Out and Back: Sonic

I freely admit that sometimes I get bugged by things that, frankly, I know shouldn't bug me.

For years the Sonic drive-thru chain would buy national ad spots during games or shows I watch a lot, and it always bothered me a little bit because a) I'd never heard of Sonic; and b) once I discovered what Sonic was, I also discovered that there weren't any within about 300 miles of me.

Well, not long ago, that changed, and New Jersey got a Sonic. And by "a Sonic", I mean "exactly one Sonic."

(Route 9 North, Waretown, N.J.)

In retrospect, I don't know how I almost drove past the place. Possibly mental fatigue from thinking "Where the hell IS IT?" for the last five miles of the drive. Seriously, no building has ever looked more out of place for where it is than this one. You can't really tell from that shot.

I'm not entirely sure, but I think those drive-up stations in the background are for paying with credit or debit cards. I didn't give that a spin because if you're so paranoid about carrying cash that you don't have enough on you for drive-thru fast food, you've got problems I'm not qualified to solve. There is no interior seating that I could see, by the way - they have a patio outside where I actually saw someone get food brought out to his table, but I don't think you're getting inside the building unless you're wearing the uniform.

I wasn't tremendously hungry at this point, so I just got a Coney (what they call a hot dog) with chili and cheese, fries and one of their Famous orange slushes. I capitalize "Famous" because they do it and, as the first-timer, I feel I have to take their word for it.



While I railed on the use of foil paper at Roy Rogers, this probably is the best way to store a drive-thru hot dog.


Plating is not my strong suit. It certainly isn't theirs.

The food was about as nondescript as it gets, which may actually be a good thing. The chili cheese dog tasted like, well, a hot dog with chili and cheese on it. The fries were salted almost perfectly. (This reminds me that my ketchup consumption has plummeted as I've gotten older.)

Sonic makes a big deal about drinks. It's their hook, like how McDonald's puts "Mc-" in front of everything. Sonic's thing is they have a menu of flavors you can add to any drink if you want, so if you want a cherry-flavored Diet Coke, you can get a Diet Coke and ask them to add cherry flavoring to it. Or a Sprite with vanilla (ew). Or even root beer and Powerade, which seems like something you'd drink before going on a mass crime spree.

This was the star of the day:


That's a quality frozen beverage. It may not look like it (blame the photographer), but it is. You'll just have to trust me. Good flavor, structurally sound, not watery, and it holds up - an hour later it was about the same consistency on top and hadn't turned into a melted, syrupy mess.

The topper was unexpected, and, I believe, a fast-food first:


Yep. That's a Sonic after-meal mint. I didn't believe it, either.

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