Zeus

Back in the 70's when I was a student, we used to love to go to a chain of greasy hamburger shops called "Wimpy's". The place has a lot of memories for me, including indigestion. Being underfinanced college students however, the "restaurants" were lifesavers. I did a search on the internet and found the following website:

http://www.wimpyburgers.co.uk/html/menu/menu.html

It sounds like the same chain. As I will be visiting London in July and I wish to "poison" my family, can anyone tell me where the closest Wimpy's will be? My hotel is across from Hyde Park. The list of locations on the website sound like they are outside Central London.

ron

The last one I remember seeing in central London was on the Queensway just south of the Holburn tube station.

Dave_

You are right that they seem to be predominantly outside central London.

If you are planning on going to Greenwich while you are in London then you may wish to go to the one there.

It looks like the one at Queensway may not have sit-down facilities which are probably a must if you want your family to suffer the full Wimpy experience!

flanneruk

You're right.

The sit-down places are all outside the tourist ghetto. But the Whitechapel Rd branch is fairly close to things like the Tower, and is also a kind of local student caff.

You've obviously found the branch locator on the web site. They have a lot of branches on motorway service stations, so if you're travelling you can indulge on the way.

But they're not really the same these days. They don't do Shanties any more, and the Bendy seems to be available only in the breakfast menu. You can't get a Bender in a bun any more.

What is the world coming do? Prepare to be disappointed. And, to be honest, we don't imitate American junk food that well. Take your family to a proper British junk food place: any decent greasy spoon should be able to cram a lot more instant heart disease into a lot less space - and in far more authentically sleazy surroundings.

Zeus

I guess you guys talked me out of it...Since my college age son has now discovered Monty Python, maybe someone can recommend a good cheese shop?

flanneruk

Zeus:

Before anyone gets into a careful dissertation on the subtle differences between Paxton's, the Neal St Yard and Waitrose, is there a piece of Pythonology I'm missing?

Nowhere in the oeuvre can I remember Palin crumbling a bit of Lancashire, or Jones sniffing a ripe Munster. If cheese ever came into it all, it'd be a Kraft cheese slice or a nice triangle of Dairylea, surely?

Do you really want a proper cheese shop - preferably one specialising in the products of these islands - or some complicated example of Cleese-induced irony?

TexasAggie

LOL!! I ate Wimpy's burgers one summer during high school when I was in Nairobi, Kenya!! From what I remember, they were rather different than American burgers... grated carrots instead of lettuce, and Thousand Island salad dressing instead of ketchup or mustard.

capo

I remember "Wimpy bar" from a Monty Python sketch! And isn't it likely that Wimpy -- the character in "Popeye" mentioned below, whose famous phrase was ""I will gladly pay you Tuesday for a hamburger today" -- got his name from the hamburger chain since that was his favorite food?

From this website...

http://www.donaghue.karoo.net/music/...g_england.html

"Although our transatlantic cousins will remember Wimpy primarily as the rotund chappy in Popeye, Wimpy were the first "fast - food" esque outlet in most towns and cities in England, predating the ubiquitous rise of MacDonalds by many years. Again there is a contrast between History and Change - but done without the sledgehammer to the cranium approach. Trivia point - Peter Gabriel's first rendezvous with his wife to be Jill, was at a Wimpy bar."

flanneruk

Capo:

America has taken many things from Britain. Wimpy is absolutely not one of them.

Popeye was, in the 50s and 60s, a far more popular import than Mickey Mouse (who has never really had much salience in the UK). Wimpy Bars (the chain's earliest name) were invented after the Popeye craze, and named after the character.

Indeed, most of us thought that olive oil (then sold only in pharmacies, for internal lubrication) was named after Popeye's girlfriend character.

capo

So there <i>was</i> a connection, but it was the other way around, eh? Thanks, flanneruk!

And that makes me wonder...did the parents of that guy who helped stab Caesar to death go ahead in time and get the name for their son from that other Popeye character?

KateIP

My dad was stationed in England when I was a kid, and I had major McDonald's withdrawl! Wimpy's wasn't much of a substitute with their strange tasting hamburgers and 'milkshakes'~chocolate syrup stirred into tepid milk!
WE were returning from a coach trip of Germany one time when the guide said we would be stopping by a special Wimpy's. We all groaned~until it turned out to be the newly (and only second) opened McDonald's in London.
Great that they're still around, and interesting about the origin of the name~it might come in handy at the pub quiz!

Gardyloo

As opposed to Wimpey the housebuilder, who is most assuredly a UK invention. &quot;We Intend to Make Profits Every Year.&quot;

flanneruk

Gardyloo:

You've clearly been got at by the PC police.

&quot;We import more Paddies every year&quot; is how it used to be. Until Britain started exporting brickies to the Celtic tiger.

Holldoll

I lived in London in 1970. Wimpy's were popular then, and, as discussed, the Wimpy burgers were strange tasting. In 1970 someone opened a restaurant called The Great American Disaster, which featured good old hamburgers with various toppings. They were actually very good, however, the place was so popular that you stood in a line that went way down the block just to get in! Fond memories...