Fast Food Grown Up

Yeah, yeah...as I've more or less stated before, we urban bears are not just relegated to the realm of four star fine dining. We also love ourselves some good ol' fast food that's ten kinds of bad for us (n.b. the Happy Bear's pronounced paunch). Well, sometimes, you can have fast food, let it take a little bit longer than at th' local McD or BK, and enjoy a fine meal.

Take, for example, Spike's Junkyard Dogs. With locations in Rhode Island, Massachusetts, and Connecticut, Spike's seems to be slowly spreading its influence in the northeast. And there's no secret behind the success of juicy dogs, awesome onion rings, tasty chicken sammiches, and more.

First, and this is a purely Happy Bear bias, they serve Pepsi products. This is an immediate win for the ursine palette.

They have what might be the greatest menu of customizable burgers, chicken sammiches, and hot dogs that there is. I personally favor...

The Joka Dog - a nice juicy hot dog with cheddar, bacon, chili, and BBQ sauce. A meal unto itself!

Onion Rings - These are golden, tender, and have a batter with some real flavor to it.

Grilled Buffalo Chicken Sammich - With buffalo sauce and bleu cheese, the grilled part let's me pretend it's good for me.

Sinatra Burger - The title means it's a burger "My Way". In this case, "my way" usually means mushrooms, bleu cheese, and teriyaki sauce.

The other half shares my love for the burgers and joka dogs and onion rings. The otter, being vegematarian, likes to get the Big Dave's Deluxe - a veggie dog with Russian dressing, Swiss cheese, and sauteed onions.

The decor is diner-y, with lots of faux street signs on the walls, and they also boast a Wall of Fame sort of deal...if you can eat 6 or more hot dogs in 90 minues without leaving or using the bathroom, you get a t-shirt and your picture on the wall. Sound easy? That's 'cause I haven't mentioned that Spike's serves all their sammiches, dogs, burgers, et al in fantastic rolls. These rolls are fresh and huge. The current record at our Spike's is 13 dogs, and that person has my sympathy. She must've been pretty ill after.

If you're looking for a relatively quick bite and find yourself near one of their locations, well, you could definitely do worse.

- The Happy Bear

Southern Sunshine at the Sign of the Golden Arches

Better living doesn't have to be all five-star restaurants and fine dining. Heck, it doesn't even have to be all about food (although that's part of it.) But to prevent anyone from deducing from my comments so far that I'm an food elitist, I present to you something else tasty...the new(ish) Southern-Style Chicken Sandwich and Sweet Tea from McDonalds.

The sandwich is tasty and filling, dressed with nothing but a bit of butter and some slices of pickle. The piece of chicken is generous, and I quite enjoy the spices in the batter. In addition, it's served on a steamed bun, which I quite like. The chicken is also available at breakfast time on a biscuit, but I think this is a less successful experiment.

The sweet tea, on the other hand, is my current favorite fast food drink. Icy and nicely sweet, this refreshing drink comes at only $1.00 for 32 ounces. Now, admittedly, a fair amount of those ounces are devoted to ice, but still, this drink is a bargain when compared to the overpriced and dreadful Coke products McD's provides otherwise. This lovely drink arrived in the middle of a hot, humid summer here in Happy Bear Valley, and I've been drinking it rather regularly. When I'm heading somewhere alone, I often get two...one for now, one for...as soon as I'm done with the first one.

- The Happy Bear