside the park as well. The high school I went to in Gurnee (Warren Township High School) during the years of 1988 thru 1991 had one as well. They used it for hot dogs, burgers, and cheeseburgers. From what I remember, it was quite large (15-20 feet across), and had sections so the food would not move around to much.
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Post by ewilson »

I remember the action around them was a bit chaotic. If you were on the far end of where the food came out, half the french fries would be eaten out of the box and you would have only the mangled hamburgers to choose from.

They also had these type of carosels at the Smithsonian museums in DC. and I remeber having the same problems there.

Health regulations require now that a cover (slangly called a snotgaurd) must be over all self serve foods now. I don't remember these carosels having these.
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Post by Santa Cruisin »

I remember this place. I went inside and saw the way it operated and left. There were too many people handing the food and putting it back because they changed there mind. I even saw people open the burgers and deciding it wasn't what they wanted wrapped it back up and put it back on the food carousel.

That did it for me. I scratched that one off my list of eating places.
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SFGAmLover
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Post by SFGAmLover »

Good thinkin', Santa Cruisin. :wink:

Were there heat lamps on the carousel... or was the surface heated at all?
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Post by steven »

I don't know if I can find a photo of these or not. I don't remember them too well. As mentioned already, I guess these were at A La Burger and Burgers on the Run. I rarely went into those two places, but vaguely remember seeing the food carousel at A La Burger.

Apparently A La Burger and Burgers on the Run were intended for high volumes and utilized a lot of automation. I do have a photo somewhere of the soft drink conveyer which could fill something like fifteen cups of Coca-Cola automatically and simultaneously.

Steven
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