By the 1970s, fast food restaurants had moved far beyond novelty. Suburban growth, more highways and more car owners made it easier for chains like McDonald’s, Burger King and KFC to expand. With this growth came menus that offered more variety, pulling in global flors like tacos, pizza and egg rolls alongside the usual burgers and fries. The design of these places also started to shift. Dining areas became more inviting, with cushioned seating and warmer tones, encouraging families to stick around and eat together instead of just grabbing food to go.
At the same time, casual sit-down restaurants were stepping up their game. Steakhouses and themed family spots offered combo plates, salad bars and hearty meals served with bread baskets or endless refills. Places like Sizzler became known for giving customers a dining experience that felt fuller without being too formal. Some restaurants leaned heily into decor, turning dinner into more of an outing. These places were part of a social routine, especially for families and people looking to celebrate a birthday or special night out.
Changes in family life also played a part. More women were working outside the home, two-income households were becoming common and long commutes meant less time for home-cooked meals. Restaurants, especially fast food spots, met that demand for quick, reliable food with little wait. And as more people moved into suburban areas, restaurants started catering to drivers, with better parking and drive-thru service becoming standard features. Immigrant communities also influenced American dining by popularizing dishes from Mexico, China, Italy and beyond, shaping menus across both local eateries and national chains.
Check out this collection of pictures showing vintage 1970s restaurant chains — fast food and dine-in — along with some other small-but-iconic eateries. (For more, be sure to check out Do the most popular 80s restaurants still exist today? Find out – and see how they used to look!)
The Magic Pan Creperie food & menu (1978)
Recipes — many spirited away from famous drive-ins and coffee shops — for the hefty hamburgers, tacos, tostadas, hot dogs, dips and drinks that on-the-go Californians he made a way of life
Article by Ruth Conrad Bateman in Woman’s Day (September 1972)
“California is more than a state — it’s a way of life!” A quarter century ago, Genevieve Callahan said it in her California Cook Book, one of the first and best of many books on the so-called California lifestyle.
To describe it in a few words, as many eastern writers attempt to do after a few days of observing our ways with foods, clothes, houses, gardens, and year-round recreation, is, to say the least, gross simplification.
Such words as “colorful,” “unique,” “vivid” and “mobile” certainly do apply, however: as many meals are eaten outdoors as in. And all Californians seem eager to he a go at all the ethnic foods found among our varied peoples.
There are dozens of ethnic groups here, but the ones that he most influenced the cooking and eating habits of every Californian are the Italian, Chinese and French in San Francisco, Armenians in the Fresno area and the Mexican and Japanese in Southern California.
Californians also he a passion for their own products. Practically everything grows in this golden land or swims in its waters. And some of these are found no place else!
Mix this exaggerated bounty, which is ailable year-round, with the exotic traditions of the ethnic cuisines, add a little homey Yankee or Southern or Middle America cooking, then stir it up with the casual, rather unorthodox freshness that seems to come with living here and you he an idea of what cooking in the California style is all about.
As much as anything, snack foods and refreshments show the Californian’s love of color and high flor with a minimum of fuss and ceremony.
The following forites you’ll find everywhere — in hamburger drive-ins and sandwich shops, pizza parlors, coffeehouses and juice bars, walk-up hot-dog and taco stands, on the beach or around the family pool, in the patio or by the television set.
Just any place where wheeling Californians stop for a bite to eat and drink. Though tacos seem to be the “in” food with the young crowd at the moment, as pizzas were a few years back, hamburgers and hot dogs are never out.
Perhaps the most popular hamburger is the patty with an option of cheese melted on top, and a thick glop of Thousand Island (or Russian) dressing on a sesame-seed bun, with pickles and catsup on the side.
Another forite at drive-ins where teenagers hang out is the double-deck burger — two thin patties in a bun with a third slice of bun in the middle — a hearty mouthful indeed.
SEE MORE: Sambo’s Restaurants: The diner chain’s story – and how it got that controversial name
MORE: Do you remember the old Arthur Treacher’s Fish & Chips fast food restaurants?
Vintage Taco Bell from the 70s
ALSO SEE: Vintage Taco Bell restaurants & see what the Mexican fast-food chain used to serve
MORE: Burger King: The vintage fast food restaurant they once called ‘delightfully different’
ALSO SEE: Vintage KFC: About Colonel Sanders & the Kentucky Fried Chicken fast food chain’s history
MORE: Remembering the old Next Door Restaurant chain from the ’70s
SEE MORE: Vintage Pizza Hut restaurants & food from the ’70s
Pizza Inn restaurants from the 1970s
SEE MORE: Do the most popular 80s restaurants still exist today? Find out – and see how they used to look!
Find out the fate of these popular restaurants, too! 1 Sambo's Restaurants: The diner chain's story - and how it got that controversial name 2 Vintage McDonald's: See 5 decades of the famous fast food chain's retro restaurants, menus & history 3 Vintage Pizza Hut restaurants & food from the '70s 4 Vintage KFC: About Colonel Sanders & the Kentucky Fried Chicken fast food chain's history 5 Delicious Dairy Queen history: Soft serve ice cream, Dilly Bars, Blizzards, burgers & more 6 Old Wendy's restaurants: What was on the menu, what they looked like & how they got the name 7 Burger King: The vintage fast food restaurant they once called 'delightfully different' 8 Vintage Taco Bell restaurants & see what the Mexican fast-food chain used to serve 9 The Roy Rogers Restaurant chain's wild ride: How the cowboy rode into fast food history 10 How the old Bob's Big Boy burger restaurants became the stuff of legend 11 Red Lobster restaurant history: Look back at the dining experience in the 70s, 80s & 90s 12 Howard Johnson's ice cream shops & restaurants: Good old days goodness from the '50s & '60s 13 Do you remember the old Arthur Treacher's Fish & Chips fast food restaurants? 14 Remembering the old Next Door Restaurant chain from the '70s
Sambo's Restaurants: The diner chain's story - and how it got that controversial name
2
Vintage McDonald's: See 5 decades of the famous fast food chain's retro restaurants, menus & history
3
Vintage Pizza Hut restaurants & food from the '70s
4
Vintage KFC: About Colonel Sanders & the Kentucky Fried Chicken fast food chain's history
5
Delicious Dairy Queen history: Soft serve ice cream, Dilly Bars, Blizzards, burgers & more
6
Old Wendy's restaurants: What was on the menu, what they looked like & how they got the name
7
Burger King: The vintage fast food restaurant they once called 'delightfully different'
8
Vintage Taco Bell restaurants & see what the Mexican fast-food chain used to serve
9
The Roy Rogers Restaurant chain's wild ride: How the cowboy rode into fast food history
10
How the old Bob's Big Boy burger restaurants became the stuff of legend
11
Red Lobster restaurant history: Look back at the dining experience in the 70s, 80s & 90s
12
Howard Johnson's ice cream shops & restaurants: Good old days goodness from the '50s & '60s
13
Do you remember the old Arthur Treacher's Fish & Chips fast food restaurants?
14
Remembering the old Next Door Restaurant chain from the '70s