Carrolls restaurants

RE: Carrolls restaurants (WaltA)

Sun, 16 Dec 2012 19:32:41 GMT

dordor61

I grew up in Montgomery, NY; our house was on Rt. 17K. Since you had to travel to either Newburgh or Middletown to do any shopping, my mother used to often shop in the Newburgh area and we would always eat at Carrol's in Newburgh, right on Rt. 17K (near the old Lloyd's). My father worked at Stewart Air Base, and we'd visit him there and preferred eating at Carrol's to eating mess hall food! Does anyone else remember this particular Carrol's in Newburgh, NY?

I remember the Carrols located in the same shopping area as the W.T. Grants dept store and the Big V supermarket, in Vails Gate, NY.

RE: Carrolls restaurants (max123)

Wed, 08 Aug 2012 19:46:20 GMT

I worked for Carrols in the mid seventies; the first assistant manager of our store is now the "Catbert" of Carrols Corp.

The Club Burger was built upside down in a cardboard collar using a three piece bun. The crown was placed in the collar, then Royal Dressing (from Monarch Food in Spfld, MA), lettuce, ground beef pattie, cheese, middle of bun, cheese (rotated 90 degrees relative to the first slice), beef pattie, onions, ketchup, bottom of bun (to the best of my recollection). The tomato slice had been eliminated berfore I worked there; we had the Roast Beef Hero (a new item at the time)...the slice of beef was folded into one quarter and seven pieces were placed on the bun. It was nuked for 1 minute in our brand new Litton Menumaster microwave.

I worked there six months and made Swing Shift Manager in three ($3.00 an hour!!!).

RE: Carrolls restaurants (DRM400Z07)

Mon, 26 Dec 2011 17:59:15 GMT

My very first fast food experience was with Carrol's back in the mid-60's. We lived in Loudonville, NY, outside of Albany, and there was a Carrol's restaurant on Route 9 in Latham, IIRC. The fries were the first thing that literally knocked my socks off - I'm sure they weren't healthy, but the flavor was mind-blowing! I recall inhaling the burgers, but I can't recall opting for the Club Burger vs. just a regular cheeseburger or hamburger - it didn't take much to please me and as a student, I didn't have a lot to spend. I do remember the "A Serving A Second" logo - man, I would give anything to roll back the years and enjoy another great meal from Carrol's! Thankfully I was overseas on active military duty when they changed to BK's - neither BK, McDonalds, Wendy's, Hardees, or any other pretenders ever measured up to Carrols, IMO!

RE: Carrolls restaurants (fan23)

Wed, 30 Nov 2011 22:52:26 GMT

There were two Carrolls in Henrietta. One was at the corner of West Henrietta Rd and Brighton Henrietta Town Line Rd and the other was on Jefferson Rd just west of Southtown Plaza.

RE: Carrolls restaurants (roxo56)

Wed, 30 Nov 2011 20:32:07 GMT

I too remember eating $.15 burgers at the Henrietta Carroll's and thought they were way better than the McD's which opened later on East Henrietta rd near the Wegman's. I can't remember where in Henrietta the Carroll's was. I grew up in Rochester from '63-'74 and miss the food, not the winters...

RE: Carrolls restaurants (tuxr99)

Mon, 03 Oct 2011 16:22:16 GMT

Yes! I remember Carrols well. Back when I lived in Rochester NY in the late 60's and 70's, it was such a treat to go there as a kid. The Club Burger was the best! I'm going to have to make some Royale sauce and try and recreate it. Ah, the memories.

RE: Carrolls restaurants (bmiddaugh)

Wed, 01 Sep 2010 14:38:30 GMT

This site blocked the link; I'll try typing it in: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carrols_%28Finland%29 If it doesn't go through this time, just google Carrols (Finland).

RE: Carrolls restaurants (bmiddaugh)

Wed, 01 Sep 2010 14:35:30 GMT

Here is info of the Carrols sites in Finland from Wikipedia: There is a pic of one in Helsinki on that site.

RE: Carrolls restaurants (justme67)

Tue, 31 Aug 2010 17:16:01 GMT

Oh, the great memories in Oulu Finland, sitting upstairs of Carrolls' place in 1980's and watching people walk by. The best burgers by far! I really miss them. I think there is still a Carrolls' in Helsinki somewhere...if anyone has the address, let me know and I'll stop by next time I'm there!!!! Awww. man. the sauces they used with burgers are something to drool over...yum.

RE: Carrolls restaurants (toddsyr)

Sat, 19 Jun 2010 17:45:12 GMT

I have a copy of that Carrols photo too . Got it off EBay as I'm sure you did as well. Anyhow, I believe it's a pic of the Carrols that was in the Utica/New York Mills area. It's even still there, as an adult store.

