Drive-Thru Royalty - Former Burger King - Cocoa, FL

Dual "Burger King" panels would fit in the rectangle spot carved into the roof.

Among all the fast food concepts fed nearly wholesale into the incinerator of obscurity, there are few so thoroughly as forgotten as the purely drive-through fast food joint. Minimal footprint, a simple menu, some drive thrus, and a couple tables outside if you felt like splurging. Some chains built entire empires in this sector- from the cheerful Central Park to the angular, efficiency driven Hot n' Now, and many national chains, such as McDonald's and even Chick-Fil-A, had experiments in this market as well.

Welcome to Burger King, home of the Whopper, may I take your order sir?

Evidently Burger King also threw their hat into this ultra competitive ring, opening this location as the first drive-thru Burger King in 1992, before closing at an undisclosed date sometime before 2007 (since it was already closed by that Google Streetview image). So suffice to say it wasn't a roaring success. It's current state is actually somewhat improved from a few years ago, the result of exhaustive work with a chainsaw and a hedge trimmer, keeping the aggressive plant life from swallowing it whole.

However, despite the foliage cutback and a shiny new for lease sign facing the road, this building continues to waste away. It's colors faded, it's drive-thrus coated in acorns that crunch like gravel when walked on. Despite it's proximity to EFSC and several other schools, this strip of Clearlake Road isn't home to much. Some gas stations, a combination Domino's/Boost Mobile in what looks to have once been another convenience store, an abandoned bank.

This shot, while awkwardly framed, does better show the small brick platform out in front of the building, which I presume would have held just a few tables and chairs, likely removed officially when it closed, or unofficially shortly thereafter. And note the customary palm tree, that I'm beginning to suspect is required by law.

Amazingly, for a well-weathered and several years abandoned building, nearly adjacent to a college, in Cocoa of all places, this building had almost no graffiti, except for this one simple piece on the old HVAC block(?). I don't remember any doors on this to indicate they were walk in freezers.

To end off this post, I'll add a newspaper clipping from the September 12th, 1992 issue of Florida Today, discussing this location's opening. Massive thanks to cflretail for digging this up for me.

That's all for now!

We Had It Your Way - Former Burger King - Cocoa, FL

Former Burger King ####

Sign, sign, gimme a sign.....

Heading down the road on the way towards Merritt Island, I passed an odd sight. Right next to eachother laid a pair of fast food joints, both abandoned and vacant. Nothing for neighbors except a suspicious motel, I was unable to stop at first passing but promptly returned on the way back, camera in hand. Here we'll feature the first of the establishments, a wonderfully vintage former Burger King. Here we can see the rusty, empty sign frame which advertises nothing except the fact that this property is indeed, available.

Swiveling around to the front of the store, we can see this storefront in it's fully blue, tan, and red color scheme. Remember when fast food joints had colors other than shades of brown and grey? Those were good days. We can also see the pair of palm trees that I believe are mandated by state law to be in front of every establishment. Thanks to Florida's climate, most decorative plants tend to thrive even in the abscence of caretakers, which is always nice to see.

Further example of the thriving plants, we have some quite pretty flower bushes that have grown in various hilter-skilter directions in the abscence of the all mighty hedge trimmer. Were the black bars near the top of the roof possibly sign supports? I'm not sure where the signs went on these buildings.

Around back, it's just lots of general grimey-ness and utilities. I finding it amusing they painted all the large electrical box and all the conduit to match the wall, but it slightly dissapoints me they didn't do the same to the door.

Turning around to stare at the asphalt and the encroaching overgrowth, we enter the drive through. Not much to comment here, aside from the fact the "Watch your head!" sign has held up rather well, as has the rest of this building. Also note another omnipresent palm tree.

I want two number nines, a number nine large, a number six with extra dip....

Some of the only damage to this building seems to have been the loss of a corresponding speaker on one side of the drive through kiosk. Im surprised that lone, dented orange cone has disappeared, if not by theft but from the wind.

Accidentally framed my van here. Happens more than you'd think.

Looking down the drive through we get some faded and cracked asphalt (But still somehow better than 90% of suburban Palm Bay. I wish that was a joke.) and a rare normal tree amongst the palm tree invasion. I'm not sure what would have gone in that frame, advertising posters? We also get a nice shot of my now departed silver van.

Walking down the drive through (always a surreal experience) and around the side, we again reach the front of the building and turn towards the doors to begin our look inside.

I would pay more than Im willing to admit for a pair of these door handles.

Here we see a trademark of older Burger Kings,the spatula door handles.This pair is quite weathered, but the logos at least still show clear. You can also see some tile, a trash can, and some line-defining bars, which are a hint towards what's to come in the rest of the interior.

Has to be done.

I can never resist photographing these little stickers. Anyways, this is our final photo of the exterior, and we shall now move to the quite amazing interior.

Order up?

Thousands of people used to dine here

But now it's a ghost town

Yeah. This honestly took me quite aback, when I found it. The Wendy's next door, which will feature in a future post, was stripped down to the literal concrete, so this amazing time capsule of an interior was a real gem. It's really quite astonishing, it all looks as if they were just told to close in the middle of getting ready one morning. The chairs are set, the napkin dispensers are full of napkins, and there's even a spray bottle on the counter as if an employee vanished in the middle of cleaning. The muted purple and green, combined with acres of off-white and that amazingly tacky wallpaper make this a really interesting interior just to take in. Even if any Burger Kings survive with this interior, I doubt they're in this good of condition.

Anyways. this blast to the past over with, I'm signing off for now. Sorry about the gap in posts, I got sick for a few days which threw off my attempts at a schedule. As such the next post will go out ahead of time sometime Saturday or Sunday. This was Cape Kennedy Retail, until next time.