AIB the “House of [something]” restaurant thread: around these parts, many old-school restaurants make the claim that they’re “famous” or “world famous”, either in their advertising or their name. Hypothetical examples: “The Famous Angelo’s Sicilian Village”, “The World Famous Joey’s Sportsman’s Club”, or “Del’s Parkway Inn: Famous Since 1954”.
Are there any standards, in the US or other countries, that a business must meet in order to claim that they’re famous?
(generally) absent fraud, you can claim whatever you want. No one takes it seriously, hence the courts don’t either. It’s called “puffery”
If a restaurant has to say it’s famous, it isn’t.
There’s a restaurant in my home town with a beautiful neon sign declaring it “The Famous [LastName]'s”
My mom finally was overcome by her own curiosity and asked just why exactly it was famous. Apparently it was famous because a high profile murder took place there in the 30s. My family didn’t move to town until 1950, that’s why we didn’t know.
I think there’s like 50 “Famous Original Ray’s” pizza places in New York, all unrelated. Doesn’t mean a thing.
Of course, when you’re hammered & starving at 3am, you don’t care too much about authenticity! 
No, no, no. There’s Ray’s, Original Ray’s, Famous Ray’s, Famous Original Ray’s, World-Famous Ray’s, and Crazy Raymond’s.
And their pizza isn’t even that great.
If it’s world famous in Poland, that’s good enough.
When I go to a place that claims to be “award-winning,” I always ask what awards it’s won. Just to be contrary. “Our award-winning service . . .” If they even have an answer for me, it’s some corporate-sponsored plaque they got back in 1993 for answering all their phone within 2 minutes within a six-week test period.
There’s a place down the road from us which is going to be featured on “Man vs. Food” in a few months*. I’d say if you’re on basic cable, you might have a claim to be “famous.” National TV, definitely so. And if the President ate there, as he ate at Duff’s a while back, then you can surely put “famous” in your moniker.
*I’m not going to say the name of this place. It’s already crowded enough on some nights, and we want to be able to eat there occasionally. I have no idea how this place got onto “Man vs. Food”, by the way: the monster dish Adam is challenging isn’t even on the regular menu.
Nathan’s actually is famous.
Not very good, just famous.
Some newspapers and now web sites might give out awards for the worst food and service. Just saying.
I’m sure you all know about Lion’s Taps hamburgers in Eden Prairie MN. Even you people in Europe and Asia…
…they are world famous afterall.
Huh, I’ve seen enough places that have “Best of Bozeman” awards from the local newspaper, or the like. Although come to think of it, such places don’t generally advertise as (vague) “award-winning”, they just put up the award certificates somewhere in the restaurant where you can see them, and let you figure out what they mean. Or they’ll say “Winner of the Best of Bozeman award for best Asian food for five years running”. I guess if they just say “award-winning” without specifying the award themselves, it must not be an award they’re very proud of.
I suspected the same about a place that dubbed itself an “an exciting restaurant,” and was pleasantly surprised to find that the food was really good.
The only restuarants I’d call famous, in the US, would be Nathan’s mentioned above and Pink’s hot dog joint.
http://www.pinkshollywood.com/pgz/photos.htm
I just realized the places I consider to actually be “famous restuarants” are just hot dog joints and it amuses me.