Yankee Doodle Dandy Restaurants

“Have a Yankee Doodle Dandy day, Yankee Doodle Dandy.

Come on down where the good times are.

Yankee Doodle Dandy. Yankee Doodle Dandy.”

At 56 Villa Street, at the southwest corner of DuPage Street, sits a former fast food restaurant known as Yankee Doodle Dandy. It was one of possibly 20 outlets in Chicagoland which operated from the 1960s through the early 1980s.

It was generally considered higher-end fast food fare, serving hot dogs, fish sandwiches, roast beef (supposedly far better than Arby's or Cal's), fried chicken dinners, red-white-and-blue ice cream. Their signature Dandy Burger (or Double Dandy Burger) featured a special Russian dressing sauce instead of the standard ketchup and mustard.

One long running promotion involved a plastic reusable "Don't Grabbit Cup" for discounted drink purchases. They also accommodated kids' birthday parties and provided catering.


It was heavily advertised on local rock and roll radio stations, and supplemented by television mostly aimed at kids, but the chain began to collapse by the early 1980s.


One commercial could be found: http://www.fuzzymemories.tv/index.php?c=3709
It appears below, but the link can provide a better quality video.

This Elgin outlet became a Mexican food restaurant for a while, but eventually was remodeled and occupied by an Illinois Title Loans branch, a chain of "quickie-loan" finance centers. It is debatable whether this is an improvement or not.