I was very sad to hear and be unaware of the fact that Dave Thomas, founder of Wendy’s, passed away. I say unaware because he died in 2002. I discovered this on a plaque underneath a picture of the current manager of the franchise. Beneath that was the story of Dave Thomas and his picture. R.I.P. Dave Thomas (1932-2002). Then I became aware to the pictures of Dave Thomas that frequent the walls of Wendy’s, which oddly gave me the slight feeling of being in a mortuary for a moment. But the atmosphere was friendly, homely, and overall welcoming. This was the one of the relatively distinguishable aspects of Wendy’s from other fast food chains that I liked.

Baconator: Wil and I expected a lot. Who wouldn’t? But really, it didn’t deliver. Don’t get me wrong; simply bacon, cheese and meat, I’m definitely a fan. But this was too generic; it tasted too much like every other burger. The bacon wasn’t crisp. The cheese wasn’t that melty. The meat did have the square thing going which I was amused by, but that couldn’t make up for the fact that it didn’t taste “fresh, never frozen.” I was led to believe that Wendy’s was a little bit of a higher class joint, but all I got was McDonald’s 1.5.

Fries: Surprisingly pretty good. Tasted like fried potatoes enough and were cooked with some crisp which I’m always fan of. But really, nothing worth writing about…

Strawberry Frosty: Let’s be clear about one thing: “handspun” vs. a machine is the same thing. But it didn’t matter for this one; very lackluster. Through careful observation, I discovered that this is made by “handspinning” a vanilla soft-serve shake with strawberry syrup. Bottom line: not good. Frosty shmosty.

Notable about the Baconator is that it does not come with your standard lettuce, tomato, or onion. That’s fine with me because I hate those things. It does come standard with ketchup and mayonnaise, which are two other things I usually do not like, but I was frisky tonight and decided to go ahead anyway.

Let’s take a break here to talk about the squareness of the patties. It’s interesting, but it really leaves you yearning for a square bun. The corners of the square protrude outward and this combined with the largeness of the patty as compared to the bun make eating the burger difficult. However, I do appreciate that they have a “thing” going, so you can’t really knock that.

Baconator: However, the main issue with the patties is not the shape, but the texture. It’s acceptable, though notably squishy and unpleasant. However, this may be attributable to my choice of using the ketchup and mayo, so I have no frame of reference. My journalistic duties tell me that I need to go back and try a plain burger. Overall, the burger was acceptable.

What was not acceptable, was the Frosty Float. I’m something of a root beer float connoisseur, and this did not deserve that description. Maybe that’s why they changed the name, to avoid comparison, but I’m comparing it anyway. The consistency of the soft serve is subpar at best. It somehow feels (and I know this is impossible) carbonated. I don’t know what’s going on. I cannot recommend it. Also, there was an issue with the straw where I couldn’t get enough suction, so that tarnished the experience.

Finally, there’s not much to say about the caesar salad. It’s good. It’s a salad. I was pretty stoked they gave me croutons, though.