THE ORIGIN AND EVOLUTION OF QUICK SERVICE RESTAURANTS IN LAGOS AND THE NEW LAGOS FAST FOOD TREND; FAST CASUAL By Abayomi I. Ogunsanya INTRODUCTION AND ORIGIN Fast food in the tradional sense has never been new to Lagos. It is commonly believed that it was a concept invented in Wichita, Kansas, by Walt A. Anderson in 1916. However the street sellers of akara, fried fish, roasted plantain, roasted yam, fried yam, boiled corn and roasted corn have been a feature of Lagos as far back as the late 19 th century. It started as far back as the 1870s with female Yoruba/Awori traders with the help of their children selling fish, roasted yam, roasted corn and cooked food in Lagos Island docks/Marina to Brish naval soldiers and Portuguese merchants who had acquired the taste for Local food. Inially, this was done on market days every week but due to demand, it became a daily roune. A few decades later, in the late 1920s it had evolved into traders selling akara, puff puff, corn, fried yam, roasted yam and fish to those on the go in the morning from lile children going to school to working adults heading to work. Areas like Ebue Mea, Yaba, Akoka, Obalende, Apapa and Marina had famous vendors who were famous for different offerings. By the early 1930s, when there were lots of missionary and government schools in these areas, street vendors had started seng up close to schools and served both students, teachers and residents of the areas. Schools like St Gregory’s college in Obalende, Bapst Academy on Broad street, King’s College in Lagos Island, CMS grammar school and St Finbar’s college in Akoka all had famous street vendors at their school gate that also had hundreds of customers outside the school community. For example “Iya Toheeb oni dun dun” on St Finbars college road, Akoka was famous for making very good dun dun (fried yam) and yoyo (baered fish) and was well known from 1930s ll 1960s. People would queue up for hours to buy her offerings from early in the morning ll late in the evening. By the early 1940s, street food had become a blooming business and was well spread across Lagos communies. It was hard to go to any community and not find a street vendor selling food that represented the tribal presence of the area. Vendors had evolved from just selling in a corner, to having mulple hawkers (mostly their kids or relave) hawking food around a vicinity. A portable cubical show glass made from clear glass and wood was used to display freshly made fried yam, fried fish, akara, puff