We had a Lum’s in Cahokia, IL, of all places. It went under in the late 70’s though; it couldn’t compete with the Bonanza next door.
CalMeacham: as myskepticsight says, Houlihan’s is still around. There’s at least three more in the St. Louis area: Chesterfield Mall, Olive (just west of 270), and west Watson Rd (again, in the mall).
I can make a meal just out of their 'shrooms. Never had a bad meal there, but their menu seems to be going a tad artsy in the last few years.
Dooku: wasn’t there a Naugles (or something like) at 40 and Grand back in the mid/late 80s?
The love for Olga’s is alive and well in Fairview Heights, IL, my friend. It’s been a family fave since it opened is St. Clair Square shopping mall in '77 or '78. My only complaint is that they stopped serving alcohol (beer and wine only).
John DiFool, please be more careful about your quoting. In post #299, you put “ralph124c writes:” immediately before something that I wrote. ralph124c didn’t write anything in the part that you quoted. That was all my writing.
Well, that’s a shame. I used to live right across from it on Rosedale Ave in Bethesdam and spent many a night there at 3am. I’m moving back to the DC area, and was planning on making a stop there, in the old neighborhood. Anyone know if Philadelphia Mike’s is still there?
There are Big Boy restaurants all around, only with different names attached to them- the Ohio-Indiana area is Frisch’s Big Boy. Been a favorite of mine since I was a wee friar.
The one old farts in Buffalo seem to look back on in fond reverence was Deco, a chain of eat-in short-order diners which had about 50 locations in the city limits. The chain’s heydays were during the 1940s and 1950s, and the last one closed in 1979. The chain’s disappearance was blamed on location; a disproportionately large number of Deco locations were in blue-collar neighborhoods and industrial districts that were hit hard by Buffalo’s post-WWII economic decline, and the chain never expanded to the growing suburbs.
Another chain that was common in the early 1970s was Henry’s Hamburgers. My grandmother always took me there. It was a step up from McDonalds because it had indoor seating; all stools permanently attached to the floor.
Nah… around here, it’s Kentucky Fried Taco Huts, and Long John & W’s. I haven’t seen an A&M or a Long John Silver’s in the same building as the KFC/Taco Bell/Pizza Hut bunch yet.
I was sorta joking about the Long John’s Kentaco Hut. Haven’t seen that combination yet, but it’ll happen (living just 45 minutes from Yum! world headquarters.)
Anyone remember Beefsteak Charlie’s? I believe it was just an east coast thing - MA, New York, ?New Jersey? and I know there was at least one in Florida. All the beer, wine and Sangria you could drink (to a point)- came in pitchers (well, the wine came in a …bottle-thingy that looked like a vase and I can’t think of the name even though I served a couple of millions of them in college when I worked there…damn you, old age…) Also had a HUGE all-you-can eat salad bar with raw clams, oysters and shrimp. Great place for college kids. Great place to get great tips when you’re a young college girl and the table full of college boys want just one more pitcher after they’d been shut off… Great prime rib and mushrooms. And New York-style cheescake that was completely new to the Boston area. God was that stuff good when you went straight to work from school or sleeping and hadn’t eaten all day.
In S Francisco…they were nothing special-basic burgers, hotdogs, etc. The big thing was the signs-a dog’s head in a chef’s hat! The truly bizzarre advertisng the mediocre.
Ponderosa is pretty much thriving here, but the suspicion is that will only be until we get a Golden Corrall.
I’d heard of but never seen a Bonanza restaurant. Something I liked about the
old Ponderosa theme was it being modeled after a ranch food hall, with pseudo-rough wooden tables and benches, and your meat served still sizzling in these metal-in-wooden-trays. I really miss those. Nowadays, it’s just too civilized.
I found out yesterday (for all you Palatine/Arlington Heights/NW Suburbs folks) that Grouper’s USED to be what is now Idols. Rand and Dundee. And before it was Idols it was St. George and the Dragon and something else (or a couple of things) we can’t remember.
I used to work near there, and I remember that place was ALWAYS changing hands back in the 80s-90s. Seemed like every couple of years it was something else. Don’t remember Grouper’s, but my family used to go to Bimbo’s Italian restaurant, kitty corner from there. I wonder if Bimbo’s is still there, and if they have changed the name!
