(NEXSTAR) — Craving wiener schnitzel? Don’t head to Wienerschnitzel.
The California-based quick meals chain serves sizzling canines, burgers and fries, however not one of the dish for which it’s named.
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Historically, wiener schnitzel is a skinny lower of veal that’s breaded and fried. It’s not a sizzling canine in any respect. The “wiener” a part of the identify is definitely the German approach of claiming “from Vienna,” referring to the meals’s Austrian origins.
A wiener schnitzel isn’t a sizzling canine – it’s a breaded and fried veal cutlet. (Picture by Wodicka/ullstein bild through Getty Photos)
So then why is Wienerschnitzel named after an Austrian dish it by no means actually deliberate to serve?
In keeping with “Drive-Via Life,” an e-book about Wienerschnitzel and its founder John Galardi, the identify was impressed by one other nice quick meals household. Galardi was working for Glen Bell, the long run founding father of Taco Bell, in Pasadena within the Nineteen Fifties. Galardi determined he wished to open his personal restaurant chain, and John agreed to assist – so long as it didn’t compete together with his rising taco empire.
So Galardi picked sizzling canines. Now it was time to select a reputation. After brainstorming, all Galardi may consider had been generic choices like John’s Sizzling Canine or Great Sizzling Canine.
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He mentioned the topic of choosing a reputation with Bell and Bell’s spouse Martha over dinner. Martha talked about that earlier within the day she had been trying by means of a cookbook and located a recipe for wiener schnitzel – why not use that?
“It’s bought wiener in it, which is one other phrase for frankfurter,” she reportedly reasoned.
At first Galardi and nearly everybody else thought it was a horrible concept – it was international and onerous to pronounce, they thought. However Galardi thought it was simply uncommon sufficient to pique folks’s curiosity, so he went with it.
(The Bell household may also seemingly be credited for the Wienerschnitzel look. Glen Bell reportedly as soon as gave Galardi the recommendation that crimson and yellow are one of the best colours to catch folks’s consideration.)
FILE – A Wiener Schnitzel Restaurant in Las Cruces, New Mexico in 2003. (Picture by: HUM Photos/Common Photos Group through Getty Photos)
The eating places had been truly initially referred to as Der Wienerschnitzel – which isn’t truly grammatically right in German – however Galardi favored the sound of it, based on “Drive-Via Life.”
However regardless of this very German-sounding identify, the unique menu was nonetheless all American. It was a sizzling canine stand from day one – not a schnitzel in sight, other than the signage.
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That modified briefly in 2017, when Wienerschnitzel introduced it could be “serving the meals it was named for.” The quick meals chain added three sorts of hen schnitzel sandwiches to its menu for 2 months that yr.
On the time, J.R. Galardi, government vp and son of the founding Galardi, stated he may contemplate retaining schnitzel on the menu if it proved to be a success within the test-run.
“If it does, it should almost certainly stay on the menu,” he stated in a press launch.
However the namesake menu merchandise could not have been a smash success with quick meals lovers’ palates. In 2024 there’s no hint of schnitzel remaining on the Wienerschnitzel menu.