I learned to love hot biscuits with butter and honey at Bill Knapp’s. And Au Gratin potatoes.
How about the Coney Island restaurants that used to be in Detroit? I remember the one in the Livonia mall. I actually loved their “loose” hamburgers, browned ground beef dumped into a hot dog bun.
Me too!!! This was where we went to dinner after church on Sundays. I felt all grown up eating those au gratin potatoes. I was so sad when they finally closed down a few years ago. They had opened one near me and I still loved going there. Their fried chicken was excellent too. And their cole slaw. And their apple pies. And then they closed. 
Now there’s a Bob Evans there. They tore the building down and completely rebuilt! Totally not the same caliber or atmosphere.
This thread is making me homesick for my childhood. Burger Chef. Red Barn. Lums. Elias Brothers Big Boy. Burger Chef was the only one of those I really really liked, but all those names bring everything back.
Zantigo was still here when I moved to Columbus more than 20 years ago; kinda liked them. Really liked Arthur Treacher’s chicken, for some reason. They don’t seem to have that any more. I didn’t realize there were still Arthur Treacher’s in the Columbus area. The one that used to be in my neighborhood is still a fish and chips place, but it’s not part of a chain. Sisters’ Chicken and Biscuit was also here in Columbus when I moved here. Can’t remember when they closed. I never went to one, but a lot of people really liked them.
Guess I should go to Rax next time I’m in the neighborhood. They used to be all over the place here and were much better than Arby’s. Don’t know what they’re like today.
GT
White Castle was so popular in NJ that it inspired knockoffs, some of which are still thriving today. These aren’t copycat chains or disgruntled franchisees breaking off on their own, but standalone burger joints. (As far as I know, none of them steam their burgers, a la White Castle though.) White Manna in Hackensack, Blue Castle in Passaic, and White Rose in Highland Park are three that come to mind.
Hot Shoppes, like Bob’s Big Boy, were a Marriott property. Yes, as in the hotels. Both died out when Marriott decided to sell off their non-hotel properties.
Not completely. We were at one on the New Jersey Turnpike a couple of years ago, and one on the Pennsylvania Turnpike a couple of years before that.
Anyone remember a restaurant in Tucson, AZ that resembled McDonald’s but was called Donalds with a Golden D instead? The served hamburger and fries just like McDonalds.
Since this thread has been resurrected… I was in Pembroke Pines, FL two weeks ago and saw an Arthur Treacher’s Fish & Chips in a food court at the mall there. It was actually part of another restaurant there.
I’ve eaten at a Roy Rogers’ as recently as 2005 or so - it was on I-95 in Maryland.
I’d like to Google some of these places like Judy’s or Andy’s. It would be hilarious to see a real-life McDowell’s!
I ate at Zombie’s today. They went away back in 2004, made a brief comeback in '06 and now they’re back again.
To add to the Big Boy franchisees, where I grew up in north central Indiana, they were Azar’s. If you went a few miles east of Fort Wayne, they were Frisch’s. Toward Detroit, Elias Brothers. And of course, when we traveled to Tennessee to see family, they were Shoney’s. But. They all had the same statue out front. 
There will always be a Big Boy.
Until Taco Bell takes over.
I remember seeing a Kansas Fried Chicken in the NYC area when I was a kid, but never had the pleasure of eating there.
When we would visit S Fla with the family as kids, we begged our parents to take us to the Taco Viva on Hallandale Beach Blvd. until they finally caved. Always got a chuckle out of the characters they used to represent the 7(?) flavors of hot sauce - the hottest being “El Scorcho”.
Sadly, the mall versions in the '90s didn’t quite live up to the memory.
One of the surviving Maryland Fried Chicken franchises is in Plant City, FL. My in-laws get carryout fried chicken from there fairly frequently.
There used to be a website that gave a short history of the Maryland Fried Chicken chain, which doesn’t turn up in my googling, so it must’ve gone defunct. IIRC, the chain wasn’t making any money as a chain, and basically gave the individual restaurants the right to keep on using the name and logo and stay in business on their own.
D’Lites? They sure did. There was one in Columbia, SC when I moved there in 1988. It was overpriced for a fast-food joint, and one of the things I immediately noticed was that their soda machine didn’t do any better in the way of offering lo-cal options than MickeyD’s or Burger King did: the sodas were all sugared, except for one diet cola. And you could get water.
If there’s one place where you could easily knock 150 calories off a fast-food meal, it’s the drink. And they completely dropped the ball on that.
There’s a Maryland Fried Chicken in Beaufort and they still have a website: http://www.marylandfriedchicken.com/node
Jacks chicken is alive in Memphis. We have several locations to choose from.
Saw that. Unfortunately, it not only isn’t the one I’ve seen before, but it’s a good deal less informative.
Strange, I remember that restaurant also. I couldn’t tell you where it was, but there was at least one in SW Houston in the 1970s. It was probably on Bissonnet or Beechnut, if knowing where some of the other places we went when I was very young are any indication.
My very first nonbabysitting real job was at Rax. They paid sub-minimum wage ($2.85 an hour in 1985), had a great salad bar (on which I hated working), and was the only place you could get a chocolate chip shake or a blueberry shake, which I also hated making.
I had no idea what happened to Rax until I read your post. When people ask me what my first job was, I say, “Rax roast beef – it was like an Arby’s.”
I left that gig to take a gig at the city library shelving books in the children’s section. I made a whopping $3.58 an hour at the library, I could wear whatever I wanted, and I didn’t have to come home reeking of roast beef and french fry grease. That was probably one of the best job hops I ever made in my career. 
I just wanted to post here because it’s like being in a time capsule. I have no doubt it will be resurrected again and again.
The chain I recall fondly was Jahn’s in Queens NY, although I don’t really recall the food (it was actually an ice cream parlor). It was the place where the theater geeks would go hang out after rehearsal.
Probably late 50’s, early 60’s I recall a hamburger place in Peoria, I think called “Sandy’s” with a Scottish guy in kilt as the mascot. We lived about 60 miles away and heard their jingle on the radio: 49 cents for a full course meal, sounds to me like that’s a steal".
I vaguely recall that a bunch of us guys drove their one day to try them out. Who knows how they tasted, probably McD’s like. In other words, wonderful.