The Wimpy Hamburger

The Wimpy restaurant is the brand name of a chain of fast-food restaurants based in the United Kingdom. The Wimpy burger is one of the most famous hamburgers in the U.K. .

The Wimpy name was taken from the character of J. Wellington Wimpy which was a character from the famous Popeye cartoon created by E. C. Segar.

In the early 1950s founder Eddie Gold opened twelve restaurants.   The very first one called a Wimpy Bar was established on Coventry Street in London. It was a bar with a special fast food section.  However this model for the business did not last and in the future most Wimpy restaurants were just fast-food restaurants. By 1970 the business included over a thousand restaurants in 23 countries.

The business was acquired by United Biscuits in 1977 but by the late eighties began to lose business to McDonald’s. The arrival of McDonald’s in Britain inspired the elimination of the traditional look of the Wimpy restaurants and it became more like a plastic fast food counter outlet.

In 1989 the business was sold to Grand Metropolitan which was a company that also owned Burger King. Since then many of the Wimpy outlets have been turned into Burger Kings.  In Ireland many of the original Wimpies have know been turned into a restaurant called “The Grill and Fill.”  This is especially true of the Wimpy counter outlets that used to be attached to gas stations.

Although the numbers  of outlets have actually decreased in numbers in the United Kingdom, they are still found in seaside locations and at tourist spots. There are famous old Wimpies located on Clarence Pier in Sothsea, Ryde, the Isle of Wight and Porthcawl Beach.

Since the eighties many Wimpies have featured the mascot cartoon character called Mr. Wimpy as a performer at parties. His costume was the red dress uniform of the Beefeaters at the Tower of London.

Despite its charm as a piece of true British culinary history the restaurant chain is also famous for serving Quorn which I s brand of imitation mat mycoprotien that is cultured in the United Kingdom.  This type of burger meat suits vegetarians.  It is a mushroom-based  product.

Since 2007 Wimpy’s has been revitalizing it’s restaurants by making them look more like they used to in the thirties and forties. They have also adopted their original logo which is a red and white burger icon with the word WIMPY written across it.