By 1984, there were more than 60 Beefsteak Charlie's up and down the East Coast, all of which epitomized the chain's slogan: "I'll feed you like there's no tomorrow. While the hotels still exist (the brand is owned by Wyndham), there is one and only one Howard Johnson's restaurant in Lake George, New York. "Prepare food fresh. While many other restaurants moved to a takeout-only operational model, that proved difficult for a buffet-style business. navigator.sendBeacon('https://www.google-analytics.com/collect', payload); Think: including operators of the restaurants owning their stores and not leasing from the corporation, and not being required to buy supplies from the corporation. After brothers Richard and Maurice McDonald signed over the rights to their company to franchise agent Ray Kroc in 1961, they forfeited the right to their name. In 1998, Kenny Roger Roasters filed for bankruptcy and was bought by hot dog giant, Nathan's Famous Inc. for $1.25 million. There were at least 140 locations at its height, with spots serving up bread in Denver, New Jersey, San Francisco, and more. After years of success, the owners sold the popular burger joint to Hardee's in 1982. The first restaurant opened in 1965, and success came quickly after that; by 1973 there were 62 of them. Beefsteak Charlie's was a Manhattan stalwart from the early 20th century to the late '80s. The last remaining Lum's, which was in Bellevue, Nebraska, closed in 2017 after 49 years in the business. Red Barn was also the first chain to let customers have salad their way, with a massive self-service salad bar filled with countless salad fixings and every type of salad imaginable. Jim's Tiffany Place. (Ditto Shea Stadium, which got the wrecking ball in 2009.) Get the best food tips and diet advice Report inappropriate content. It also had a private locker room, cigar collection, and a two-story view of Manhattan. But much has been written about what Crumbs Bake Shop did wrong, and what led to the downfall of the once beloved chain. restaurants from the '80s that no longer existwestville, il high school football. In the wake of lockdown measures meant to slow or stop the spread of the coronavirus in March 2020, Sweet Tomatoes and Souplantation closed down, according to the San Diego Union-Tribune. Discontinued in 2006, our fingers became a little less cheese dusty with the loss of these. Bill Knapp's. Flickr/Wystan. In 1945, Joe Wong opened La Joy at 4720 W. Lisbon Ave. and for decades it was perhaps the best Chinese restaurant in town. Founded in Minneapolis in 1977 by restaurateur and former Green Bay Packers star Marno McDermott, whose wife went by the nickname "Chi-Chi," the company was designed to impart "a celebration of food." Macayo's has a storied past, so let's briefly recap. However, due to a lack of cohesive menu or recipes, the chain quickly fell apart within a few years. "The hole it left in the landscape was more than physical. food and drink and health, as well as entertainment, beauty, and other lifestyle With help from his family, Wetanson opened the first Wetson's in 1959. Peaches Records & Tapes The record store was a staple at 1500 E. Sunrise Boulevard in Fort Lauderdale. RELATED: The easy way to make healthier comfort foods. His chain restaurant, which focused on causal dining, never grew to tremendous popularity. Business was so good that in 1969 the brothers were able to purchase Caesars Palace Las Vegas for $60 million. It boasted about low-calorie cheese, buns high in fiber and hamburgers made with lean beef. However, East Coast residents may be excited to learn that a Massapequa, Long Island establishment using the same name and logos has been flipping burgers since 1961. Although Puck owns other locations of Spago, in 2001 the chef decided to close down the original, which had become an institution amongst Hollywood's heavy hitters. document.addEventListener( 'DOMContentLoaded', function() { And there's one in Florida. Horn & Hardart isn't just a restaurant chain that has completely disappearedit's a restaurant concept that's almost extinct in the U.S.: the automat. Starting with a small shop in Indiana in 1954, Burger Chef eventually grew to over 1,000 locations and rivaled fast food giant McDonald's. The page helps keep the listings accessible and not "Orphaned Pages"NOTE: See our Talk Page for notes on editing and adding entries to "Gone, But Not Forgotten" Please add entries in their appropriate category in alphabetic order (ignoring A, The, etc) and using . It was founded in 1976 by Norman E. Brinker and offered a variety of American cuisine, with an emphasis on seafood dishes. Founder John Jay Hooker set up a copy cat model of the restaurant and hired popular comedic actress, Minnie Pearl, as the spokesperson. While the chain