If This Is How You Sonic, I Pass.

by POPSIE 1956

What is it about wanting something SO bad, and then when you finally get it, it’s a let down?

For many of us in the Albany, Schenectady, Troy NY area, that something, this time around, is Sonic.

We’ve all seen the commercials, and (especially for those who have never been to one), we’re thinking “Damn, we GOTTA have one of these here!”

I credit that to the power of advertising; the right campaign can sell a million widgets, but if the widgets from this new place are about the same as the widgets from all of the other places that sell widgets, there better be something pretty damn good about what extras you get with the widgets.

Some background; the very first Sonic finally opened in our area a short time back, and excitement grew to a fever pitch, as if the hand of The Lord Our God was gonna make these burgers, fries and shakes.

If you’re not familiar with Sonic, they offer car hop service, with food servers on roller skates bringing the food right to you (either in your car, or a picnic table, or inside the building), with hopes that they don’t slip on their skates and your food is delivered to you like the end of a Three Stooges pie fight.

Since Sonic opened here, I have heard mixed reviews, from the food being “meh,” to the deserts out of this world, to the car hop service horrible.

The other day, we were out with two of our grandsons, Chris and Zach for a day of fun. After a couple of hours at a cool indoor trampoline place, we decide to try Sonic for ourselves.

We had a heated discussion in the car whether we would do the car hop service, or the picnic table, or just go inside.

As we’re getting closer we see a line of cars in the car hop section, with luck we won’t have long to wait.

We pull in and and are greeted by two Parking Nazi’s, and see THREE lines, each with about TEN cars in each line, EVERY ONE waiting for car hop service.

If I have to wait THAT long for food, I’m demanding a Happy Ending for desert, and I ain’t talking ice cream.

This was a Saturday afternoon around 3:30, a relative down time, I can only image what it would be like during “normal” meal times.

We make a quick decision to park the car and eat inside.

When we get there, my first observation was how SMALL the inside was.

I don’t know this for a fact, but I have no idea how they are going to handle car hop service, let along food servers on roller skates, if we have another Upstate New York Nor’easter Winter like last year, unless the food servers put chains on their roller skates.

Add to that the inside was packed, so we had the kids sit down to hold a table while we ordered the food.

So we go to order and Miffy/Biffy/Buffy/Muffy takes our order with a grave look of confusion on her face…..

She must be new…

unless she’s the Manager, and if that’s the case we’re f*cked.

We’ve heard it was a bit expensive, more than likely to compensate for the “extra’s.

My wife and Chris each got a cheeseburger, small fry, and medium drink-$12.50

I got some chicken tenders and a small tater tot with a medium drink-$6.50

Zach has a grilled cheese, small fry and medium drink-$5.00

After a bit, food comes out, here’s the test…

and this is where I use the word FAIL.

The burgers were rather tasteless.

The fries were nothing special.

My tater tots weren’t even crispy.

I’ve had better chicken tenders from a grocery store.

My drink (Diet Dr. Pepper) was a bit watery.

Zach couldn’t really eat his grilled cheese, it was served on Texas Toast, the outside was moist, not crispy, and I think the cheese was a spread, and not slices.

We choose not to have desert there.

Again, your visit may be different, but unless the kids REALLY want to go back, that was my first and last time at Sonic.

A few years back, another chain unknown to the area, Krispy Kreme, tried their luck here, they failed after a relatively short time

Never made it there, but it seems like the same old story as with Sonic.

Just offer a great product, better than the others, and you’ll be raking in the cash.

Going forward, that rake won’t come anywhere near MY wallet.