🚀 go-pugleaf

In article
<1f3dd044-4fd1-4c2f-a19c-a0c1c5147ef6@f10g2000hsf.googlegroups.com>,
<"beetovn111@yipee.com"> wrote:

> >
> > I know that it's one of my handful of "destination" places when I visit
> > my brother in Manhattan Beach.  Regretfully, we don't have the Islands
> > chain in Northern California, at least not yet.
> >
> > I like the dark lighting, the booths (at some of the locations, such as
> > one on Pico), the massive baskets of fries, the various kinds of
> > burgers.
> >
> > You folks in the LA area who don't like it ought to consider the
> > alternative some of us face, such as in the Bay Area, where some good
> > burger places exist, but few of them have the atmosphere of Islands.
> > Pretty sad when our closest match is Chile's.
> >
> > --Tim May
> 
> There is an Islands in Roseville (Northeast Sacto) and allegedly more
> on the way around the bay area (according to one of the managers).  It
> looks like the brief  housing boom has brought in more chains from
> outside the region.  There has been a pretty big spread of Ruby
> Tuesday's, L&L, and Sonics over the past couple of years.  Sadly,
> northeastern Sacramento is little more than a collection of mediocre
> chain restaurants.

Thanks for the inside info, even if just a report/rumor from a manager. 

Please pass on my praise for Islands if you want to. (Knowing how to
Google pretty well, I can see that there is not a lot of chatter on
Usenet about Islands and any possible move northward. There may be on
some blogs, though.)

In-N-Out was fabulously successful when it spread up north, mostly
along 101, until it reached well past SF, into Marin and Sonoma
Counties. The number in "off ramps" from Santa Barbara to Santa Maria
to Atascadero to Salinas to Gilroy and into the Promised Land of the
Santa Clara Valley and Bay Area is enormous. (Though they need one near
me, out in Santa Cruz County. And maybe one in San Luis Obispo. And the
fast food Mecca for travellers near Buellton.)

(Along I-5 I know nothing about, not having taken this route for many
years.)

Islands could probably repeat this success story that In-N-Out had. 

Pass it on. Since their model is different, I would recommend they jump
directly into neighborhoods that resemble their LA area success. For
example, somewhere in Santa Clara or Sunnyvale, then another place in
the East Bay, then someplace in SF, but not too downtownish.

--Tim May