had a rocky financial status through the '70s, there were over 300 chains in operation by the '80s. Never known for subtlety, Red Barn was a group of country-themed fast food joints that were shaped like barns and painted bright red. But the name was re-franchised in 2003, and there are still some Roy Rogers in Maryland, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Virginia. } else { It gained massive popularity (in part for its fluffy pancakes) and in the years to follow there would be a chain in 47 states. Country music legend Kenny Rogers teamed with business partner John Y. In 1969, three fried fish chains all opened for business in the United States: Long John Silver's, Captain D's, and Arthur Treacher's Fish & Chips. In May 2020, after losing $1 million a week since closing down, according to Oregon Live, parent company Garden Fresh shut down all 97 remaining locations of both Sweet Tomatoes and Souplantation, which never opened up again. Founded by Azars Big Boy restaurants in 1968, it grew to be one of the largest chains of family-style restaurants with 42 locations nationwide. And although they were great while they lasted, not all of them were long-lasting. And then, just a month after the filing, disaster hit. Published on September 18, 2019 | 1:49 PM. If you were a kid in the '80s, there's a good chance you had a birthday party or two at Showbiz Pizza Place. Coffee isn't a nut, so the name ofcanned ground coffee Chock full o'Nuts is a little confusing. The restaurants housed an authentic Cowboy styled atmosphere with saloon doors, stag horns, wood walls, yellow and brown uniforms for the staff and red and white checkered table clothes. Even though Shor reopened a year later, the restaurant's heyday had passed. The restaurant of world renowned chef, Wolfgang Puck, became a Hollywood hangout when it opened in 1982 on the Sunset Strip. However, the chain closed quietly over the years, and the last one was shut down in 1994. And by the early 2000s, all the Beefsteak Charlie's restaurants that remained had shuttered. As the popularity and variety of Mexican restaurants grew, Chi-Chi's began to suffer the consequences. Six years later, after the Great Depression rendered nuts an expensive indulgence, founder William Black converted what had grown into a collection of 18 nut stores into some combination of coffee stand, lunch counter, and low-cost convenience store, dispensing a cup of hot brewed coffee and a "nutted cheese" sandwich (per Politico) cream cheese and chopped nuts on raisin bread for a grand total of five cents. Many New Yorkers didn't have a chance to . Binde named his restaurant after the hamburger joint he had frequented as a kid. That wasn't the chain's only hit. However, it was memorialized on the sitcom Seinfeld and some remain in operation in Asia. single The price? Chock full O'Nuts weathered the Depression by offering cheap food and cheap coffee, which was so popular that Black started to sell it in grocery stores in the early 1950s. 3. Considering its all-you-can-eat salad bar; unlimited beer, wine, and sangria; and massive portions of hamburgers, steaks, ribs and chickenall available at ridiculously low pricesit's easy to see why Beefsteak Charlie's was a restaurant lover's dream in the 1970's and 80s. And in 1991, "The Gambler" himself, Kenny Rogers, teamed up with a former KFC CEO to open his own rotisserie chicken business. Minnie Pearl's Fried Chicken was a fast food franchise started in 1966 as a competitor for the nationwide sensation Kentucky Fried Chicken. Chain restaurants like Applebee's, Fridays, Chili's and Outback may dominate highways and mall [], By Libby Birk Founded in 1933, Valle's Steak House saw huge expansion during the '60s by embracing the dining trend of leaning toward a menu full of steak and lobster. Launched in the mid 1960s by a group of disgruntled McDonald's employees, Sandy's offered similar menus to the golden arches, but there were key differences in their business structure. 1. In what is now regarded as a cautionary tale of slapping a famous name on a restaurant and calling it quite, Minnie Pearl's Chicken, named after the country singer Pearl, once had almost 500 locations in business. In 1997, 300 of the remaining . Currently, roughly 40 restaurants founded between 1911 and 1969 in the Houston area are still in operation today, according to HBJ research and "Lost Restaurants of Houston," a recent book by . However, other Big Boy restaurants across the country remain open, sporting the double-decker burgers and iconic mascot that became a staple of American eateries throughout the 20th century. G.D. Ritzys was an All-American restaurant serving classics like hamburgers, hot dogs, and sub sandwiches. Driven by a booming Sex and the City-inspiredcupcake