RE: Carrolls restaurants (sonjaab)

Fri, 18 Jun 2010 00:44:58 GMT

RE: Carrolls restaurants (sonjaab)

Fri, 18 Jun 2010 00:27:38 GMT

Pics from Decatur Ga.

RE: Carrolls restaurants (sonjaab)

Fri, 18 Jun 2010 00:16:54 GMT

The Carrol’s chain was started by Leo Moranz of Tastee-Freez out of the mid-west (his daughter’s name was Carrol) but really took off under the stewardship of Herb Slotnick from upstate New York who’s family had a chain of movie theaters. Slotnick became the largest francise owner of Carrol’s encompassing New York state and New England. He eventually bought out the chain from Tastee-Freez and was doing a decent job competing with McDonald’s and Burger King for a small chain. In the mid-70′s the Carrol’s Corp. made a major decision, basically they decided that they had brought the concept as far as it would go and instead swithed teams to became the largest Burger King franchiser in the country. They converted some of the Carrol’s locations to Burger King and phased out the other locations.

RE: Carrolls restaurants (sonjaab)

Fri, 18 Jun 2010 00:15:27 GMT

RE: Carrolls restaurants (johnsm)

Wed, 16 Dec 2009 14:57:01 GMT

RB0012Hero

I also saw slalds featured. Do they also serve breakfast over there?!?!

Nope. I think all chains nowadays try to cater for that audience too. I guess they noticed that some people (mostly women?) prefer lighter meals and if they didn't offer them anything, they and their friends would go someplace else to eat.

In addition to that, they're trying to play the healthy food for kids -card. Eg. McDonalds' meal now includes a choice like small carrots instead of french fries, juice instead of soda, etc. They offer a choice, so now it's their parents' fault if they eat crap there.

Isn't this sort of thing happening everywhere?

RE: Carrolls restaurants (johnsm)

Wed, 16 Dec 2009 14:38:41 GMT

Little late replying..

ConeyIslandLou

The final definitive spelling: CARROLS.... if you do a google search for 'carrols' one of the first links is to a Swedish Carrols fan site,complete with a picture of a real Cluburger..mmmm...can almost taste the sucker!

If you're referring to www.carrols.fi then you're sadly mistaken, because

it's not Swedish, and
it's not a fan site.

AFAIK the last Carrols restaurants in the world are in Finland. Apparently they got a license for the franchise or something way back when. I remember they were pretty big and cool in the early 90's. All the 3 big chains in Finland (Carrols, McDonalds and Hesburger - a Finnish chain from Turku) ran a lot of TV ads. Anyway, long story short, later at some point Hesburger bought the chain and converted pretty much all of them to Hesburgers. I think they left only one in the center of Helsinki. (I think I went there like 3 months ago or something.)
That happened years ago, though. Looks like they've opened a couple of new ones.

The burgers have always been a little dry for my taste, but I thought they got really stingy with the sauce/mayo/whatever when the chain got bought. It in itself is a small WTF, since Hesburger OTOH are quite liberal with their sauces.

Looks like they don't have an English website, but here are the locations in case you guys feel like visiting Europe for a burger:
http://www.carrols.fi/fi/ravintolat
(allow javascript for a map)

Edit: I guess I should've read the whole thread first...

Re:Carrolls restaurants (CaptCarson)

Mon, 27 Jul 2009 17:18:23 GMT

Eynon, PA - I remember that Carrols was next to a McD's on the strip across from Sugerman's. To this day, my wife and I lament the loss of Carrols. Man! - I could REALLY use a Club Burger right now!

RE: Carrolls restaurants (toddsyr)

Tue, 30 Jun 2009 22:30:04 GMT

I recently was lucky enough to find one of those old waxed paper Carrols cups from the 1960's too.

RE: Carrolls restaurants (toddsyr)

Wed, 17 Jun 2009 23:45:17 GMT

I posted the image of the ashtray. I also just posted another image of another ashtray I just bought that comes with a book of matches. If anyone is interested in joining the Yahoo Carrols group, go to:

http://finance.groups.yahoo.com/group/Carrols/

I have over 30 images of Carrols memorabilia posted there.

RE: Carrolls restaurants (toddsyr)

Sun, 07 Jun 2009 04:45:05 GMT

For folks who are members of the Yahoo Carrols group:

I just uploaded an image of some stickers that Carrols gave away in the late 1960's. I was lucky enough to find 6 sets of these, unused! The image is under "Photos", folder # 3.

Soon to come:

An image of an orange Carrols ashtray I just bought. I'm just waiting for it to arrive in the mail.
Todd K. Stearns

RE: Carrolls restaurants (NascarDad)

Sat, 06 Jun 2009 09:01:58 GMT

The Carrol's corporation converted itself into a burger king franchisee with multiple locations, IIRC. Too bad too. Much better than BK.

