Back when I lived in Evanston, I frequented a joint called Jim’s Char-broil. They had the best gyros in town, and they were pretty cheap. “Dinner at Jim’s” actually became a monetary unit in my dorm at Northwestern for wagers.
One of the odd things about the place, they always seemed to get their cups for sodapop from clearance sales. Never the same twice, and often with the names of unheard of restaurants printed on them.
I have two (and a half) nominations for this thread.
Johnathon’s.
This was a seafood resturant in Henrietta, NY (a suburb of Rochester) which had the best, and freshest seafood I’d ever had the pleasure of having. They would begin meals with a fresh baked garlic biscuit, and then you had your choice of various market fish and seafood dishes. I think they offered other foods, besides seafood, but I never tasted any of it.
Then Legal Seafood, during it’s attempt to franchise out of Boston, came to Henrietta about a mile and a half down the road from Johnathon’s. The name was well enough known that people looking for a seafood experience a cut above Red Lobster went there, more often than they did to Johnathon’s. Which would have made sense, had their food, and selections been even as good as Johnathon’s. But they weren’t. And apparantly, for all the success that Johnathon’s had had, they were under capitalized, and failed about six months after Legal Seafood opened in that location.
Of course, even without the competition, Legal Seafood couldn’t keep enough people coming in, too stay open. They closed within another six months, IIRC, and I and any number of people who had preferred Johnathon’s were bitterly pleased to see it happen.
Olga’s was a local chain.
Their main claim to fame was something they called an Olga. Really it was simply a gyro on pita roll, but it was very well done, and since the resturant started in the 70s, IIRC, I can see why they gave it a more conventional name, instead of stating explicitly that it was Greek food. At their height they had four or five locations, but they all closed either at the same time, or within very short order. I’m not certain, but I think they were a family owned business and the family couldn’t find a buyer when those operating the business decided they wanted to retire.
As a special bonus I’m going to give a shout out to the chain D’Angelo’s. They’re a Massachusetts chain of sub shops. Hot and cold subs, superbly made, and their steak subs are actually grilled, like Og intended.
They’re still in business in Massachusetts, and going strong. But for a brief, shining moment there were two stores here in the Rochester area. They never caught on, though. sob
Got an Olga’s diner near me, with Gyros and all. South Jersey.
Dayam. I thought they were strictly local. Cool to know they’re still in business.
Hold on…it gets worse…
The Original Olga’s with the ‘something called an Olga’ is actually expanding!
TROY, MI – February 20, 2006 – Olga’s Kitchen, Inc., an independent family casual
restaurant chain headquartered in Troy, Mich. will open its 28th restaurant in Bloomfield Township
on February 24. The 90-seat, 3.100 square foot eatery serves lunch and dinner and features the
number one system-wide selling menu item, the Original Olga®, broiled, seasoned beef and lamb
topped with onions, tomatoes, and Olgasauce wrapped in a hot, grilled-to-order secret recipe Olga
Bread. …
http://www.olgaskitchen.com/media/bloomfield.pdf
https://www.olgas-kitchen.com/f_olgas.htm
Second link has the "Olgas’’ from the menu. Looks tasty. 
Not just a restaurant. This was an experience. This website doesn’t do it justice in the least.
Now you’re just being mean.
I knew there was a reason I liked you.
Some fellow OrlanDopers may remember The Bubble Room. I don’t even know how to describe it…each table was like a shadow box, you could eat in a booth shaped like a bird cage, or shaped like a boat going through The Tunnel of Love, or in a booth like a train car. There was a model train that went all around the middle of the restaurant.
Ivylad and I only made it over there once…but IIRC, the food was delicious, if a little on the pricey side. I wonder what happened to it?
You mean:
I used to work as a hostess and then a server at an Olga’s Kitchen. I lurve their food. In fact, three of my cousins worked there also. One of them, who live in L.A. now insists that we go to Olga’s every time he comes home for a visit.
Two long gone restuarants that I miss terrible are G.D. Ritzy’s. It was a hamburger joint (they were a small chain in my town )that had a 1950’s feel to it. They served Cherry Coke which was Coca-Cola with actual cherry syrup pumped into it. Their burgers were huge, crispy on the outer edge and juicy goodness on the inside. Man I miss that place. I never could figure out why they closed.
Then there was this place called *The Branding Iron Chuckwagon * owned by this Greek couple. They were full of personality and the food was amazing. Easy on the wallet, delightful on the taste buds. They made a pizza that has yet to be rivaled and chicken oregano that’s damn near as good as my Mom’s.
Well at least I remembered something right! Hey, they closed when I was 7.
Now I know what has been missing from my refried beans all this time.
Yep. Del Taco beans, or anybody else’s for that matter, just don’t have the same taste as the original Naugles beans. Too healthy these days. Bring back the grease!
