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A classic Carrols: Memories of the iconic fast-food restaurants still stir powerful emotions in Central New York.
(File art | The Post-Standard)
Fast food does not lend itself to landmarks. Restaurants go up. They are abandoned or torn down. In their peak years, they are regular getaways for tired parents who don’t want to cook. They are sanctuaries for teens, seeking distance from adults. Yet the memories they generate soon lack a real-life anchor, because the fast food restaurants that we frequent when we’re young soon vanish or change beyond recognition.
It is that way for a generation that remembers Carrols.
"Hamburgers were 15 cents and milkshakes were 15 cents and french fries were a dime, so it was 40 cents for a meal," said Herb Slotnick, recalling his earliest restaurants. "We started with one on Erie Boulevard (in DeWitt), and we had one in Mattydale and one at Valley Plaza and one (downtown) on Salina Street, not far from the Sears & Roebuck building."
Do you have memories of the Syracuse-based fast-food chain, which operated its own restaurants into the 1970s? If so, which restaurant did you frequent, and what was your favorite meal? Share your reflections in the comment section below or email Sean Kirst.
While Slotnick, 84, has retired to Florida, he retains a special role in hamburger lore: He was the first guy to bring the modern version of “fast food” to Syracuse. In the late 1950s, Slotnick was on a business trip to Chicago when he heard a presentation about a new chain called McDonald’s. Impressed, he contacted company executives, and asked if he could open a line of their restaurants across New York.
They turned him down, but Slotnick was sold on the potential. He approached Tastee-Freeze, which had started a Midwestern chain of fast-food restaurants called “Carrols,” named for the daughter of the company’s owner. Slotnick cut a deal to bring Carrols into New York. When those restaurants were in danger of going “belly up” under Tastee-Freeze, as Slotnick puts it, he took control of the entire Carrols chain, and meshed it into a company that included the Slotnick string of theaters.
Go online, and you'll find plenty of Web sites where graying baby boomers wistfully recall Carrols. On Roadfood.com, for instance, one correspondent asks: "Does anyone have a recipe for the condiment (Crisbo Royale Sauce) that Carrols used in their flagship sandwich, the Club Burger? Would you know where to get those double-decker sesame-seed-topped hamburger buns?!"
Others joined in with reflections about the “Sea Fillet,” or the “Crispy Country Chicken,” or the classic “triple-thick shakes.” The food “was as good or better than anyone’s, as far as I’m concerned,” Slotnick said. To make that point, when he opened his first restaurant, he borrowed a live steer and displayed it to underline the freshness of the burgers.
Tom Connor, 64, now of Seneca Falls, worked in the Carrols on Erie Boulevard. He recalls how Slotnick's father, who focused on the family theaters, would sometimes come in to flip burgers or pour milkshakes. Dennis Connor, Tom's brother, is president of the Central New York Car Club Association. He can remember when the downtown Carrols was a hangout for the young men and women who regularly came into Syracuse to cruise in their "hot rods."
The competition from national chains eventually proved overwhelming. "McDonald's and Burger King would come after us, build next door and then outspend us," Slotnick said. In the 1970s, he cut a deal to transform his restaurants into Burger Kings. A decade later, he accepted a buyout and retired. The Syracuse-based Carrols Corp. now bills itself as one of the largest operators of Burger King restaurants in the world.
In the peak years, Slotnick ran more than 120 Carrols restaurants. He had his own manuals and his own training schools. He switched to Burger King based on economic realities, but he remains proud of his original operation, and he is clearly pleased to know old customers offer reflections such as this:
"Man!" wrote "Capt. Carson," a Roadfood correspondent. "I could REALLY use a Club Burger right now!"
Contact Sean Kirst at 470-6015 or skirst@syracuse.com.