I worked at the Jerry’s Restaurants in Florence Kentucky, Lookout Heights Kentucky and in the Western Hills area of Cincinnati. They were all owned by the same guy. This would have been from 1970 to 1972.
About the only difference between the J-Boy burger and Fricshes Big Boy burger was where the slice of cheese went.
Gallagher’s Irish Steak House in Houston. Nice atmosphere, good selection of steaks and other meals, great bar. The one I went to had a live music performance in the pub part of it on certain evenings. I’m pretty sure there were several of them around Houston in th 80s, but I’ve not ever seen one elsewhere.
Birropiretti’s -A Great Italian Restaurant and One Heck of an Irish Bar- was their tag line. Again, Houston from a decade or more ago.
Gage and Tollner’s was, in retrospect, at the vanguard of commercial landlords turfing out a well-loved and successful local business in pursuit of a soulless chain that can pay significantly higher rents, and then the property sits empty for years.
When my partner was living in Las Vegas we went to Noble Roman’s one of the times I visited. It was terrible. Nearly inedible.
But I’m from Brooklyn and she’s from near Philadelphia so maybe our standards are too high.
In Phoenix, Arizona used to have a (decades ago) place where people arriving would be met by a mounted knight in armour on a white charger with lance, sword…the whole thing. For the life of me I can’t remember the name of the place…I seem to remember the word gables or something…Does anybody know of the place?
I guess this thread has come full circle. The first Ponderosa was in Kokomo Indiana… started by the same guy who owned Scottie’s that was mentioned in the OP.
Nothing like pushing your plastic tray down the line while your “steak” was being grilled.
I may be wrong, but they may have had one of the first salad bars though. It seems like after you got your steak you then went to the salad station where you could get salad ingredients and also Jello.
My memories may be off though since it was in the 60’s and I was around 5 or so and more interested in the cowboys on the wall than the food.
Just checked and apparently they merged with Bonanza and still have a few locations not too far from here. I probably won’t make the effort to go there though.
Also found a funny story about them… they started Ponderosa after hearing how successful Bonanza was in the south and rather than buying a franchise they started their own. Bonanza eventually realized they had some competition and quickly went and snapped up the trademark for the name Ponderosa. What they forgot is that they hadn’t trademarked the name Bonanza which the owners of Ponderosa quickly trademarked. They ended up settling by swapping trademarks.
Hah! I used to eat at the Ponderosa when I was a student in Rochester. Cheap steaks. They’re long gone now from the Rochester area. But so am I.
Re Farrell’s: At the one near my high school, if you could eat the “hog trough” of ice cream by yourself, it was free. Just looking at the picture of it in the menu made me feel full.
Buxton’s! We used to go their for ice cream once a week and occasionally for dinner. A frilly cellophane-wrapped toothpick stuck in my hamburger made me feel like a gourmet.
Has Gino’s been mentioned yet? We used to go there before McDonalds was around. It served pretty much the same menu, IIRC. I remember reading an article in Seventeen a long time ago in which Olga Korbut and the rest of the Soviet gymnastics team came to the U.S. and wanted to eat at McDonalds, but since there wasn’t one close enough (!) they had take out from Gino’s instead.
A friend of mine used to be a sub-manager at Farrell’s in NJ. It’s gone now.
Buxton’s was, I thought, a very local ice cream chain. They had one in Princeton NJ and one in West Windsor NJ. Their big special was the Big Bux – a bucket of something like eight scoops of ice cream, three toppings, and an ocean of whipped cream. If you ate one you were ventitled to a second one free. The one in Princeton closed long ago. The one in West Windsor is now a (pretty decent) Chinese restaurant.
Gino’s (named after owner/football player Gino Marchetti) served hamburgers and Kentucky Fried Chicken. In fact, it was years before I learned that there were places that only served KFC. One of these went in near our house, and I loved it. They were all over New Jersey, with a big one literally next door to the Steel Pier in Atlantic City, back circa 1970. They all closed, and the one near my childhood home, after being a Roy Rogers for years, is now a Wendy’s.
