The Magic White Castle

White Castle Building No. 8 (photo:Todd Murray)

The world is in state of flux. Like Dorothy you may find yourself landing back in Kansas, but will things ever be the same? One sign post, the kind of Tiresias of fast food joints founded in 1921 seems to have escaped history. The big McDonald’s M is iconic, but White Castle is a little like the Pyramids or the tomb of Hatshepsut. It stands on the precipice of eternity, toying with immortality.  Neither it's anachronistic turreted medieval architectural design nor its harsh Groundhog Day style lighting doesn't seem to matter. The sight of the beloved structure makes one want to cry out, "man the barricades." The whole message of the 377 White Castles is that the only change is constant. That’s the security and continuity the brand name conjures and like most fast food restaurants or the economy hotel chains like Holiday Inn Express which are modelled on them, White Castle sells the quantum notion that you can be everywhere and nowhere at the same time.

Read "Diasporic Dining: The Running Footman" by Francis Levy, HuffPost

and check out "Deserie" by The Charts (1957)