A few weeks ago, Neal and I were extremely excited to see that there was a Sonic being built in Middleton. Up until then, the greater Madison area had been distressingly Sonic-free, a problem comparable to the dire lack of Chick-Fil-A. Little did we know that our elation was nothing next to that of native Madisonians.
The first time we drove past Sonic after it was open, every car port looked to be filled. And it was probably 15 degrees out.
The next time, we saw that the city had set up electronic traffic signs to direct people as to the correct way to reach the Sonic. (It's at an awkward point on the road where there's no traffic light to turn left into it.) Again, it was completely full.
Yesterday, we decided to drive out to Middleton to partake of onion rings and cream shakes, but we realized that we shouldn't go at a peak time, especially on a warmish day. We waited until about 2:00. So we drove out there, followed the signs, paid attention to all the orange cones, and turned on the appropriate street. That's when we saw a sign that said "GET PASSES HERE." As we turned onto this little residential street about a block from the Sonic, we saw that there were cars lined up, waiting to get a pass from a guy with one of those county-fair-parking sticks. You had to wait in line (behind, at this point in the afternoon, seven or eight cars) to get a pass so you could then drive down to the Sonic parking lot and wait there until another county-fair-style-parking guy allowed you to move into a car port once one was finally vacated. YEAH. There's a whole system to get people in and out of the Sonic because there are SO MANY people who are desperate for Sonic.
I hope this story accurately conveys how crazy the Middle Sonic situation is.
We went to Culver's instead.
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2 comments:
IIRC, something similar happened when Sonic opened its first Twin Cities location recently. Sonic is on the northward march, it seems. I'm not sure what the excitement is, though. It's not like Whataburger, although the Sonic commercials are pretty funny.
I personally chalk it up to the fact that, while we in the North have seen Sonic commercials for years on cable, they have never been around.
The first time I ever ate at one was in Danville, KY. The lady claimed that she couldn't understand me because of my accent...the first time that ever happened to me.
It seems that they have finally crossed the Iron Curtain defined by the Waffle House/IHOP divide.
Good call on the Culver's audible, though. Hell, we just got those in the Chicago area about five years ago. There is so much independent fast food to be had that national chains have a hard time.
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