Sonic, complete with carhops, headed to LI

If you're of a certain age, you may remember pulling into the parking lot of a fast-food restaurant and being served by a gal or guy on roller skates. Well, carhop service is coming back to Long Island, perhaps as early as next year.

In the latest invasion of fast-food joints on the Island, Sonic Corp., an Oklahoma-based chain, said last week it plans to open its first Long Island restaurant, possibly in 2011, in Deer Park.

The news comes after two other fast-food restaurants - the reborn Pudgie's chicken franchise and Denver-based Smashburger - said they plan to open on the Island, too.

"It does look like we'll have a drive-in on Long Island," said a Sonic spokeswoman.

Most of the company's restaurants, she said, have 20 stalls where you pull in and check out the menu. When you're ready to order, you press a red button. "A skating carhop comes out with your order," the spokeswoman said.

Babylon Town officials said Sonic has filed an application to build a restaurant on Deer Park Avenue.

There are four Sonics upstate, and the company plans to open more.

Darren Tristano, executive vice president of Technomic Inc., a Chicago-based food industry research and consulting firm, said industry trends have been toward franchise operations and limited service restaurants in recent years.

"The limited service restaurants are much less expensive" to operate and they have good [financial] returns," Tristano said. Smashburger, he said, is seeking to become a bigger national chain.

Sonic, he said, has done better in recent years in northern locations with its drive-through service.

Does the growth of the fast-food chains portend the end of the health fad? "I think the health fad will never be done," Tristano said. "Consumers don't do what they say they do. We all know what's better for us, but we eat what's not."