Chain Restaurants of Yore

[KateinChicago]

Me too with The Magic Pan.  I'd be happy if it would reincarnate. It was good for lunch.

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It was recently reincarnated by Lettuce Entertain You in Northbrook, Illinois and, according to their website in Minnesota as well. I don't get out to the suburbs much but I may make an exception for a Magic Pan crepe

Kate

[tim]

[rlibkind]

Nedick's: New England style rolls for the franks, great mustard-relish. I frequented the outlet at Penn Station.

Bond's: North Jersey ice cream parlours in Elizabeth and Upper Montclair, perhaps other cities; famous for the Awful-Awful thick shake (which Bond's later licensed to Newport Creamery in Rhode Island).

Dutch Hutch: Short-lived burger & fries chain in the late 1950s/early 1960s. I went to the Elizabeth NJ outlet.

Pathmark Hut: An experimental fast-food operation (burgers and fries) the supermarket chain established on a pilot basis next to its Elmora outpost in Elizabeth.

Kewpie's: A once-common burger chain in mid-sized Midwest cities, now limited to Lima, Ohio, and Racine, Wisconsin.

[cinghiale]

Was Bill Knapp's in Michigan a chain?  I remember eating there as a small child, my mother said it was one of the few restaurants in the area you could take kids to in those days.

69 restaurants in 4 states. They went bankrupt a few years back. Even as punked-out college kids in Ann Arbor in the 1970s, we'd hit dowdy-homey Knapp's for the occasional birthday dinner special (discount = your age), plus free chocolate cake. Man, that cake. And the fried chicken. Line here.

Any Michiganders remember Win Schuler's? Used to have 10 or so restaurants in Michigan. They're down to just the original now. You can still get their renown, super-tangy Bar-Scheeze online and in MI grocery stores (just spotted it last week while visiting).

[ghostrider]

Here's a real obscure one: when I was growing up in the suburbs of New York in the 1960s, there was a local fried chicken delivery chain called Chicken Delight. I have fond memories of their jaunty little jingle: "Don't cook tonight, call Chicken Delight!" Pretty decent chicken, too, as best as I can recall.

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Oh, my God, Chicken Delight. We had 'em too on the West Coast. Same jingle, I can even remember the tune...................which will now probably be stuck in my head for the rest of the day

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They must've been nationwide. I remember that bloody jingle on St. Louis radio in the 60s.

Just how big were they, I wonder? And what made them go under?

[jsmeeker]

I miss Bob's Big Boy.

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I know it's probably bad form to reply to yourself, but I think I should elaborate on this.

I miss the actual Bob's Big Boy statue. I loved seeing it and, up until the point where I was actually made to eat the food, I always asked my parents to take me there. The food, at least by the time I got to eat there when the place was on its last legs, was horrendous. I'm sure the food was good at some point, but by the time I got there, after much begging, it was really bad and went right along with their really bad service.

But I really miss seeing the Big Boy alongside major thoroughfares and the now seemingly sad excitement that the sightings elicited.

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No worries. The "Big Boy" restaurants popped into my head when I read the question.

[aaronwcpa]

I don't know if these were only local to NYC, but I remember "La Crepe" (anything you could think of, savoury or sweet, on a crepe) with its waitstaff with the fake French accents, and I remember Lum's (hot dogs steamed in beer), though I know this wasn't only NYC.

What "concept" chain restaurants do you remember from days gone by.  Do you remember them fondly?

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I don't know if this is what you are thinking of, but I remember Toddle House very fondly.

Christine

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There was a Toddle House in Trenton, NJ, open twenty-four hours, and over forty years ago, when I was young, we were there around 2AM, most weekends. The place was tiny, always packed and their tiny hamburgers tasted delicious to a young tongue.

The place was demolished many years ago.

[markk]

One thing I noted, upon reading some of the names being bandied about, is that I can't think of a single chain that has improved over time. Can you?

No, I can't think of a single chain that has improved.

I can think of some that haven't worsened, like KFC. Or my favorite, White Castle. But McDonald's sure is worse. I remember a time when you stood a good chance of getting a burger that had very recently come off the grill. Now they cook them in advance (in the morning?) and just keep them in a drawer all day?