trend at the time, the bakery was an immediate success and grew to a remarkable 70 stores in 10 states within a decade. var xhr = new XMLHttpRequest(); But the only place you'll find Chi-Chi's in America is in the grocery store, where Chi-Chi's-branded products remain on the shelves. It was an unusual business model from the start: York Steakhouse was owned by the cereal manufacturing company General Mills, while the restaurants themselves were operated in a cafeteria style instead of with traditional sit-down service. day. The remaining locations were all converted into Hardee's, and Burger Chef said goodbye for good. ), Just think of all the history Hilltop Steakhouse lived through: Founded in 1961, it was around for the Vietnam War, the moon landing, the fall of the Berlin Wall, and so much more. Last Call! single } ); Photo via Facebook. The rest, all came from 25 Chock full O'Nuts coffee-and-sandwich cafes still extant in Manhattan and Brooklyn. However in 1981, things went downhill when they lost their leases, and as time passed, the restaurants small-sized waiting and ordering area led to long waits, which of course meant dissatisfied customers. Fashion Cafe in New York City gathered iconic models together, like Naomi Campbell, Cindy Crawford, Elle MacPherson, and Claudia Schiffer to endorse it. Founded in 1933, this chain was around for nearly seven decades, the last location closing in the year 2000. Although it started strong, the chain faced stiff competition from the likes of KFC, Popeyes, and Boston Chicken (now known as Boston Market). Sadly, the last storefront with the name closed in 1996. All-American Burger was founded in 1963 by Aaron Binde who was a successful stockbroker. advice every day. The kiss of death for the franchise came in 2003 when a Hepatitis outbreak in the food supply led to three customer deaths. The big rambling wooden buildings, the trees drooping heavily over the park, the hard curve over the mill dam into downtown. The . Saved by Jesus and a lover of pasta, butter, cast iron skillets, and furry felines. Woolworth, which opened in 1879 in Utica, New York, was one of the original discount stores, also known as five-and-dime stores at that time. According to the Washington Post, the company expanded far too quickly at a time when profits within single shops were already starting to decline. By the early 1990s, there were over 100 DLites locations across the United States. Once a major presence in many east coast regions, the chain's long, slow slide began in 1977, according to Chuck the Writer, when the death of its founder, Donald Valle, led to money issues that imperiled the business. However, the international chain ceased operations in 1999. Named in honor of (and to enjoy the shine of) a one-off restaurant from the 1930s, Beefsteak Charlie's the chain emerged when a restaurateur bought and re-branded the bankrupt chain Steak & Brew in 1975. However poor business decision and mismanagement eventually led to the downfall of Bennigans. In 2019, the last Farrell's, in Brea, California, closed down (per the OC Register) bringing the long history of the historical chain to a close. "He was the first one of the restaurant crowd who actually got into supplies," declares Sydney's bow-tie-wearing restaurant godfather Tony Bilson, who holds . Related: Lombardo's Restaurant closing after nearly 100 years Click. Here are 52 once-beloved stores that don't exist anymore in bricks and mortar. In 1981, Hardee's scooped up Burger Chef for $44 million. Horn & Hardart was the undisputed king of automat restaurants. Brown to launch the Kenny Rogers' Roasters chicken chain in 1990. April 14, 2023 11:00 am. Two brothers, Clifford and Stuart Pearlman, launched Lum's, which specialized in "beer-steamed" hot dogs, in Florida in 1971. Kenny Rogers Roasters began in Coral Springs, Florida and quickly expanded to include more than 350 restaurants. Of course, we had to start off this list with Bill Knapp's. Headquartered in the Michigan town of Saline, this regional chain was founded in 1948 and ultimately grew to include over 60 locations. Bill Johnson's Big Apple, a 59-year icon at 3757 E. Van Buren St., closed May 24, 2015. Restaurant goers who were lucky enough to have sampled the Lum's menu while it was available often debate over what was better: Lum's famous hot dog, which was steamed in beer and paired with a sherry-infused sauerkraut, or the OllieBurger, which contained a hamburger patty packed with a top secret blend of 32 spices. Appearing on the restaurant scene when steaks were perceived as a rare treat for the rich and fancy, Steak and Ale brought steakhouse fare and vibes to the masses at affordable prices in comfortable, old English-inspired dining rooms (per the Wall Street Journal). Here