TRANSPORTATION · HISTORICAL MARKER
Eating on the Run
North Riverside, Illinois
· Fast Food on Ogden Avenue
Transportation
4
After World War I, fast food restaurants sprang up along Route 66, offering cheap and speedy meals for people on the go. Ogden Avenue remains home to many restaurants popular during the Mother Road’s heyday. A White Castle opened there on January 14, 1939, and is the oldest White Castle still operating on Historic Route 66; customers could buy a 5 cent slider to eat at the counter or take on the highway. White Castle was the first food chain in the nation to standardize buns, burgers, and buildings, and its spotless buildings, interiors, and uniforms reassured customers in an era of fears about poor meat packing sanitation. Henry’s Drive-In, just east on Ogden Avenue, has been a Route 66 fixture since the 1940s, known for hotdogs topped with fries and for its oversized 1950s-era hotdog neon sign. Bunyon’s Hot Dogs opened on Ogden Avenue in the 1960s and featured an oversized fiberglass hotdog man; after the business closed in 2003, the statue was moved to downtown Atlanta.
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North Riverside, Illinois
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