With the news of Roy Rogers’ return to Greater Cincinnati, we had a question rumbling: What other regional chains would you like to see come to the Queen City?
And Enquirer readers came with lots of ideas.
The suggestions on our Facebook and Instagram pages ranged from popular fast-food restaurants to specialty grocers.
The big winners with a side of fries were: Whataburger, Shake Shack and Zaxby’s.
Whataburger is a fast-food burger chain with locations spanning from Arizona to Florida, known for their “Flying W” logo.
Shake Shackis another fast-food burger chain, but with a little bit of fine-dining flair (black truffle burgers, anyone?) and a lot of fancy milkshakes.
Road trip?:Columbus is home to multiple Shake Shacks
Zaxby’sis a Georgia-based fast-food chain specializing in chicken and a contender in the Chicken Sandwich Wars.
Here’s a full menu of what’s on readers’ wish lists:
Grocery stores
Readers wanted to see Wegman’s, Publix, Giant and Safeway grocery stores come to Cincinnati.
Fans of Wegman’s, a grocery-store chain with a European-market feel, are known as “Wegmaniacs.” The closest Wegman’s locations are in Pennsylvania.
Publix is a Florida-based grocery store with a cult-like following for their deli subs.
Giant has locations in Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia and West Virginia.
Safeway has locations in 18 states, concentrated in California, Colorado and Washington.
One reader also mentioned Peoples Drug stores. Peoples was bought by Melville Corp., which owned CVS, in 1990 and converted all the stores to CVS locations in 1994.
Chicago-style pizza in Cincy?
We may have a hometown favorite pizza, but readers are still hungry for more.
Readers clamored for Giordano’s, Old Chicago Pizza and Lou Malnati’s in the Queen City. Both specialize in Chicago-style pizza along with other Italian specialties.
The current closest Giordano’s location is in the Dayton suburb of Beavercreek, but you can also order a frozen pie online.
The closest Old Chicago Pizza location is in Lexington, Kentucky.
There are four Lou Malnati’s locations in Indiana, but they also offer frozen shipped pizzas.
More:Trenton-style pizza joint opens Downtown. Well, what’s that!?
More:One man’s search for the best Chicago-style pizzas in Cincinnati
A little healthier
Maybe you want some salad with all that pizza.
Readers crave Salata, a fast-casual chain specializing in salads and wraps with locations in North Carolina, Georgia, Louisiana, Texas and California.
Snappy Salads – a Texas fast-casual chain of salads, grain bowls and wraps – was also requested.
OK, more burgers
The following burger chains were also big in our mentions:
- Fatburger, a burger chain in southern California.
- Fuddruckers, a burger chain in 26 states, most concentrated in home state of Texas.
- Cook Out, a burger and hot dog chain in the south.
- Burger Chef, which was bought out by Hardees, another popular request despite a couple locations in the northern part of Greater Cincinnati.
- And, of course, In-N-Out.
Honorable mentions
We couldn’t look up the history and locations of everyone’s craving, but these are definitely on our next road trip agenda:
- Bojangle’s
- California Pizza Kitchen
- Del Taco
- Famous Dave’s BBQ
- Friendly’s
- Huddle House
- Jeni’s
- MCL Cafeteria
- Mr. Hero
- Old Country Buffet
- Pollo Tropical
- Ponchos
- Portillo’s
- QuickTrip
- Rax Roast Beef
- Rita’s
- TCBY
- Torchy’s
Did we miss something? Let us know in the comments! We’re always hungry for more.
Sallee Ann Ruibal helps curate The Enquirer’s voice online and across social media platforms. To help continue our presence in the community, please consider a subscription.
