Image: U.S. Patent Office
The First Fast-Food Restaurant in SB?
The big news on the restaurant scene here in January 1916 was the world premiere of the newly invented "Abadie Cuisine Roulante," created by Lucien Abadie, the French owner of the Delmonico Restaurant.
Made of tin, about four feet wide, two feet deep, and three feet high, Abadie's wheeled metal cart was designed to bring "choicely prepared foods, peculiar to this restaurant … to the table of each patron, thus enabling each to make their choice and with immediate delivery." It was predicted that the cart could serve close to 200 people an hour.