100th post! Also - On the trail of the mythical Brown Derby

Have you ever thought to yourself "there just aren't enough restaurant franchises named after minor characters in Popeye"? Me too, which is why I was so thrilled to recently discover that Wimpy is still in business!

The Wimpy bar in my town closed down well over a decade ago and, although I'd heard rumours of Express Wimpys haunting various service stations and bowling alleys, I'd given up on my dream of ever finding another proper sit down Wimpy bar.

Until last week! After some careful research (typing 'wimpy' into Google), I was amazed to discover a Wimpy restaurant in Newark, a mere 15 miles from me! Now, I've been led on Wimpy related wild goose chases before, so I checked with people I knew from the area that the internet wasn't lying to me. They confirmed that the Wimpy was real, so me and the mister set off to find this mythical Shangri-La.

Let me backtrack. For those of you who aren't familiar with Wimpy, here is its entire life story. For those of you who don't have time to fanny about on Wikipedia, think McDonalds, but with cutlery and waitress service. And chips, proper chips, not fries. Wimpy is what McDonalds in Britain would have been if everyone still had elevenses and wore bowler hats to work.

Their signature dish was the sausage based 'Bender in a Bun' (jokes too obvious for human consumption). Also on the menu were fish n chips, burgers, hot puddings, and the donut and ice cream combo known as a Brown Derby (which my boyfriend swears is a euphemism).

So, we drove to Newark, and shuffled our way past various pound shops looking vaguely lost.

AND THEN -

I don't mind admitting that I did a little dance in the street at this point. Finally, I was going to succeed where so many brave explorers before me had failed. This is what Howard Carter must have felt like, only he couldn't even have a Brown Derby.

The decor inside was pretty much the same as I remembered it from the 1990s, which was a nice bonus. We would have taken a picture of the 'flavor burst' posters on the walls, which featured retro looking ice creams in various neon colours (and which I'm pretty sure weren't even on the menu), but I was scared one of the staff would rat me out for industrial espionage, even though I was up to nothing of the sort.

We ordered -

Milk

Coke

Bacon and egg in a bun

Original half pounder and chips (with free onion rings!)

Rocky road sundae

BROWN DERBY!

Our food arrived, and oh my god, it was every bit as fantastic as I remembered. I didn't take a picture of my food, because this isn't fucking Instagram. Mind you, since this is essentially a food based post, that was a bit of a silly decision.

To be honest, that's kind of the end of my Wimpy story. I missed it, I went back after a lot of years, and I still loved the food. And I made sure to leave a tip.

So here we are at the end, and just so I don't leave you with a terrible feeling of anticlimax, here is a picture of a mega circus!