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Seeing The Original Wendy's Menu Will Blow Your Mind

The Frosty has been around for more than 50 years!

If you're a fast-food connoisseur, you might already know that McDonald's originally sold barbecue or that Arby's didn't originally sell curly fries. But do you know what was on the original Wendy's menu? It turns out, the Frosty is as just as iconic as Wendy's square hamburgers.

When the first Wendy's location opened in Columbus, Ohio, in 1969, the Frosty was on the menu, as were hamburgers, French fries, chili, and soft drinks. So if you didn't think the Frosty and the chili were Wendy's icons, now you know!

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What's in a Wendy's Frosty?

Before that first Wendy's opened, Dave Thomas and Fred Kappus had time to perfect the Frosty recipe. Kappus, who worked at his family's foodservice equipment company, helped develop the original chocolate Frosty recipe. Spoiler alert: It includes vanilla to get the flavor just right.

wendys founder dave thomas with burger meat cheese vegetables
Wendys/Facebook

Why are Wendy's burgers square?

It's a bit of a gimmick, but it's a successful one! Dave Thomas wanted customers to know that Wendy's doesn't cut corners—literally.

There's a marketing component, too—square patties look visibly juicy, and they aren't buried by the bun. Wendy's prides itself on serving beef that's fresh, not frozen. And the company is so proud of its beef that they want to show it off with those juicy square patties.

Your ultimate restaurant and supermarket survival guide is here!

It's comforting to know that for more than 50 years, the core tenets of Wendy's and its menu have stayed the same. Sure, the chain has started offering breakfast and vanilla Frostys, along with chicken nuggets and the infamous Baconator. But you can still walk into the fast-food joint and order exactly the same thing as someone could have ordered from that original Wendy's location in Columbus in 1969. The more things change, the more they stay the same.

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