Sminster

Sminster is a fast-food restaurant originated from Cowell. It is owned by Sminster Foods Holdings. It was founded by Cowellan-American chefs and entrepreneurs Gilbert Sanako Smith and Harold Sanako Smith. It was first opened in Emerald City, Cowell and available over 160 countries. It is one of the largest, richest and most-popular fast food chain restaurants worldwide.

## History

The restaurant was founded on August 30, 1942, by brothers Gilbert Sanako Smith (b. 1917) and Harold Sanako Smith (1913-2021) after 2 years of construction and creating their own recipes. They introduced their famous Barbecue Burger, Cheese Chicken, Sour Cream Chicken and Barbecue Fried Chicken menu items the same year.

When new ownership bought the chain in 1956, it was renamed to Sminster's to expand the chain outside of Cowell with new menu items and beverages. The first Sminster restaurants outside of Vyond began opening, starting with Gau and the United States. The famous Burger House design was introduced in 1959 due the phenomenal success of the restaurant and its growing popularity, shifting its name from Sminster's to Sminster.

In September 1986, Sminster launched an online website for menus, promos, news and food store for ordering online without the need to go through a restaurant line.

## Products

### Main

* Smits-Burger (regular, cheese, glazed, grilled, barbecue, deluxe or big-size)
* Smits-Chicken (regular, glazed, sour cream, spicy, barbecue, buttered, sweet and sour or cheese)
* Smits-Fish
* Smits-Pizza
* Smits-Hotdog
* Smits-Cue (pulled pork, pulled beef, or pulled chicken)
* Smits-Grill
* Smits-Sub
* Smits-Steak
* Smits-Roll
* Smits-Piggy (piggy on a blanket)

### Sides

* Smits-Fries
* Smits-Nuggets (fried or grilled chicken)
* Smits-Twist
* Smits-Salad
* Coleslaw

### Drinks

* Technic Energy
	+ Technic Zero
	+ Technic Red
* Red Bull Energy
* Monster Energy
* Bang Energy
* Coca-Cola
	+ Coca-Cola Light
	+ Coca-Cola Zero
	+ Coca-Cola Diet
	+ Coca-Cola Freestyle machines
* Sprite
* Pepsi
	+ Pepsi Max
	+ Diet Pepsi
	+ Pepsi Spire machines
* Mountain Dew
* Dr. Pepper
* Panchi
* Jüse
* Sunkist
* Solo Lemon
* Solo Lime
* 7UP
* Passionia
* Sminster Chocolate Milk
* Smits-Cola
* Grape Cider
* Raspberry Cider
* Strawberry Cider

### Desserts

* Ice Cream Sundae
* Chocolate Cookie Bar
* Banana Split
* Fried Ice Cream
* Four Seasons

### Discontinued items

* Smits-Stuffins (1992-2005, now available only at largest Sminster in the world)
* Smits-Sticks (1973-1975, 1996)
* Smits-Shakes (1972-1977, 2005)

## Controversies

### Nicolas Sarkozy tweet

In March 2021, Sminster France posted a tweet on their account claiming that former French president Nicolas Sarkozy was arrested for eating at Burger King and not Sminster, instead of stating that Sarkozy was arrested for illegal campaigning. Many Twitter users, including French president Emmanuel Macron, criticised the tweet, claiming the fast food chain knew nothing about politics. Burger King also replied to the tweet, but claimed that they didn't give the chain permission to mention them in their tweet. Sminster later apologised and fired members of their French social media team.

### Toenail found in Deluxe Smits-Burger

In August 2011, a woman from Naperville, Illinois, U.S. contacted the local Sminster restaurant after claiming to have found a toenail in a Deluxe Smits-Burger she ordered. However, the employee at the restaurant she was calling did not respond and eventually hung up. This resulted in her taking legal action against the chain. The employee answering the call was found guilty for ignorance and was later fired.

### Sminster Delivery

In March 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic in Cowell, Sminster launched an app called Sminster Delivery, where customers could order their meal on the app and have it delivered to them in 10 minutes or less, as most people were staying at home because of the pandemic. However, many people started to complain due to how long the deliveries actually took, and how cold and sloppy the food became after being delivered. Three months later, the app was taken down, Sminster moved its delivery operations to Doordash and Uber Eats, and the restaurants re-opened in September.

## Slogans

* "Home of the Smits-Burger" (1959-1971)
* "The Cowell's Favourite Restaurant" (1971-1989)
* "It's good that Sminster exists" (1989-1994)
* "The Best of Cowellan" (1994-1996)
* "What The Taste!" (1996-1998)
* "Now You're Eating" (1998-2002)
* "I like how they do it at Sminster" (2002-2007)
* "They Do It Better" (2007-2010)
* "We're serving the food" (2010-present)