Burgers, burritos and doughnuts – these are hardly exotic menu items for the average Irish family nowadays. But anyone who witnessed the hours-long queues for Ireland’s first Taco Bell restaurant would be forgiven for thinking otherwise.
The Mexican-inspired restaurant is just the latest in a flurry of chains looking to capitalise on our enduring appetite for US food brands. But with every Wendy’s, Wingstop or Five Guys launch with a social media frenzy, it seems another local business closes.
Are we really just curious about the food we’ve seen in film and TV for decades, or do they operate at a scale local businesses can’t match? Kevin Doyle is joined by John Meagher (senior features writer) and John Mulligan (senior business journalist) to ask if our hunger for American fast food is starving local businesses.