"sonic" news and stories

Apparently an employee was cooking up more than just extra long chili cheese hot dogs at a Sonic restaurant in Missouri -- police say he was cooking up meth.

Police arrived at the Cape Girardeau, Mo., Sonic drive-in, about 115 miles south of Saint Louis, shortly before 2 a.m. on Thursday to discover 27-year-old Dennie L. Bratcher allegedly attempting to whip up a batch of meth in the restaurant, the Associated Press reports.

The shift manager, who lives in Cape Girardeau, has been charged with second-degree burglary and an attempt to manufacture a controlled substance.

"The health department is making them [Sonic employees] throw away everything from sugar packets and straws to food and making them thoroughly clean the facility," Cape Girardeau police Sgt. Jason Selzer told Slashfood on Friday.

One of the primary advantages of eating at a fast-food restaurant is getting fast service.

But you can't get fast service if you're stuck behind 20 other cars at a drive-thru window. Reports of long waits at drive-thrus and parking-lot entrances have slowed down the service at some fast-food eateries.

It's gotten so bad that police have been brought in to direct traffic. In July, at a new Sonic restaurant in Hasbrouck Heights, N.J., an officer was struck and seriously injured by a driver leaving the popular eatery.

A fast food restaurant manager went to the extreme in training his staffers on how to handle a hold-up situation: his method scared paying customers and earned a serious reprimand from local police.

A manager of a Sonic in St. Joseph, Mo., recently staged a lunchtime mugging, recruiting someone to enter the restaurant with a real-looking toy gun and hold it to an employee's head. Problem was, employees weren't the only ones taken by surprise: When authorities received frantic reports from panicked customers of a potential hostage situation, they sped to the restaurant to resolve it.

"The officers quickly determined this was a training exercise," St. Joseph Police Department commander Jim Connors recounts. "We forcefully got the message across that's not expected behavior."

Troy N. Smith, an Oklahoman who turned a root-beer stand into the Sonic, America's Drive-In, chain has died at the age of 87 in Oklahoma City.

Smith opened the Top Hat Drive-In hamburger and root-beer stand in Shawnee, Okla., in 1953. Six years later, it became Sonic, a made-to-order fast-food company now dubbed "America's Drive-In," that currently has nearly 3,600 units in 42 states and serves 1 million people daily.

The chain was initially dubbed "Sonic" for its motto, "Service with the Speed of Sound," following its invention of curbside speakers in the 1950s, which allowed customers to order without leaving their cars. Smith also pioneered the use of parking lots that had angled parking spaces and overhead coverings.

These days Sonic is more popularly known for its value menu and drink combinations -- some 168,000 drink combinations make it what Sonic calls the "Ultimate Drink Stop."

Born in 1922 and raised in east-central Oklahoma, Smith served in the Army Air Corps before returning to the United States, where he would later operate milk and bread trucks. He expanded his business by opening various restaurants and cafes before founding Top Hat Drive-In. After opening three more Top Hat franchises, Smith unsuccessfully sought to copyright the moniker, changing it to the "speed of sound"-inspired title, "Sonic." The first Sonic opened in Stillwater, Okla.

Smith is survived by Dollie, his wife of nearly 70 years, a son, daughter, eight grandchildren and nine great-grandchildren.

A memorial service will be held Friday, at 2 p.m., at the First Christian Church in Edmond, Okla.

[via Nation's Restaurant News]

Blondie & Brownie

Local, organic, artisanal ice cream is great, but sometimes it's a Styrofoam cup filled with vanilla soft serve and topped with chunks and crumbs of a desecrated candy bar that really, truly answers the primal scream for ice cream.

That's why this portrait of a Snickers Sonic Blast, taken by Blondie of Blondie & Brownie, is so diabolically delightful. You can almost feel the cold, creamy rivulets running down your throat, and taste the sugary burn of caramel and chocolate on the back of your tongue.

The Blast's consumption undoubtedly results in a swift and unforgiving sugar coma, but what a fantastic way to surf the waves of the glycemic index.

[Via Blondie & Brownie]