Chain Restaurants That Vanished Across America

Chain restaurants dot the American landscape. They line highway exits and shopping districts, often giving these areas a homogenous appearance, no matter where in the country you find yourself. In such environs, it's easy to think that each chain restaurant is truly ubiquitous, available in some form wherever you happen to be visiting. But this isn't the case. Some chain restaurants succeed, while others fail. And some cease to exist entirely. This is the kind of chain eatery we're interested in today. Some of these places existed when you were a kid, but are gone today, and some rose and fell before you were born! These are chain restaurants that vanished across America.

#Restaurants #Vanished #America

Howard Johnson's | 0:00
Red Barn | 1:09
Burger Chef | 2:05
Beefsteak Charlie's | 3:21
Brown Derby | 4:30
Kenny Rogers Roasters | 5:40
Crumbs Bake Shop | 6:42
Chi-Chi's | 8:03
Horn & Hardart | 9:25
Lum's | 10:03
Arthur Treacher's Fish and Chips | 11:37
Souplantation and Sweet Tomatoes | 12:46
Farrell's | 13:58
Steak and Ale | 14:58
Chock Full O' Nuts | 16:23

[MashedFood]

Did any of your favorite chains disappear?

[info]

In the 70's many restaurants used to be really dark with dark furniture, like steak and ale. I loved that, now everything is very bright with TV's everywhere.

[kevinkarcher]

Miss Steak & Ale the most. Best prime ribs anywhere. Can’t believe they are gone since 2008.

[machinegunangel]

Man… going out to eat in the 1970s- 1980s was an absolute treat! I’m so thankful to have been able to live back then.

[Sebastianx]

This is all back when Restaurants served good old fashioned meals and also excellent quality of the food it's so nostalgic I so wish I could go back to those days as my full grown self and visit these Restaurants once again!

[boisegameshowguy]

I’m from California, and I was devastated to hear of souplantation closing. It was my favorite buffet because of its healthy California cuisine

[Degan]

The Chi-Chi's that had the hepatitis outbreak is near my home. It was at the Beaver Valley Mall in Monaca, PA. One of the people who died was an old friend of mine from my old church.
All the Mexican based restaurants in the western PA had a hard time for months after that. Truth is, that box of contaminated onions could have ended up at any other restaurant.

[adarian]

Most of these had the exact same problem. Over expansion from a few locations to multiple hundreds in a decade or less. Just because a restaurant sells well at a few locations does not make you the next McDonald's and does not mean you should try and increase the locations from a few to 250+ in a decade. Some sell well in one locale because it is a type of food that does well in that area. Also over saturating any market is bad especially if what you serve is niche. McDonald's can have a ton of restaurants and be fairly close together because of the popularity of burgers in general. You can not do that with a fish and chips restaurant or a place that specializes in something really niche like cupcakes or an all salad place. I do miss the all soup and salad and baked potato buffet concept though. You do not feel so bad about overeating a bit when what you are eating is all at least okay for you health wise. Never had a Sweet Tomatoes where I live but we did have one with the same concept called Souper Salad.

[RoboRoby]

When I heard Souplantation was closing for good I was devastated I visited every month with my family. We loved it because it was a unique concept, a healthy buffet instead of one filled with pure greasy fried foods. Such a shame it couldn't survive, I hope something similar comes back

[ramonar]

We loved Howard Johnson's & stayed there on our honeymoon in 1966 in Niagara Falls, New York. We loved their food, especially their fried clams & steak. On a trip in in 1974 we drove 50 extra miles to eat there. An old Howard Johnson's restaurant is about 15 miles from us & it's sad to see it starting to fall down after having been sold.

[tcschenks]

I miss Bonanza/Ponderosa. We’d occasionally go there back in the days when we mostly ate at home. We didn’t even order steaks there because their food bar was so huge.

[meripederson]

Miss Farrel's, as kids we went there and would have loved to take my children there. It was a place you never forget. My brother still has a ribbon from finishing the " pig's trough"!

[jameskoenig]

Kenny Rogers Roasters absolutely rocked. Awesome chicken with the most incredible sides. 30 years later I still express my desire for their return.

[justmarc]

Souplantation was the best buffet ever. I loved working up a huge appetite outdoors and going there to wolf down a ton of somewhat healthy food.

[kevincoker]

Shakey’s Pizzerias were all across the US. Loved to go to eat their pizzas and sandwiches. But now are limited to California . Stuckeys were a good stopping points across the southern interstates which will be missed.

[ObscuredByTime]

A little trivia for you about Farrell's: Bob Farrell coined the term, "Give 'em the pickle." It was his way of saying, "we don't charge for little things like catsup, mints, extra sauce, pickles, etc when requested." He knew that those charges were just annoyances to the customer, so he just sort of averaged out the yearly cost of such things and added into the price of the meals. It's hard to believe, but before that, restaurants DID charge for every little thing.

[loriwoloshyn]

I miss the Pondoroso. They served steaks, and an awesome salad bar.

[volvo]

Chi Chi’s was incredible, that deep fried chimichanga with the gravy poured all over it, to die for…and those Margaritas !!

[Blackwolffe]

Jonny Rockets, Marie Callender's, Long John Silvers & Home Town Buffet are 4 that I remember that completely vanished.

[AuntDuddie]

I loved going to Horn and Hardart with my grandmother when we went shopping. I miss it and her.