Before there was McDonald's or Burger King on Long Island, there was Wetson’s.
The fast food chain, inspired by a trip to California by one of the founders encountering the original McDonalds’ brothers restaurant, was launched in 1959 in Levittown by brothers Herb and Errol Wetanson. In their time, they even had two clown mascots: Wetty and Sonny.
Hat tip to the Long Island Jewish History Facebook page for the information.
“The first opened in Levittown in 1959 by Jewish brothers Herb and Errol Wetanson,” the post says. “By 1964 they had 14 locations and a total of 72 at its peak in the NY, NJ and CT area. In 1975 they merged with Nathan’s who decided to discontinue the brand.”
Eventually the bigger fast food chains came to town and went head-to-head with Wetson’s but they couldn’t compete with the giants.
Nathan’s bought Wetson’s to open their limited-menu “Nathan's Junior's” brand, according to a report from 1981. Nathan’s bought 29 units from the Wetson's chain, “which was closing, and started opening these miniature stores, most franchised, some company-owned.”
The fast food outfit was even written about in the New York Times back in 1972, saying the pair were 21 and 18 at the time when they founded Wetson’s.
“A hamburger was 15 cents and they paid 30 cents a pound for the meat,” the paper reported.
For those who remember and are nostalgic about Wetson's, Long Island-born watercolorists Mike White has painted an old Wetson's scene that you can see here.
“It was the first fast food I ever had, at age 4,” says White on his webpage describing his memories of Wetson's. “The building design was inspired by the original McDonald’s, but the orange neon rings on its rooftop were distinctive.”