Wetson's was an American

fast food Fast food is a type of mass-produced food designed for commercial resale, with a strong priority placed on speed of service. It is a commercial term, limited to food sold in a restaurant or store with frozen, preheated or precooked ingredien ...

hamburger chain that existed from 1959 to 1975. At its peak, Wetson's had approximately 70 locations in the greater

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

metropolitan area. Wetson's was known for its signature burger, the "Big W", as well as 15-cent burgers, 10-cent fries, and the slogans "Look for the Orange Circles" and "Buy a bagful", phrases similar to the

McDonald's McDonald's Corporation is an American Multinational corporation, multinational fast food chain store, chain, founded in 1940 as a restaurant operated by Richard and Maurice McDonald, in San Bernardino, California, United States. They rechri ...

slogan "Look for the Golden Arches" and White Castle's "Buy 'em by the sack". Wetson's also had two clown mascots in the style of McDonald's Ronald McDonald, named Wetty (female) and Sonny (male). The "Big W" was similar to today's McDonald's Big Mac. Wetsons also sold breakfast sandwiches.

History

The Wetson's chain was started by Herbert (Herb) Wetanson. While on a road trip to San Bernardino, California, Herb happened to stop by the original

Hamburger Drive In restaurant, owned and operated by the McDonald brothers. Having grown up working in his father Carl Wetanson’s restaurants, Herb was drawn to this new and unique style of what would later become known as a "fast food" restaurant. Upon arriving home from the military, Wetanson began scouting locations on

Long Island Long Island is a densely populated island in the southeastern region of the U.S. state of New York (state), New York, part of the New York metropolitan area. With over 8 million people, Long Island is the most populous island in the United Sta ...

for the first of his hamburger restaurants. Recognizing that the Levittown area of Long Island shared a similar post-war demographic to that of San Bernardino, he found a closed Mayflower coffee and donut shop in that town and, along with his younger brother Errol Wetanson, in 1959 at this location opened the first Wetson's. At its peak the Wetson's chain comprised over 70 restaurants. Wetson's struggled against the large national hamburger chains

and

Burger King Burger King (BK) is an American-based multinational chain store, chain of hamburger fast food restaurants. Headquartered in Miami-Dade County, Florida, the company was founded in 1953 as Insta-Burger King, a Jacksonville, Florida–based res ...

when they entered the

New York metropolitan area The New York metropolitan area, also commonly referred to as the Tri-State area, is the largest metropolitan area in the world by urban area, urban landmass, at , and one of the list of most populous metropolitan areas, most populous urban agg ...

market in the late 1960s and early 1970s. This led in 1975 to Wetson's merging with the Nathan's Famous fast-food chain, the closing of 29 Wetson's locations, and the ultimate discontinuation of the Wetson's brand. Since 2016 and as of 2022, the Wetson's trademark is owned by National Food Brands Marketing, Inc., of East Norwich, New York. The Wetanson family eventually became founders of the New York City family-run restaurant chain Dallas BBQ, which is still in operation today with the three generations of the family including Herbert, his son Greg and grandson Stuart partnering as current co-owners of the franchise.

References

{{Fast-food chains of the United States Defunct fast-food chains in the United States Fast-food hamburger restaurants Restaurants in New York (state) Defunct restaurants in the United States Defunct companies based in California Restaurants established in 1959 Restaurants disestablished in 1975 Defunct restaurant chains in the United States 1959 establishments in New York (state) 1975 disestablishments in New York (state)

History

See also

References