Geri's Hamburgers

Geri's Hamburgers was a fast food restaurant chain in northern Illinois and southern Wisconsin, United States. Geri's started sometime in the 1950's and was modeled largely after the early McDonald's style restaurants. Geri's restaurants, at least in the early days, had little or no inside seating, and were geared towards fast take-out service. In fact the cartoon icon used by Geri's on its marquee was very similar to the "Mr. Speedee" used by McDonalds, and even closer to the later McDonalds characters such as Mayor McCheese, being in the form of a hamburger with eyes, and arms and legs coming from the sides and bottom of the bun. One of the original owners of Geri's was a former Vice President for McDonalds. There were at least 13 Geri's restaurants by 1980. Red, blue and white were the main exterior colors, often in the form of tiles.

Later incarnations of Geri's restaurants had interior seating and an expanded menu. In 1980 the Geri's corporation folded, but several stores continued to operate independently. The last Geri's was in Beloit, Wisconsin, which closed in 1999. There was an attempt to resurrect the Geri's nameplate in 2002. [ [http://www.statelinebusiness.com/502/geri5.htm, May 2002 article on stateline business.com by Don Bowen] ]

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