On the related thead, "Chain Restaurants-, "cycling out" anytime soon?" was this comment, though:

Fast food and convenience food is getting a lot better due to technology not in spite of it!

I don't find that.

How come you ask if they've improved?

Would you expect or need them to? I mean, I'd be happy if they had stayed the same. How could you improve a White Castle Hamburger or a piece of KFC extra crispy?

[Darin Smith]

Godfather's Pizza....

Little Ceasar's Pizza is dying or may be dead by now....

Hardee's is not the fast food joint it once was.......

[BeeZee]

When I was a kid growing up on Long Island (NY), I remember the wonder of a trip to "Texas Ranger Burger" or something like that. I think the Ranger Burger had coleslaw on it, I'm sure the decor was thematic since it made an impression on my 6 year old brain.

[Holly Moore]

From McD's history of ill-fated restaurant chain attempts:

Raymond's (pronounced raymone's) an upscale McDonald's named for founder Ray Kroc who was always kinda pissed that it is called McDonald's after the McDonald brothers and not Kroc's. The hamburgers at Romond's were a little bigger (8 to a pound rather than 10 to a pound), the decor far spiffier, and locations like Rodeo Drive, Beverly Hills and Oak Street, Chicago.

Jane Dobbin's Pie Shop, named for Ray Kroc's wife at the time. Once they divorced, the name was changed to Pie Tree.

Edited February 9, 2007 by Holly Moore (log)

[TJHarris]

Was Bill Knapp's in Michigan a chain?  I remember eating there as a small child, my mother said it was one of the few restaurants in the area you could take kids to in those days. 

azurite

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Yes, Bill Knapp's was based in Battle Creek, Michigan. They had locations in Michigan, Ohio, Indiana and Florida. They made several attemps to remain relevant in the late '90's but are now defunct. There were nearly 60 restaurants at the peak of their existence. Still a few vacant buildings in the Detroit area.

[Kim Shook]

Little Tavern

Hot Shoppes – ‘Teen Twists’ and hot fudge cake

Topps Drive In – the Sirloiner was a fantastic burger, but I was a kid and usually got a shrimp boat – fries and fried shrimp – it came in a little plastic boat that you could take home. There must have been 10-15 of these on the side of our tub at any given time

Peoples Drug lunch counters – fries and gravy almost every day after school

[JanMcBaker]

Also, how about Roy Rogers for fast food?  I remember loving the horse highchairs!  Also, the roast beef sandwiches.

Oh yeah! Roy Rogers! And the double-r bar burgers..... They weren't bad. Or maybe it just seemed that way after putting on the BBQ and horseradish sauces. And their salad bar had the only cottage cheese I could ever tolerate-- which means it was probably the fullest-fat cottage cheese available. Also went to Sizzler's, Gino's, Toddle House, Hot Shoppes..... Oh, and of course heard the Chicken Delight jingle. Always wanted to get chicken from there when I was a kid, but money was rather tight so we never did....

[oneidaone]

Naperville, Il where I grew up was the home of Cock Robin and I think (trying to

remember) how many of these places there were in the area (Du Page and

Kane county, maybe others). They made the ice cream there, a friend of mine

was on the graveyard shift which allowed for him to make ice cream and get

altered at the same time with no one else there....anyway they had little shops that

served really rotten hamburgers and fries and most memorably in a deep freezer

case cones of 3 different sherbets that were rock solid and scooped up in their

square ice cream scoop. They had many flavors of ice cream and I remember

when the batch of strawberry exploded all over an it was a river of pink. Now where

it was is a beautiful park with a big water fountain named after the Fredehagen's who

were some sort of founding family of the town.

[BarbaraY]

Did we mention Sambo's pancake houses? Seems like they were everywhere.

[Holly Moore]

Hot Shoppes – ‘Teen Twists’ and hot fudge cake

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And Hot Shop Jr. In the late 60's they opened a totally automated Hot Shop Jr. Machinery grilled burgers, fried fries, drew drinks and shook shakes, depositing everyting on a converyor belt leading to the counter. One of a kind though at the time hoped to be the fast food restaurant of the future.