RE: Carrolls restaurants (SeamusD)

Tue, 02 Jun 2009 20:00:01 GMT

Wow... I haven't thought about Carroll's in a long time. My grandfather would take us kids to the location in Auburn, NY, he lived 3 blocks away. I can't exactly remember what I ate, but that I always got excited about going. The building is still there, but it's a packing and shipping store now, after stints as a Red Barn, then Dominoes.

RE: Carrolls restaurants (bmiddaugh)

Tue, 02 Jun 2009 09:31:18 GMT

Does anybody have dth1971's email address? I would love to get an audio copy oif that Carrol's hamburger commercial!

RE: Carrolls restaurants (ConeyIslandLou)

Wed, 11 Mar 2009 14:29:10 GMT

The Carrols story is pretty typical of most 60's McDs imitators: It started out as a chain in the Ohio/Indiana area, and slowly expanded. A guy named Herbert Slotnick got the franchising rights for New York and Pennsylvania, and he opened a slew of stores all over New York - mostly in areas where McDs had not explored yet. The first one in our town opened in 67 or so, and then another one about 70. Most of the units had opened as counter only stores, but in the early 70s, most (but not all) were remodeled to have dining rooms, as McDs was starting to encroach on its territory. meanwhile Slotnick essentially had taken over the company, and early 70s beef shortages/price inflation took hold. Carrols was actually doing pretty good, but Slotnick knew he couldn't compete with McDs TV ads...meanwhile, BK was lookng to expand, and very convienantly, needed outlets in most of the areas Carrols served, so Slotnick made a deal with BK, and converted about 75% of the Carrols into BKs. Carrols CORPORATION still exists,and it is now THE biggest single BK franchisee.

MY first job ever was opening a converted Carrols-into-BK, and all my paychecks came from Carrols Corp....

Id sure love a Club Burger right now....

RE: Carrolls restaurants (fan23)

Tue, 10 Mar 2009 14:08:47 GMT

Ahhh Starlight Drive-In , what memories, the property now being taken up by Delta Sonic and the old BJ's Wholesale club building. I grew up on Town Line rd. right up the street from Carrols on the corner of West Henrietta Rd (which is now an Arby's & has been since Carrols closed down sometime in the 70's). Funny story, during the big blizzard of 1966, my brothers locked our dog in the bathroom of Carrols and my mom called a manager ( I dont know where she got his phone # from) to come and unlock the restaurant and let him out. I seem to remember two Carrols in Henrietta the other one being on Jefferson rd by Southtown Plaza. I was too young to remember how the food tasted, but I do remember Carrols and have some of the Looney Tunes glasses that they gave away.

RE: Carrolls restaurants (David_NYC)

Mon, 24 Nov 2008 16:07:54 GMT

RoadWarrior: In case you missed the link on page 3, the Carroll's in Finland has a web site:
http://www.carrols.fi/

RE: Carrolls restaurants (RoadWarrier)

Mon, 24 Nov 2008 13:31:59 GMT

Hey there Cherry!! YES there IS a Carrols, You are Absolutely Correct. They are STILL Thriving well in Finland.
I was involved in Setting Up the Operations there back in the beginning of the 70's.It was a Natural Progression, from the units we were setting up in Sweden. The Finns saw what was happening and wanted some of the 'Action'. FAST FOOD ( as we know it)was Just starting Over there. LOL We sold a LOT of CLUB BURGERS. I can remember a Promo we did in Helsinki.... Buy 1 Get 1 Free, OMG they were Lined up outside as I arrived Before we Opened. The folks Bought them by the Dozen and they took them home and froze them.
It was GREAT ! I also have some pics showing units over there. I need to figure out how to post them on here for your entertainment.
More later, I hope MORE People have stories to share.

RE: Carrolls restaurants (Cherry5000)

Mon, 24 Nov 2008 12:44:58 GMT

I found your thread on a websearch for those Carroll's glasses.
For those of you that thought Carroll's was gone forever it still exists...Helsinki, Finland. That's right Helsinki. I found one back in 98 and got my fill of several Club Burgers. They we still packaged the same way as they were back in the 70's with the thin waxed paper ring to hold everything together. If you have the money and the time happy traveling.

RE: Carrolls restaurants (toddsyr)

Sat, 22 Nov 2008 18:41:43 GMT

A friend of mine has the matches if I remember right. the name tag would be neat to see. I did post a bunch of images of my collection on the Yahoo Carrols group. This can be seen by registered members at:

http://finance.groups.yahoo.com/group/Carrols/

Just look under the Carrols Gallery 3 folder in the Photos section if interested.

RE: Carrolls restaurants (slade1955)

Sat, 22 Nov 2008 11:44:47 GMT

A woman I work with used to work at a Carroll's in New Jersey. She came in one day and showed me a matchbook from there and name tag.