Ground Round is 45 now, and started out showing silent movies on whatever walls weren’t covered with kitschy crap. The remaining restaurants are more family/sports bar now.
back in the early /mid 80’s I opened new units for TGI Fridays…the theme then was called “Elegant Clutter” They had a Team and warehouse in KY that collected and cleaned the crap and a team of designers that “arraigned” it…they used all kinds of stuff in those days including real stuffed animals. back then each store typically also had hanging a real used racing shell (think rowing). I still go into one I opened in St Louis in 1985…the racing Shell is still there but the dead animals are gone.
tsfr
I can see not liking it, but actually charging it with a crime seems like an overreaction to me.
There aren’t many, and even the chains at that level often don’t have many locations (certainly not anywhere near the ubiquity of a Fridays or Applebees). Ruth’s Chris Steak House is one which comes to mind, as well as the Capital Grille that Dewey Finn mentioned.
Remember when they were opening up a Carlos Murphy’s every ten feet? Every one had a stuffed bear in a swing. I never figured out why.
Morton’s is the first one I thought of.
But what’s more American than inauthenticity?
Guess this would be faux Mexicana.
Whenever I see that in a place, I always think about how much dust must build up on that stuff.
There used to be a comic strip called “Brass and Fern” that was set in one of these restaurants.
That reminds me. I had a friend who upon moving across the country left behind a couple transom air conditioners, some large hanging ferns, etc.
Another friend who visited me shortly after looked around and said, “Did a restaurant close?”