What restaurants do you miss that are gone.

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I have always preferred Taco Bell to Del Taco, but when I went back to visit my family in March, I made sure we went to Del Taco at least once! I do miss them!

:)Barbara
I was walking distance to Taco Bell and would prefer to drive to Del Taco. If I had known where they stopped when I was driving here I would have stocked up.

Anyone in So Cal remember the Jolly Roger? The girls dressed as wenches. My parents used to take me there when I was young. I attribute my Ren Faire career to that restaurant.
 
Geez, so I am not the only one that misses Shakeys, LOL. That and Bonanza, no idea if they are still around but can't find them out here anymore. We also used to have Taco Johns in Iowa, I wonder if they are still around as well.
 
...Anyone in So Cal remember the Jolly Roger? The girls dressed as wenches. My parents used to take me there when I was young. I attribute my Ren Faire career to that restaurant.
I have been to the one in Oceanside. :cool:

...We also used to have Taco Johns in Iowa, I wonder if they are still around as well.
I know they still have one in Ottumwa. We ate there once in August.

:)Barbara
 
According to www.dennys.com Denny's changed their name from Danny's Donuts to Denny's in 1959. I know we had a Sambo's in our town until the early '70s.

:)Barbara

ACCORDING TO TES@EVERYTHING2.COM:

What this country needs is a good ten-cent cup of coffee - Sambo's advertising slogan, 1967
Sambo's is/was a chain of restaurants popular in the 1960's and 1970's. The restaurant chain featured inexpensive family dining with a theme and decor based on the children's story Little Black Sambo.
This is a tale of rags-to-riches-to-rags, of a brilliant idea buried by racism and poor management. This is the story of Sambo's.
Origins
Let's go back to the year 1957 and the town of Santa Barbara, California. Two recent college graduates, Sam Battistone and Newell "Bo" Bohnett, decided to enter the restaurant business together; their goal was to start a chain of restaurants using some of the techniques developed by Ray Croc, Dave Thomas, and other early fast food chain entrepreneurs and apply them in a manner that was family-friendly.
The pair decided to combine their names and use that as a restaurant name: Sam and Bo's, which was quickly shortened to Sambo's. They opened their first restaurant in 1957 in Santa Barbara, and it was an instant success due to its family-friendly sit-down dining environment and very low prices (one of the distinguishing characteristics of Sambo's).
In 1958, Battistone was introduced to the children's story Little Black Sambo, written by Helen Bannerman in 1899. The story told the tale of Sambo, an Indian boy who goes into the jungle and loses his clothing to bullying tigers. But the tigers chase each other around a tree and eventually melt into butter, which Sambo puts on his pancakes and eats.
Battistone and Bohnett decided to theme their restaurant around this children's story. They redecorated the restaurant and menus to match the art from the book and made pancakes one of their signature dishes. This choice was a bright idea, but it would come back to haunt the pair.
Rapid Success (1960-1978)
With this retheming, the restaurant chain began to take off. The second and third Sambo's opened in California in 1959, and the chain quickly spread, as it occupied a market niche that was largely unfilled: an inexpensive and relatively speedy family restaurant.
By the mid-1970's, the chain was the fourth most-franchised restaurant chain in the United States, with more than 1,400 franchises in the United States and 200 more in Canada by 1977. In fact, the success of the chain was such that other restaurant chains, such as McDonald's, Wendy's, Arby's, and Perkins used Sambo's as a model business during the food franchise wars of the 1970's.
Unfortunately, things were about to go downhill for Sambo's.
The Beginning of the End (1978-1982)
In 1978, the chain received multiple lawsuit threats due to its choice of decor. The "Sambo" character, as portrayed in the children's book, had very dark skin and it was perceived that Sambo was a stereotype of people of African descent. The story itself was also described as being racially insensitive, as Sambo makes some questionable choices in the story; this contributed to the perception of Sambo as a racial stereotype.
The chain attempted to rename and redesign itself to avoid lawsuits (names such as Sam's and Special's were tried in the early 1980s), but the second major problem in the Sambo's chain began to rear its head. In order to spur on rapid expansion of the chain, the business structure of Sambo's was organized as a clever Ponzi scheme.
The scheme worked like this: in addition to pay, workers at Sambo's were compensated with "Sambo's Shares." These shares, when accumulated, could be used to purchase a new Sambo's franchise at a reduced price. The goal of this scheme was to encourage forward-thinking Sambo's employees to start their own chains, but the actual result was that people were buying Sambo's franchises without the financial means to truly support the restaurant.
The Downhill Slide (1982-1989)
Between 1982 and 1989, the number of Sambo's restaurants in North America went from roughly 1450 restaurants to just one. With franchises going out of business, since they were unable to afford the costs of redesign and restructuring, the franchise fees for the chain stopped coming in. As a result, the chain was unable to promote itself and thus even well-managed individual restaurants went out of business.
Denny's, another restaurant chain with a similar target niche, made a name for itself in 1984, when it purchased roughly 800 of the Sambo's franchises and rechristened them as Denny's.
By 1989, only the original Sambo's (then called Sam's) in Santa Barbara remained.
The Legacy of Sambo's (1990-date)
The Santa Barbara restaurant reverted to the Sambo's name in 1990 (minus the decor) and is still in business today. Chad Stevens, the grandson of Sam Battistone, now owns the restaurant and has flirted with the idea of expanding with new Sambo's restaurants, but for now, there is only one Sambo's.
Interestingly enough, Sambo's is perhaps best remembered in the field of wooden nickel collecting. During the 1960's and 1970's, Sambo's used wooden nickels as part of their promotion for selling coffee; one could exchange a Sambo's wooden nickel for a cup of coffee, and these nickels were often sold in bundles (i.e., eight or ten for a dollar). These nickels are now coveted among wooden nickel collectors.
Lessons Learned
The story of Sambo's has two valuable lessons for those looking to start a restaurant chain. The first one is to choose your theme wisely; a poor choice in terms of theming your restaurant can come back to haunt you. The second, and perhaps more important, lesson is that overexpansion can be the death knell; pick your franchisees carefully so that your business chain has a stable background and financial stability.
 
