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Private company

Pal's

Logo: https://palsweb.com/, Non-free logo, via Wikipedia3

American fast food restaurant chain

Pal's Sudden Service, normally called Pal's for short, is a regional fast food restaurant chain located in northeast Tennessee and southwestern Virginia, with stores concentrated in the Tri-Cities, Tennessee metro region. The first Pal's opened in 1956 in Kingsport, Tennessee a year after the founder of Pal's, Fred "Pal" Barger, attended a National Restaurant Convention in Chicago and met Ray Kroc and Fred Turner, observing the construction and equipment they used for the first McDonald's restaurant.2 Wikipedia text CC BY-SA 4.0

Last updated Oct 21, 2026.

Overview

1956Founded1

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Pal’s 28 - Morristown, TN
Photo: AppalachianCentrist, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons4

Pal's Sudden Service, normally called Pal's for short, is a regional fast food restaurant chain located in northeast Tennessee and southwestern Virginia, with stores concentrated in the Tri-Cities, Tennessee metro region. The first Pal's opened in 1956 in Kingsport, Tennessee a year after the founder of Pal's, Fred "Pal" Barger, attended a National Restaurant Convention in Chicago and met Ray Kroc and Fred Turner, observing the construction and equipment they used for the first McDonald's restaurant.2

Timeline

  1. 1956Founded Founded1

Sources

The numbers on this page point here. Each one links to the record it came from.

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