Fast Food

A Newport Beach developer wants to build a child-care center and a Taco Bell restaurant at the corner of Johnson Drive and Capri Avenue in east Ventura, near the soon-to-be expanded Century Theatres. But property and business owners in the area say the proposed fast-food eatery would increase traffic, depreciate the value of their land and hurt the small businesses that operate in the food court across the street. They have appealed the Planning Commission's approval of the project.

David Kersten and Robert Henie showed up in the historic gold-mining town of Julian expecting the worst. As the owners of Julian's first-ever fast-food franchises, they feared being labeled greedy invaders in a picturesque mountain town that prizes its quaintness and charm and is to apples what Milwaukee is to beer. In fact, until last month--until Kersten and Henie came to town--Julian had staved off even the rumor of fast food.

Around 1750 the Earl of Sandwich put some meat between two slices of bread and gave fast food a good name. It was several hundred years before American ingenuity came along to ruin its reputation. But fast food doesn't have to mean a hapless piece of meat or produce that's been fried to a frazzle, wrapped in layers of paper and plastic and sold for the cheapest possible price. Fast food can be made from scratch, served with pride and consumed with pleasure.

Japan's Yaohan Department Store Co. said Wednesday that it plans to open 3,000 fast-food restaurants in China by the year 2011. Yaohan, based in Numazu, Japan, already operates burger restaurants in Japan in a joint venture with Mos Food Services Inc. Yaohan's U.S. subsidiary, Yaohan U.S.A. Corp. in Los Angeles, also operates a supermarket in Costa Mesa. The China project will be launched by Yaohan and Mos plus China Venturetech Investment Co.