There was a barbecue place in Stockbridge, GA called Sconyers that had the best (and I do mean the best) ribs (the ribs were more meat than bone) and pork. They also had a lean version of pork that was absolutely out of this world. The family had converted an old house into the restaurant, and my brother and I would go every Friday night when we had a chance and fill up on the ribs (all you can eat) that never needed any kind of sauce on it, and the pork. We came back from vacation one year and found that it had been burned down to the ground. Haven't found anything since as good as theirs; but Fox Brothers barbecue up near I-20 is close to it. Another couple of places I miss are Steak & Ale, and Pilgreens.
 
I went to Mama Leone's on my Senior Class trip to New York City in 1957. What a treat for a 16 year old girl. Sorry to know that it is out of business. (please don't do the math lol)

It's been gone a VERY long time, Lyndalou, and before that, it had become a dreadful tourist-trap-py place the real Mama Leone would never have recognized. :ohmy:

"Sambo's," thankfully, had to be renamed because of its terrible, demeaning name. I have no idea what they changed it to (certainly NOT IHOP! :LOL:)

seems most folks are recalling places long gone, that they went to while they were dating, or at least much younger. Places like that achieve a patina in our memories that no real place of today can ever compete with!
 
seems most folks are recalling places long gone, that they went to while they were dating, or at least much younger. Places like that achieve a patina in our memories that no real place of today can ever compete with!


I don't know about everyone else, but part of the enjoyment of dining out is the pride the people serving and products that are served. People did their work and it showed they enjoyed it. I don't see that too much today.
And the thing that made alot of these places unique seems to have gone by the wayside. I KNOW that's not a 'patina', but fact where I've come from.
And No, most of today's places can't compete. Because as much as it's a dining experience, it's also about the people. Dating, younger, or with family, whatever, it's about the people. You could have the most beautiful menu, in the most beautiful establishment, in the most beautiful location, and have a rotten experience if the wait staff is bad, or you don't care for who your dining. One would be a meal. The other; a dining experience - and memory.
 
I don't know about everyone else, but part of the enjoyment of dining out is the pride the people serving and products that are served. People did their work and it showed they enjoyed it. I don't see that too much today.
And the thing that made alot of these places unique seems to have gone by the wayside. I KNOW that's not a 'patina', but fact where I've come from.
And No, most of today's places can't compete. Because as much as it's a dining experience, it's also about the people. Dating, younger, or with family, whatever, it's about the people. You could have the most beautiful menu, in the most beautiful establishment, in the most beautiful location, and have a rotten experience if the wait staff is bad, or you don't care for who your dining. One would be a meal. The other; a dining experience - and memory.

Some joints with good food have / had wait staff with an attitude- EG Peter Luger's in Williamsburg, Brooklyn and Lundy Brothers in Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn. Only place I've ever been to with good food that I'll never go back to is the Oak Chalet in Bellmore, NY because the owner is snotty.
 
I went to a german restaurant in Fort Worth, TX by the same name. Believe it or not I had an out of this world Country Fried Steak and oh let's not forget the fried dill pickles. I wonder if it's the same.

There are a few different Hofbrauhaus' restaurants. This was family owned.

And no way could you get chicken fried steak there, unless it was Chicken Fried Steak Schnitzel.
 
We used to have them in California too. I believe they just changed their name at our location (during the 70s I believe), but I can't remember what the new name was.

:)Barbara
Denny's. At least that's what our Sambo's changed to. The Denny's is still there.

I used to like Fudruckers in California but the one here isn't the same. You know, without those hanging sides of beef, it's just not Fudruckers.

Coco's is another one I miss. So many chains that just don't cross the Mississippi. :(
 
Saint Basil's in Syracuse, NY
La Cena in Fayetteville, NY
Sedgewick Market in Syracuse, NY
Louie's Oyster on Las Olas in Fort Lauderdale, FL
Durty Harry's in Fort Lauderdale, FL
Avalon's Steak House on Isla Mujeres, MX
Casa Bella in Gananaque, Ontario, Canada
 
Denny's. At least that's what our Sambo's changed to. The Denny's is still there.

I used to like Fudruckers in California but the one here isn't the same. You know, without those hanging sides of beef, it's just not Fudruckers.

Coco's is another one I miss. So many chains that just don't cross the Mississippi. :(
Yes, ours became a Denny's as well. I was thinking ours changed before my daughter was born, but after reading some of the other posts, it may have been later. Time flies by so fast it is hard to know what happened when!

I wish that a lot of my California favorites were here as well! I miss Boll Weevil's steerburgers and especially their guacamole burgers. Fillipi's Pizza was the best I have ever had. I got to go to the one in Escondido once on my trip in March.

:)Barbara
 
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