# Chain places I miss **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** food-cooking\ **Created:** [July 31, 2021, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chain-places-i-miss/947721 "2021-07-31T19:44:16Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 10
**Author:** ![dummygladhands71](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c0e974/32.png) [@dummygladhands71](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dummygladhands71)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2021, 3:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chain-places-i-miss/947721/181 "2021-08-09T03:03:10Z")
Sizzler. I saw the Sizzler champs once. Sat down, ordered nice (for Sizzler’s) steak dinners, free buffet came with! 4 or 5 trips to the buffet, it was a pretty good one as they go, when their steak dinners came, they asked for go-boxes, wrapped it all up and left. 2 meals for the price of 1. ---
**Author:** ![SmellMyWort](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ea5d25/32.png) [@SmellMyWort](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SmellMyWort)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2021, 3:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chain-places-i-miss/947721/182 "2021-08-09T15:11:46Z")
Their iconic carousel now lives on the Epic campus, and the owners of Ella’s just released a cookbook of their recipes. [Three years after closing, Ella’s Deli owners release cookbook](https://www.channel3000.com/three-years-after-closing-ellas-deli-owners-release-cookbook/) ---
**Author:** ![dorvann](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/df705f/32.png) [@dorvann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dorvann)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2021, 8:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chain-places-i-miss/947721/183 "2021-08-09T20:35:55Z")
There is website that has uploaded old Radio Shack catalogs to browse: [https://www.radioshackcatalogs.com/index.htm#main\_catalogs](https://www.radioshackcatalogs.com/index.htm#main_catalogs) ---
**Author:** ![gnarator](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gnarator/32/8266_2.png) [@gnarator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gnarator)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2021, 8:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chain-places-i-miss/947721/184 "2021-08-09T20:50:54Z")
[https://www.bridgemans.com/parlor/location/hours.html](https://www.bridgemans.com/parlor/location/hours.html) You can still get the ice cream. None of the restaurants are left. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2021, 9:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chain-places-i-miss/947721/185 "2021-08-09T21:20:25Z")
I used to go to the one in Dinkytown in Minneapolis, and at Randolph and Snelling in St Paul. There was one on East Lake Street in Minneapolis too. Holy crap, was that almost fifty years ago?!? 😭 ---
**Author:** ![gnarator](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gnarator/32/8266_2.png) [@gnarator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gnarator)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2021, 9:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chain-places-i-miss/947721/186 "2021-08-09T21:22:10Z")
The Snelling one I went to in college a few times. Last one I was in was the one by Minnehaha Falls, but that was 20 years ago. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2021, 9:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chain-places-i-miss/947721/187 "2021-08-09T21:22:59Z")
Did you go to Macalester or St Kate’s? ---
**Author:** ![gnarator](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gnarator/32/8266_2.png) [@gnarator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gnarator)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2021, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chain-places-i-miss/947721/188 "2021-08-09T21:25:24Z")
Nope Hamline ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2021, 9:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chain-places-i-miss/947721/189 "2021-08-09T21:30:11Z")
I took a course in US Foreign Policy at Hamline to meet the American History requirement for my BA. Nice place! I hung out a lot in the cafeteria and TV lounge there too. IIRC, this was in the fall of 1987. ---
**Author:** ![gnarator](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gnarator/32/8266_2.png) [@gnarator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gnarator)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2021, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chain-places-i-miss/947721/190 "2021-08-09T21:32:22Z")
Small world. I was there then. Worked in the student center cafeteria, too. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2021, 9:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chain-places-i-miss/947721/191 "2021-08-09T21:38:06Z")