to Serve restaurants: In October 2015, the conglomerate shut down 10 of Atlanta's most popular restaurants, including Prime, Smash, Strip and Twist. Within a few years, he had opened a butcher shop, then a. Despite revamped menus and an attempt to modernize, the chain was never able to fully return to its glory days and all Red Barn operations ceased in 1988. xhr.open('POST', 'https://www.google-analytics.com/collect', true); ", In a 1982 review of Beefsteak Charlie's, the Washington Post reported just what drew consumers to the place: "Exercising no restraint whatever," the WaPo reviewer wrote, "we polished off seven heaping plates of 'shrimp cocktail' from the salad bar, three salads, two orders of barbecued chicken, one sirloin steak Mediterranean with garlic sauce, three pitchers of soft drink, one baked potato, two orders of potato chips, and two dishes of ice creamfor a grand total of $12.49 (plus a $3 tip).". However, they were doomed by bad business practices, and Burger Chef was sold to Hardee's in 1981. The company sold most of its locations in the '90s, seeing this list might take you back to your childhood. By the early 1970s, financial issues forced them to sell to Hardee's. A few trips in the old green Squareback through western Maine in the 1980s had introduced us to Cornish, and though for a while our visits were much less frequent, the town stayed with us. Big Apple. While the food was popular, the restaurants were never able to break into the market and were sold off to Nathan's in 1998. If you grew up in the 1980s, chances are you will remember a few of these on the list. The chain marketed an all-you-can-eat salad bar plus unlimited beer, wine, and sangria. Though given that it used to have a much larger footprint, it's understandable to think it disappeared wholesale. 6254a4d1642c605c54bf1cab17d50f1e. Unfortunately, the Massachusetts-based company went bankrupt in 2000, and closed all its stores by 2001. About 25 Chicken Delights are operating today, in central Canada and the New York City area. But those who want to try a taste of burger history need not fear: the Ollieburger is still available at Ollie's Trolley, a Lum's spinoff with two locations left in Cincinatti, Ohio and Louisville, Kentucky. This meticulously-researched gem recalls dozens of shuttered restaurants going all the way back to Denver's earliest days. Proud of its local heritage, the restaurant proclaimed: "Look for us and we'll look for you," offering free maps to tourists visiting the area and telling customers to ask their waitress about local "must-see" points of interest. As the chain opened more and more restaurants, especially in bigger cities, customers began objecting to the tone-deaf marketing. The outbreak, which caused a massive media stir, sickened more than 650 people and killed four. Dan Marino's. dish. La Petite Boulangerie wanted to be every neighborhood's neighborhood marketand in the '80s, they made a pretty good run at doing just that. Iconic singer Minnie Pearl, who was just as famous for the price tags on her hats as for her singing, was one of the first to start the trend with her own fried chicken shop in 1969,Franchise Timesreports. Before the pandemic, in 2010, the parent company filed for bankruptcy and closed 29 locations. } ); It was known for its burgers, hot dogs, and milkshakes. Current company. The chain never fully bounced back, but hung on for a long time. In 2017, all remaining Crumbs locations sadly closed for good. every day. The prestigious hot spot closed in 1965, and although there were talks of it relocating, owner Sherman Billingsley died shortly after. Serve customer fast. And if not, well, you were probably missing out. Johnson opened a few more locations on his own and then, realizing just what a success he was sitting on, partnered with a local businessman to expand even further, creating one of the first modern-day restaurant franchises (which eventually evengrewto includemotor lodges for travellers), according to The Economist. By 2021, there was only a single freestanding Arthur Treacher's Fish & Chips left, in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio, not far from where the chain began in Columbus. Initially, the chain and its 15 cent hamburgers were a massive success. Not only did guests receive a free ice cream sundae on their birthday, but the whole place had a nonstop party vibe, flavored with a turn-of-the-20th century sensibility, with staff in 1890s stripes and boater hats running around serving banana splits and gigantic ice cream mountains as a player piano loudly churned out ragtime and old-timey tunes. Include more than 650 people and killed four company sold most of its locations in the 1980s chances! 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