So... what constitutes fast food?

Fast food is there for your midnight pitstop during a later-than-usual night out, where piping hot McDonald’s French fries or a munchies meal from Jack in the Box are there to rescue you. It’s your road trip co-pilot, with pickup windows serving as your main source of sustenance between Point A and Point B. Fast food is resourceful when money is limited, where you can easily create a satisfying meal from a crumpled $5 bill. The basic dining experience is universal across every chain: your expectations are met with cheap prices, there’s always a ball pit nearby, and plastic toys in every Happy Meal.

1. It has a drive-thru

You pull up, you don’t get out of your car, you snag your food, and you’re out of there. Drive-thrus put much of the “fast” in fast food. McDonald’s, Burger King, Taco Bell, Wendy’s -- all these fast food venues have one thing in common, and it’s not the fact that they serve food that has been previously frozen (I mean, Wendy’s uses fresh beef, right?). They all have drive-thrus.

Of course, there are the occasional exceptions to the rule. At Thrillist, we don’t consider Chipotle to be fast food -- what with its insane focus on real ingredients, higher price point, and lack of kid-oriented toys and play places -- but the chain is working on installing drive-thrus at some of its locations. Sonic Drive-In specializes in car hops (on roller skates?!?) rather than drive-thrus, but we’d still consider it in the fast food family, thanks to its frozen tots, dollar hot dogs, and late-night happy hours full of limeades and slushes. Besides, Sonic does have a drive-thru. The drive-thru test alone doesn’t dictate whether something is or isn’t fast food, but the majority of fast food spots will sport a drive-thru while only a select few fast casual spots offer such a convenience.

2. The price point is accessible

Value takes on many forms. You won’t find a value menu at places like Panera or Shake Shack, but you will find deals galore and dollar menus at the home of the Chalupa or under the Golden Arches. That’s not to say the foods at fast casual restaurants don’t have value; it’s just to point out that price -- and at times, food quality -- are different across the two categories. While Taco Bell is touting 21 menu items you can get for just $1, Chipotle is highlighting the remarkably short list of ingredients in its guacamole, which as you know, is $2-$3 extra. You’ll be hard-pressed to find a fast food company that proudly boasts all the ingredients and additives that make up its menu, but offering a whole McChicken for a buck is the draw.

That’s exactly why it’s easy to stretch a $5 bill at, say, Del Taco, but it’s hard to get a meal at Panda Express without pulling out a second five spot. A chicken sandwich from Popeyes is $3.99 while it’s $7.09 at Shake Shack. Affordability is a key factor when it comes to defining fast food though, as mentioned before, there are often exceptions. A Double Quarter Pounder With Cheese, with its salty newly-fresh beef patties, is going to be priced much more than an order of McNuggets, but the key is to recognize that those cheap eats are options on the menu. At the end of the day, an extra few bucks will definitely get you higher quality elsewhere.

3. It is open late, sometimes even 24/7

We’ve all been there: shoveling soft tacos into our mouths at 3am from a steamy plastic Taco Bell bag or moping about not being able to get a candy-filled McFlurry because the machine is broken yet again and that’s the only thing that’s going to help you relax after a long overnight shift. That’s something fast food has over fast casual: You can show up at random hours and be on your merry way (at least, when the machine is working!) with fried food in a bag. Most fast food places are open late, and some are even open 24/7, including holidays. You cannot, for the most part, get Panera’s mac & cheese at 2am. Likewise, you can’t turn to Shake Shack for an emergency burger run on Christmas Day.

4. You can get a happy meal -- and maybe enjoy a ball pit

In the year of our lord, 2000, I -- like most 7 year-olds at the time -- was a Furby fanatic. I collected every single Furby from McDonald’s Happy Meal offerings of that year. Where else can you get a swarm of plastic Furbys that will stare into your soul, or a collection of plastic figures from whichever Disney movie is coming out next? Not at Panda Express or Five Guys. Certainly not at Chipotle.

Beyond the figurines included in Happy Meals that kids shriek over, fast food spots also, at times, are home to a glorious ball pit and play area. Yes, this has nothing to do with the food. Yes, it’s still relevant. Slides and mascots and toys are woven in the very fabric of indoctrinating kids to love fast food from a young age that is unlike any other restaurant’s kid’s meal. It’s something that makes fast food stand out among other chains -- it’s silly and fun and thrives on the joy of kids begging their parents to please get them a Happy Meal and let them play in the ball pit.

Fast food chains are perfectly fine with your inability to take them too seriously.