On the night of my first visit to my future college, I had dinner with my mom at a stylish, run-down restaurant called the Old Orleans. There were elegant commedia del arte masks on the walls and a checkerboard floor. We were served by a beautiful waitress with a Russian accent, and since I hadn’t yet gone veggie in those days, I had a delicious po’ boy. Just the look of the place, and the waitress I guess, made it one of my favorite places I’d ever eaten. But by the time I enrolled and went to college, or soon after, it was gone and replaced by some dime-a-dozen bar.
I know I’ve been to a Naugles way back when, but I can’t quite remember the experience. Did they have really humongous bean and cheese burritos for cheap? If yes, then I think I remember.
I’m pretty sure they are in retreat. They closed the store in Santa Barbara years ago and the closest one now is in Camarillo. I’m a little bummed, as I quite liked it.
Yeah, I miss that place, it was delicious. I think the problem is that they had a strange pricing structure. One piece of fish was $6, two was $7, and for $9 it was all you could eat, or something like that. I think they should’ve sold one piece for cheaper. I remember when that restaurant was the Open Door. They served yards of beer and we called it the Open Sore. I was sitting there one day during Solstice and the world’s sexiest gal was sashaying up the street. Some guy driving up State Street was distracted by her and rear-ended the car in front of him. His wife was furious at him, and he had a baby in the child seat behind him. The girl knew exactly what happened and was giggling coyly. Poor bastard, we couldn’t stop laughing for half an hour. I think that causing a car wreck has to be the epitome of hot girl power.
Boston Market expanded rapidly in the early 1990s, which included opening two locations in Boise. They closed about a year later along with other newly opened locations when the company realized they bit off more than they could chew and ended up filing for bankrupcy. I don’t have any cites other than a brief mention of the bankruptcy on Wikipedia.
I’ve been there! I lived in Cols for years. Good times, those.
Naugles had that. IIRC, their burrito selection was as follows:
Cheese (Cheese, red sauce)
Red (Beans, red sauce, cheese)
Green (Beans, green sauce, cheese)
Combo (Beans, 1 scoop of beef, red sauce, cheese)
Beef (2 scoops beef, red sauce, cheese)
You could then make any burrito “MACHO” (add the other red/green sauce, lettuce, olives, sour cream, cilantro, tomato).
Red = Mild / Green = hot (less mild is more like it)
They later added chicken and other types of burritos.
If you are interested in some Naugles procedures, read on, otherwise, skip it:
Taco meat came raw & frozen in 50 lb. bags. We went through about 2 bags/day, cooked in a big pan. When it was cooked, we would lift one end of the pan to let it drain the fat for a while. Scoop the meat out into its own little containers. I can’t remember what we used to season the meat. IIRC, it was a big pouch of seasonings.
Pick up the big pan and pour the fat into a steel cup. Take some of the fat and pour it into the refried beans. Once the fat in the steel cup started hardening, we dumped it into a big barrel outside the back of the store.
Beans came raw in a canvas sack. We sorted out the rocks from the beans and cooked up two big batches a day. Add beans to big pot, add water, slow cook for an hour or two. Most of the water would evaporate. Melt hunk of lard & add to beans, using the lid to the bean pot as a shield to prevent molten lard from splashing up from the beans into your eyes. Slow cook some more, mash 'em up by hand using the bean masher.
Now and then, someone would add too little water, apply too much heat, or forget about the beans until we could smell them burning. The beans would end up burnt. We would have to do taste tests to determine whether to toss 'em or use 'em. If it was a close call, IIRC, we could add more meat fat to help mask the smoky taste.
You are not misremembering. They used to wrap the tacos in that color of paper.
What I miss is a BBQ place called BBQ Bill’s. I think they were a franchise. Yummy, yummy ribs…
Well, not in the sphere of most of the places noted on this thread, but, man, I do, and will always, miss The Busy Bee Cafe, in Oxford, Mississippi. A tiny cabin, with seven or so tables; the menu was whatever Miss Isiah was cooking that day. Everything was great, presided over by a sweet woman, the walls plastered with photos of Martin Luther King, and other local luminaries. Her cornbread was miraculous; greens sumptuous, and fried chicken a wonder, too. It was always a warm good haven, with someone who loved everyone who crossed her doorway, and cared for them.
Gone now, bulldozed over for the new Kroger supermarket. I do hope, at least, that Miss Isaiah got a decent sum for that land.
In the early years of this decade, there was a restaurant on Ben White Blvd here in Austin called Roy Henry’s Fried Chicken & Waffles. Run by a former cop who was just as likely to deliver your meal as any of the waitstaff, they had the finest fried chicken I’ve ever known, made from gigantic super chickens, such that a breast piece was enough to sate even my superlative appetite. Moreover, there was the signature breakfast, a cinnamon-y waffle served with your choice of fried chicken piece. Also, there was the hot water cornbread: sweet, gritty heaven.