Thursday, October 8, 2009

Remembering Carrols Hamburgers



This Carrols was located in Tucker, GA.

Carrols was an offshoot of the Tastee Freeze company. Herb Slotnick bought the franchise rights for the New York area and started opening restaurants in the Syracuse, New York area in the early 1960s. They expanded through the years throughout New York state.

During the 1960s, a yellow slug character served as Carrols 1st mascot; he was replaced in 1974 by a young blonde lad wearing a tweed suit and a Fedora hat.

During the 1970s, Carrols tried their hand at serving fried chicken (like that served at KFC); their attempt was advertised as "Carrols Crunchy Country Chicken, I can't say it and I work here". Carrols also formed an agreement with Good Humor to sell several of GH's favorite ice cream novelty bars.

Carrols restaurant locations were converted to Burger King franchises in 1975. The original menu of Carrols, and the Carrols brand, then went overseas to Finland, Sweden, Estonia, Latvia, and Russia.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carrols_Restaurant_Group

4 comments:

Unknown said...

When I was growing up in Newport News VA in 1960-70's, we had a Carrolls at the edge of our neighborhood. Never knew this chain was based in NY. I can't remember the food but I do remember all the neat tile and the cool neon sign. Carrols changed to Champs in the early 1970s, then went out of business. Thanks for the post.

Unknown said...

I used to live in Newport News VA, in the early 70s too, Denis, and I remember a Carrolls Hamburger joint on Warwick Blvd, at the edge the neighborhood I lived in, as well. I wonder if we're talking about the same place?

Anonymous said...

A lot of people forgot about the Carrol's "TC"-Toasted Cheese sold for $.10 in 1970. A hamburger bun was inverted with two criss-crossed yellow American cheese slice placed on the bun top and bottom side. Cooked on the grill and pressed down with a spatula.

I was shocked to see the same product at a McDonalds in Pisa Italy last year.

Carrol's definitely was a trend-setter.

I worked at a Troy NY store from 1967-1971.

Eddie said...

The Carroll's on Warwick Blvd. was at the corner of Minton Drive, which leads into Glendale. It was right across the street from the school board office and Todd Stadium. There's now a Seven Eleven on that corner and a Wendy's on the other side of Minton, where Wayne Register's Sunoco station used to be back in the day. I used to still have some book covers that Carroll's gave away (for school text books, when we were required to cover them) that had the 15 cent hamburgers advertised on them. Back then we didn't have a McDonald's nearby and Carroll's was a pretty close substitute.