britishers -- tell me about WIMPY BARS and their shitty burgers

If the prices were blanked out, you wouldn't be able to tell it was from the 70s. I recall that the mid-90s menu looked almost identical.

Dundee lost its Wimpy when the ten pin bowling closed. Went there on my birthday quite a few years ago (for the bowling, not Wimpy) and my mate who Notices Those Sorts of Things saw the Angel Delight guy from Come Dine With Me out with his family.

https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x14zas6

This thread is the place for this Ram John Holder cut.

Link for more info on this thread.

https://www.ilxor.com/ILX/ThreadSelectedControllerServlet?showall=true&bookmarkedmessageid=7641186&boardid=41&threadid=92576

Joe Strummer and John Peel at Wimpy bar in Piccadilly Circus, central London in July 1981.

https://scontent.fman1-1.fna.fbcdn.net/v/t39.30808-6/276231258_5146100878744575_1917766481083459959_n.jpg?_nc_cat=103&ccb=1-5&_nc_sid=730e14&_nc_ohc=4xuWFEyeZ-AAX9jNiwj&_nc_ht=scontent.fman1-1.fna&oh=00_AT81w0zqCy2dbEPUZ4SGoP5uSBohdCL-pKVGw9-Xmr9xbQ&oe=6240DC4D

They were both vegetarians. The Beanburger was the only veggieburger that was available at the time.

The only thing in that picture that doesn't look like 1981 is the Wimpy cups.

We had a local wimpy in Hendon for birthday parties. They used to let you behind the counter to fry burgers while the chef had a cig two feet away

Basildon Wimpy still seems to be for sale

https://www.nationwidebusinesses.co.uk/businessesforsale/basildon-essex-fast-food-restaurant-takeaway-for-sale-r5975.asp

True Wimpy aficionados take note: "It will be appreciated upon inspection that the first floor area has the potential to be converted into living accommodation, if desired."

Living above a Wimpy in Basildon, does life get any better

Lol ok

When Cher toured Britain in the sixties, she was homesick and wanted a burger. The promoter’s gopher went to Wimpy, brought one of its delicacies back to her hotel and the famed songstress burst into tears https://t.co/HBj6cqs9jD

— Nicholas Booth (@Thievesbook) May 28, 2022

only 15p for one of those lime green milkshakes...

https://scontent.fman1-1.fna.fbcdn.net/v/t39.30808-6/321675251_916746296427944_4590954951965034507_n.jpg?_nc_cat=109&ccb=1-7&_nc_sid=5cd70e&_nc_ohc=6O1iHHvhN5IAX_Tdedk&tn=c92m_WFoAYtXleHM&_nc_ht=scontent.fman1-1.fna&oh=00_AfCy1uz6ylQerDDP6rKSdqhkkoGBjRkmeapmVWBJFRov2A&oe=63C1B846

I last went to Wimpy back in 2018. I popped off to this one in Bermondsey, but it was closed:
https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-h494VRwu-Z8/W0B-WBZPqXI/AAAAAAAAXwE/LLXbveoloScxufJSV_gsKz_Y9y1etS2qACLcBGAs/s1600/Untitled-24.jpg

I must have just missed it. But there's one in Basingstoke, so I went there instead. It looked closed from the outside:
https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-LgxliPO9Opc/W27YtHB7jkI/AAAAAAAAXy0/QahAV8Yk8wcyhCDtmyrbpTkWoq_ohoSDwCLcBGAs/s1600/Untitled-18.jpg

As far as I can tell it still exists. I was torn by a desire to photograph the meal, but at the same time I just didn't have the guts. I remember coming down with impostor syndrome. I have a blog, but I'm not famous. Anthony Bourdain can get away with writing about Wimpy because everybody knows that he's joking. I'm not in that position yet. I did manage this photo, which made me wonder if there's a small warehouse somewhere in Doncaster that makes things for Wimpy:
https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-V1IjMCNcZH8/W27ZQXoFq5I/AAAAAAAAXzI/J5U3eT-G_hwxg7Imw6YdFYdVO2tmbCCZQCLcBGAs/s1600/IMG_Wimpy.jpg

Who works there? Old people and one young intern, probably. The burger had the same taste that I remember from when I was young.

Wimpy is trapped - they're more expensive than McDonalds and Burger King, so they compete with Wetherspoons, but Wetherspoons has beer. Nando's is slightly more expensive still but feels like a proper night out. The whole "nostalgia for the 1950s" aspect doesn't work because it's hard to be nostalgic for Britain in the 1950s. I don't want to think about self-loathing club comedians and Adam Faith when I'm eating. And the Instagram aspect doesn't work because Wimpy is meaningless in the states. It's not even naff enough to be funny, it just exists.

Like Little Chef! Except that it exists, unlike Little Chef.

Xp We are stardust, we are golden
And we've got to get ourselves
Back to the garden

ok, I'm here

https://i.postimg.cc/LXnGkN5F/20230113-152356.jpg

it's the mid-afternoon so not many people expected, but place is half full, mainly with kids who've just finished school, but still, no sign that this place is dying.

Staff seem to be mostly Spanish, kids seem to be leaving, still most of the tables are occupied. Stereo is playing Sweet Harmony by The Beloved, always a favourite. let's see what's on the menu.

https://i.postimg.cc/Rh01JDZw/20230113-154751.jpg

chose the "bendy with cheese" - a little disappointed that it isn't called a "bender in a bun" now, but relieved that I can ask for it without difficulty.

https://i.postimg.cc/J7yvF6qs/20230113-155141.jpg

sausage is good, meaty, tomato is mealy, too many onions, bread is nasty, like the cheapest rolls from the supermarket, actually crumbles as I eat. I'll give it a 5/10

they started playing Shape Of My Heart, so I made my excuses and left.

Last Wimpy I had was at a service station en route home from Reading festival in like 2003 or so. Bun was brown and stale and gross.

last nostalgia Wimpy i had might have been around the late 2000s. normally i'd say no such thing as too much onions but given these had the texture and flavour of boiled sellotape i'd make an exception

My mate Paul worked in Stevenage Wimpy and used have to put on the Mr Wimpy costume for kids parties and have the shit kicked out of him by sugar-crazed nippers.

yes, the onions were still like boiled sellotape, no idea how / why you do that to a poor onion.

wonderful revive. still laughing at adam faith. still laughing at boiled sellotape

aesthetic charming, bun looks heinous, menu doing too much. recalls french outlet flunch somehow

had a small fight with an ex once because he went on a longed-for nostalgia visit to the nearest wimpy without me while I was on a very prohibitive diet. thought it was brazen at the time, but in retrospect it was the low blood sugar / yearning for a bendy colouring my thinking.

i think the spicy beanburger is the only thing i miss and would cautiously revisit

I don't think I've posted this before - UK competitive eater Beard Meats Food tackles pretty much the full Wimpy menu at the Milford, Stafford branch a couple of years ago. It's a curious wee shack rather than a sit in restaurant, for added novelty.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7QG3LIX4gQY

THAT'S MY CHILDHOOD WIMPY!!

and yes, it's a shack. but then Milford is basically a pub and a row of houses

Wimpy in Woolwich, London 1987

https://i.imgur.com/u5gqwBM.jpg