[Rebecca263]

Has anyone mentioned the Orange Bowl? They were in a lot of SouthFlorida malls and had funny posters on the walls, with phony histories of twisted soft serve cones and pizza. The soft serve was better than a soda, I can't say what the pizza was like.

[WHT]

Burger Chef Interesting topping combinations.

Bond’s If you finished an awful awful you got another one free.

Gruening's Ice cream Best French vanilla I have ever had.

Roy Rodgers for the fried chicken and burger fixin' bar. Old people would build whole salads here.

Bob's Big Boy a great place to eat on the road.

Sizzler Steakhouse Hey I was a kid in the '70s and this is one of the first place I ate at.

Beefsteak Charlie's All the free beer, wine or sangria with your diner. That lasted until the DUI laws changed.

Bonanza Steakhouse Texas toast and salad bar, again a very 70's place. Before they started table service you waited in line for your food to be cooked.

Howard Johnson's Fried clam strips!

Ground Round Free peanuts or popcorn and marginal entertainment in a family friendly environment.

The old Dunkin' Donuts the one where you could sit and order light little meals like soup, roll with butter, coffee and a donut. Food made on a mass basis where if you ordered soup it came from a steam tray and not Styrofoam single serving units; they would toast and butter items and not expect you to do the buttering.

Denney's 24/7/365 I want someplace other than White Castle or Chinese take-out food.

[Rebecca263]

Does anyone remember The Round Table?

The meal began with a large tureen of soup for the table. So, of course, I loved it.

[Pam R]

Oh, my God, Chicken Delight.  We had 'em too on the West Coast.  Same jingle, I can even remember the tune...................which will now probably be stuck in my head for the rest of the day 

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They must've been nationwide. I remember that bloody jingle on St. Louis radio in the 60s.

Just how big were they, I wonder? And what made them go under?

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They're still around in some places. We have several here, and every once in a while a commercial is aired on TV with the jingle.

We also have lots of A&W.

[PaniniGuy]

Wow, Weston's... I remember when McD's and Wetson's were in a war over how big each could make their burgers... after McD's intro'd the Quarter Pounder, Wetson's came out with a half pounder, McD's countered with a triple Quarter Pounder and then Wetson's unleashed the mighty POUNDER. Those were heady times indeed.

In SW CT we had a regional donut chain called Bess Eaton - not sure if they're still around. Also recall a chain of breakfast places called Le Peep which had two or three SW CT outlets, but none still exist (although I understand the chain is still in 15 states).

Is Roly Poly still around? That was an unfortunate concept.

[FistFullaRoux]

Hey, there's a Ranch House in Birmingham. I think it's one of the last bits of the chain.

Burger Chef (and Jeff!) - Hadn't thought about that in years.

Annoying website about the greatest place ever.

Of course, it was the only chain place in my hometown (besides Pizza Hut). Even McDonald's wasn't there until the early 80's.

[oneidaone]

Burger Chef Interesting topping combinations.

Bond’s If you finished an awful awful you got another one free.

Gruening's Ice cream Best French vanilla I have ever had.

Roy Rodgers for the fried chicken and burger fixin' bar. Old people would build whole salads here.

Bob's Big Boy a great place to eat on the road.

Sizzler Steakhouse Hey I was a kid in the '70s and this is one of the first place I ate at.

Beefsteak Charlie's All the free beer, wine or sangria with your diner. That lasted until the DUI laws changed.

Bonanza Steakhouse Texas toast and salad bar, again a very 70's place. Before they started table service you waited in line for your food to be cooked.

Howard Johnson's Fried clam strips!

Ground Round Free peanuts or popcorn and marginal entertainment in a family friendly environment.

The old Dunkin' Donuts the one where you could sit and order light little meals like soup, roll with butter, coffee and a donut. Food made on a mass basis where if you ordered soup it came from a steam tray and not Styrofoam single serving units; they would toast and butter items and not expect you to do the buttering.

Denney's 24/7/365 I want someplace other than White Castle or Chinese take-out food.

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Quenched down with their HoJo Cola!

[handmc]

The lunch counter at Woolworth's. Hot dogs with grilled buns or grilled cheese and tomato soup.