Yours truly has a love–hate relationship with junk food. But so do you, dear reader: one of the most popular posts in this here site’s five-year plus history was Andrew Wiseman’s thoughts on the fast food joints that the nation’s capital misses out on.
Obviously, some holes in the fatty atmosphere will always remain unpatched. (No one’s expecting any In-N-Outs to pop up around these parts anytime soon.) But one of the most-pined for aberrations from that collection of missing artery-cloggers could be closer than you think. Here’s what we said way back in 2007 about Sonic, which holds up remarkably well to this day:
We can’t tell you how frustrating it is seeing all the commercials in D.C. for Sonic, which taunt us with their complicated beverages and improv comedians, all while not actually having any locations near us whatsoever. The closest Sonic is over 50 miles away, in Fredericksburg, VA. Dear Sonic: we seem to recall from our childhoods that your food was not bad, but please stop being so mean and advertising on our basic cable channels. Thanks.
However! Baltimore-based blog Inside Charm City dropped us a line to let us know that we Washingtonians aren’t the only ones bemoaning a lack of slushies and tots. The blog notes that a location for a new Sonic has been chosen around the Baltimore beltway and is scheduled to open in 2010 — a timeline which jives with an earlier report from the Baltimore Business Journal which claimed that the chain is actively scouting “several dozen” locations in the Washington-Baltimore area.
While opening a new Sonic would present some unique challenges inside the borders of the District — Sonics are a drive-thru joint, so any location would require a) a bunch of parking space, and b) a location where such a traffic flow wouldn’t be disruptive; attributes not exactly in abundance around here — we can imagine that it might be nice to finally try some of this food for which we see advertisements all the time.
Calls placed to Sonic’s headquarters regarding plans for D.C. were not returned as of this posting. (Of course, we’ll update you if or when we hear back.) Would you still be as excited to see a Sonic in Washington as you were two years ago?
