A super-Sonic adventure!

Last night I was leafing through the local newspaper when I came upon an article announcing the opening of the first Chicago-area Sonic location this past Tuesday! According to the article, the restaurant is a short “15 min – 1 hour drive away [from a location by my work] depending on the time of day” (typical Naperville & Aurora traffic).

So, of course, I ripped out the article to show my co-worker, a fellow Mizzou grad and Sonic connoisseur, to entice her to go with me during lunch. Immediately after showing her the article, we made plans to go (and conned in another co-worker who went to college in Southern Illinois). Here is what we encountered on our quest for Diet Cherry Limeades!

10 Highlights from Our Sonic Adventure
1. We pull up and are instructed to follow a series of signs and Sonic employees strategically placed in the nearby Walmart parking lot who tell us where to wait for the drive thru and car hop lines.
2. One of the 10 Sonic workers milling around in the parking lot informed us the wait for the DRIVE THRU is 30 mins, but we’re determined and pull in behind at least 30 other cars.
3. We receive a Watermelon or Blue Coconut slush sample after 20 mins.
4. We snack on M&Ms after 30 mins.
5. After 45 mins. of waiting, we are finally one car away from ordering and the van in front of us pulls out a list.
6. Meanwhile a drunk-looking lady is pouring a water bottle over her car.
7. Sonic employees are sitting in their cars eating delicious-looking tater tots, melts & burgers and sipping on delicious-looking shakes, slushes and limeades while we continue to wait.
8. We are finally able to order and instructed to have a super-sonic day!
9. The car in front of ours order is so big one of the carhops has to shakily roller skate a tray out before and after he reaches the window.
10. We finally receive the glorious tots, toaster melts & limeades that we ordered and return to work 1.5 hours after our trek began fat & happy.

5 Highlights from the Naperville Sun Article Describing Sonic’s Opening Day
1. “[Julie and Kara Salanicky] have made several long trips to Peoria – until Tuesday, the nearest place to score the messy Coney dogs and more than 168,000 drink combinations…”
2. “As many as 10 cars were lined up before the restaurant’s 6 am opening…”
3. “A trail of cars stretched well into the surrounding parking lots, following the direction of yellow-vest-wearing staffers barking into walkie-talkies.”
4. “…training girls to skate around hundreds of people while navigating busy traffic and balancing trays of piping hot goodies – that takes time.”
5. “This isn’t your typical fast-food joint”.

Read the whole article here (it's really great journalism... )http://www.suburbanchicagonews.com/napervillesun/news/1116718,6_1_NA20_SONIC_S1.article