Alan Morrell | Democrat and Chronicle

Shawn Dowd

Editor's note: This story was originally published in 2014.

Before McDonald's and Burger King, Carrols was the burger chain where Rochester-area residents got their fast-food fix.

McDonald's has the Big Mac and Burger King has the Whopper, but Carrols had the Club Burger. Carrols also sold popular Looney Tunes drinking glasses that can be found in many a local flea market, with plenty more likely tucked away as family keepsakes.

File photo 1981

Carrols moved into the Rochester market in the 1960s and, at its peak, had about 150 outlets, mostly in upstate New York and Pennsylvania. By 1977, all but one of the Carrols restaurants was gone, gobbled up by competition from the escalating fast-food wars.

In its heyday, though, Carrols was the burger joint of choice for Rochester.

"As a pioneer in the fast-food business in upstate New York, Carrols prospered as just about the only game in many towns," Mike Meyers wrote in a 1983 Democrat and Chronicle story. "When Carrols opened a restaurant in Buffalo in those early years, the city only had one McDonald's."

Herb Slotnick, a Syracuse-area businessman, brought Carrols to the masses. His plans for cheap, quickly prepared food were revolutionary to the area. Slotnick got the idea from similar burger stands he saw in California.

"Hamburgers were 15 cents and milkshakes were 15 cents and French fries were a dime, so it was 40 cents for a meal," Slotnick said in a 2010 story published online by Syracuse.com. Other menu items included the Sea Fillet fish sandwich and the Crispy Country Chicken.

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Carrols learned soon enough that it could not compete with the marketing power of its multi-billion-dollar competitors. Burger King, for instance, had nearly 10 times as many restaurants as Carrols, according to a 1975 news story. McDonald's had even more, and the national powerhouses were taking a big bite out of Carrols' profits.

"By the early 1970s, Carrols restaurants were surrounded by McDonald's and Burger King outlets," Meyers wrote in the 1983 article. He quoted Slotnick as saying, "I felt like I was a target for a hit. Every time we had a good location, Burger King moved in … It's like Royal Crown (cola) competing with Coke and Pepsi."

So Slotnick figured if you can't beat 'em, join 'em. He cut a deal in the mid-1970s to transform his company to Burger Kings. Many of the old Carrols were converted, and the others were phased out and closed.

The last surviving Carrols — at least in the United States — was on East Main Street in Batavia, which lasted until about 1981. (There has been some dispute among online message boards about Carrols in other countries, including Finland, which may have lasted longer.)

Philip Tooze of Stafford, Genesee County, was a longtime general manager of the Batavia Carrols. Tooze, 64, now is a manager at the Applebee's restaurant in Batavia.

"I'd just graduated from college when I started at Carrols in 1971, and I became general manager in 1975," he said in December. "We had a lot of people who came in the last few years it was open just to have a Club Burger. It was a fun place to be. We were the last man standing."

Tooze remembered serving free food to State Police during the 1971 Attica Prison riots and helping raise money for the Batavia Marching Band. The Carrols was eventually switched over to a Big Boy's restaurant, Tooze said, and now is a Tully's restaurant.

The switchover was the financial shot in the arm that the company, now Carrols Corp., needed. Profits were up, and the stock price quadrupled, Meyers reported in 1983. Carrols now owns more than 570 Burger King restaurants, according to the Carrols website, and is one of the largest Burger King franchisers in the United States.

Carrols and the Club Burger may be long gone, but they'll be long remembered as a fast-food favorite for years.