Most fast food joints are the same everywhere in the world.
Whether you see those golden arches in Japan or Jacksonville, It's McDonald's either way.
But sometimes, these fast food spots can be turn out to be a little...different.
There are some fast food restaurant locations out there that completely abandoned the same
old cookie-cutter look in favor of something totally different creating some of the coolest
fast food locations around the world.
California's ski-up Starbucks
Coffee and hot chocolate are a must when you're out hitting the slopes, and there's one place
in California that makes it super easy to get warmed up without even taking off your
skis.
In 2012, Starbucks opened the world's first ski-thru coffee shop, catering to the winter
sport enthusiasts of California's Squaw Valley.
The mountainside restaurant is almost 8,000 feet above sea level, and it features a well-groomed,
well-packed ski-up so skiers and snowboarders don't have to take off their gear to grab
a quick cup of their favorite beverage before heading back out onto the slopes.
Nice!
Finland's Burger King Sauna
If you've ever gone to Burger King and thought, "Gee, I'd love to be able to eat my Whopper
and fries while sweating away in a sauna," you're in luck!
In 2016, Burger King opened their first combination restaurant and sauna in Helsinki, Finland.
Yep, that's right: in addition to the standard Burger King set-up, customers will also find
a 15-person sauna.
Burger King employees will even bring your food right to you so you can eat while you
sweat.
It sounds weird to Americans, but hey, at least the sauna isn't actually in the kitchen.
India's specially-abled KFCs
In 2008, KFC India got involved in the movement to provide education geared toward the specially-abled.
That led to the opening of KFC Academy, which trains work skills to the hearing or speech
impaired.
Many choose to stick with KFC after graduation, working in specially-abled stores that include
signage for customers explaining how to place their orders.
According to the employees, it's a life-changing opportunity.
KFC employee J Srikanth said:
"There are thousands like me in India.
We're everywhere, yet we're nowhere.
Seen, but not heard.
That is, until now."
New York's Subway in the sky
When New York City's iconic 1 World Trade Center tower was being built, construction
crews ran into a unique problem: it took so long to get back down to ground level that
workers were losing their whole lunch breaks just going up and down the structure.
So the folks in charge had a brilliant idea: a restaurant on the top floor that would move
up as the tower got taller and taller.
Enter Subway, which built a shop inside a mobile shipping container store that could
be raised one floor at a time as building continued.
Subway didn't make any money on the venture, but they did provide a much appreciated service
to the city's ironworkers until the shop closed in 2012 near the end of construction.
Starbucks' shipping container
Speaking of stores inside shipping containers, the idea seems to be gaining traction, as
Starbucks has begun rolling out mobile shops across the country.
First debuting in 2011, the stores are made from recycled shipping containers and are
more eco-friendly than normal locations.
They're also portable, and can be picked up, moved, and reassembled in a matter of days,
allowing Starbucks set up shop in unconventional places and test the popularity of their stores
in a given location without a larger financial commitment.
So far they've built 45 of these things, so keep an eye out, because one could suddenly
pop up in a location near you without any warning.
Domino's on the Moon
This one isn't real yet, of course, but the key word here is "yet."
In 2011, Domino's Japan announced they had been working on something pretty epic: putting
a location on the moon.
Sure, it seems like a marketing stunt, but The Telegraph reported that Domino's actually
did a ton of research, designing a store that would be self-sustaining, with living quarters,
and facilities for growing all the ingredients needed to make a pizza.
They also did an in-depth cost analysis which determined it would run about $21.74 billion
to build at the present time.
Of course, there's currently nobody on the moon to deliver pizzas to, but it's comforting
to know that once we get there, delivery is guaranteed in 30 light years or less.