There is a reason why Frank Bruni drove through the South and not, say, Montana, on his hunt for the best fast food in the country. It is because there is more fast food eaten in the South than in any other part of the country.
According to Scarborough Research (pdf), while the average American adult eats fast food about 5.2 times per month, residents of Birmingham, Alabama dine at fast food restaurants 6.5 times per month. Given that the examples used by the research firm were McDonald's and Subway, it seems likely that they only included major chain restaurants in their survey, too. Rounding out the top five for fast food consumption were Louisville, KY; Austin. TX; Memphis, TN and Raleigh, NC, ranging from 6.4-6.2 average visits.
The company also looked at the cities in which "sit-down" quick service restaurants, like Applebee's or TGI Friday's, were frequented. Orlando, Florida came out on top, with 4.5 visits per month. The other top cities included Cincinnati, OH; Fort Meyers, FL; Tampa, FL and Atlanta, GA.
Cities like Syracuse, NY and Philadelphia, PA were towards the bottom of the fast food visit rankings, with only 4 visits per adult per month, and Honolulu, HI, Buffalo, NY and Spokane, WA had the fewest "sit-down" visits, at 3, 2.9 and 2.5, respectively.
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