I remember one girl who was really nice. She worked behind the desk opposite the TV in the lounge and was fun to talk to. One afternoon, I accidentally left a green folder in the cafeteria. It was full of the short essays I wrote for USFP, all of which were100% (the highest possible grade). I never got it back. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![P-man](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/p-man/32/3606_2.png) [@P-man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/P-man)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2021, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chain-places-i-miss/947721/192 "2021-08-09T22:00:28Z")
I have a cousin who went to Hamline. She would have been there in the late eighties. ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2021, 10:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chain-places-i-miss/947721/193 "2021-08-09T22:11:35Z")
> [@dorvann](#): > > There is website that has uploaded old Radio Shack catalogs to browse: This just triggered my PTSD ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2021, 4:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chain-places-i-miss/947721/194 "2021-08-10T16:51:18Z")
> [@dummygladhands71](#): > > Sizzler. I saw the Sizzler champs once. Sat down, ordered nice (for Sizzler’s) steak dinners, free buffet came with! 4 or 5 trips to the buffet, it was a pretty good one as they go, when their steak dinners came, they asked for go-boxes, wrapped it all up and left. 2 meals for the price of 1. Go to Thailand. They’re everywhere, and very popular too. Or at least they were before Covid. Now with everything closed and locked down, who knows. But it was a great place to go. Definitely the US chain, not a local knockoff. ---
**Author:** ![flurb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/51bf81/32.png) [@flurb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flurb)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2021, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chain-places-i-miss/947721/195 "2021-08-13T20:44:45Z")
Speaking of chains, [Matt Stone and Trey Parker of _South Park_ fame have purchased Casa Bonita restaurants](https://www.avclub.com/south-parks-trey-parker-and-matt-stone-want-to-buy-the-1847383461) which used to have several locations but is now down to one location in Lakewood, Colorado. ---
**Author:** ![Biggirl](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biggirl/32/3294_2.png) [@Biggirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biggirl)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2021, 10:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chain-places-i-miss/947721/196 "2021-08-13T22:22:22Z")
When this topic was first posted I wanted to name the chain that I used to go to as a kid and eat endless peel-n-eat shrimp. I remembered today. It was called Steak & Brew. The chain eventually renamed itself Beefsteak Charlie’s and became better known with that name but I will always remember sooooo happy when my abuelo decided it was a Steak & Brew day. Baby me didn’t care that it was a steak place-- just supply me with MOAR shrimp please. You promised endless!!! ---
**Author:** ![E-DUB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/e-dub/32/403_2.png) [@E-DUB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-DUB)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2021, 12:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chain-places-i-miss/947721/197 "2021-08-23T00:45:57Z")
They got a pepper bar. [Quizno's - YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aZrks-BPeLQ) ---
**Author:** ![solost](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/solost/32/11776_2.png) [@solost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/solost)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2021, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chain-places-i-miss/947721/198 "2021-08-23T19:19:29Z")
> [@minor7flat5](#): > > As a kid I really liked [Farrell’](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Farrell's_Ice_Cream_Parlour)s. > It was a fun ice cream place that served family restaurant food and had a nifty turn-of-the-century (1900s) theme. > > Their burgers were tasty, but the real star of the show for kids was the ice cream: they had all kinds of crazy Texas-sized ice cream concoctions with various awards given to anyone who could consume each dessert at one sitting. > > I remember the most accessible “big dessert” for kids was the Pig’s Trough, a wooden trough with several scoops of ice cream in it. If you finished it, you scribbled your name on the trough (like autographing a cast), and they gave you a badge honoring your achievement. I don’t think it came with an award for finishing it, but I remember getting a large chocolate malt there served in a glass that looked like a goldfish bowl. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2021, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chain-places-i-miss/947721/199 "2021-08-23T22:58:48Z")
The father of one of my girlfriends (in Madison, WI) ate an entire Pig Trough and got a medal that said “I made a pig of myself at Farrell’s.” I suspect Brent (whose story can be found above) got such a medal too, but I was too busy feeling nauseous to notice. ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2021, 6:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chain-places-i-miss/947721/200 "2021-08-28T06:17:09Z")
I miss **fresh & easy** grocery stores. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chain-places-i-miss/947721.md?page=9)