I found this gem about Ponderosa…
…steaks served with baked potato, salad, and a dinner roll. Cafeteria-style service kept labor costs low, and the use of lower-grade meat tenderized with enzymes helped keep food costs low. Much of the savings was passed on to the customer; Ponderosa’s basic dinner cost just $1.39. The Indiana chain later bought its own beef processing subsidiary, ESI Meats, to further cut costs.
YUMM!!
I’m surprised we are still alive since this was considered “above average” at the time (first opened in 1968).
I visited the Farrell’s in the Dallas area a couple of times, it did not seem to stick around very long. My main memory is the fact that a staff member would drop off the hog trough order and loudly announce that “This person is about to make a pig of themselves at Farrell’s!”
A pharmacist acquaintance told me to avoid Bonanza because it used so many enzymes and so much of them to tenderize the cheap meat that I’d end up digesting my stomach.
Then he died, so I couldn’t confirm he believed it or was kidding.
Yeah when I was little the big treat was going to the Ponderosa. Then they closed and became Red Lobster. We had a Bonanza for a short time in my city, with the buffet and self-serve ice cream. Another treat was Dixie Lee Chicken.
I miss Lick’s and their employees that would randomly burst into song and how they called back their orders in code: “gobble gobble” for a turkey burger, “ring-a-ding-dings” for onion rings, etc.
I worked at an Alfie’s when I was in high school
I remember Sambo’s! Which further reminds me of Lum’s. I think I used to get the grilled cheese at Sambo’s, hot dogs at Lum’s…or 'twas it the other way round? Anyway, this was Fort Lauderdale in the 1970’s.
I also remember one time when we went to the swankiest restaurant ever, The Kapok Tree. We ate in a huge room full of mirrors that looked like the grand ballroom from Cinderella. It’s nice to look up this old place and see that it actually was pretty cool.
Ohmigosh, I remember going on a date to Kapok Tree many many years ago when I first moved here. For the life of me I can’t remember where it’s located - Clearwater?- but it was gorgeous (though my date was a drip and I don’t actually remember if the food was good).
I remember Sambos very well. It was attached to the Ramada Inn by my house and my best friend’s dad went there just about every morning to hold court, if you will. He also had us stealing silverware so he could make jewelry that he later sold at the swap meet :smack:
There are apparently sixteen still around, judging by the scrolling list of locations on this page. Two are near me in the Lafayette area. Speaking of which…
The place with the big clock is called Hour Time. Mountain Jack’s was once a fairly large chain, but only nine locations are apparently holding on.
[quote=“Dung_Beetle, post:94, topic:728756”]
I remember Sambo’s! Which further reminds me of Lum’s. I think I used to get the grilled cheese at Sambo’s, hot dogs at Lum’s…or 'twas it the other way round? Anyway, this was Fort Lauderdale in the 1970’s.
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Oh my gosh! Lum’s in Fort Lauderdale. I have a photo of myself standing in front of Lum’s in Fort Lauderdale when we went down for spring break in the mid-'70s.
Lum’s was the place where they had hot dogs boiled in beer If I remember right. Sounded pretty exotic to a little kid. I really don’t remember anything about it other than the “boiled in beer” part. There must have been one somewhere nearby though.
I’m starting to feel a bit weird about how much I know about old defunct restaurants. I swear my mom cooked for us at least once per month. 
I’m still pretty sure that in the late 70’s it was Mountain Jack’s… but then again it was prom night and you know… I may have been thinking about other things. Like my tie, and if my cumber bun was fastened properly (just in case my wife reads this). Yup… those were the two things in the car that night with me that I was thinking about the most.
Good thing I thought about that since at some point later I’m pretty sure my date’s straps of her dress slipped off of her shoulders and I had to frantically grab onto things so she wouldn’t be embarrassed.
Ahh yes Farrell’s, Shakey’s, and Chi-Chi’s!
I remember in Salt Lake in the 80’s 90’s a few we had:
A pizza joint called Der Ratskeller - it was like german gothic inside but served pizza for some reason?
Central Park - these really small burger joints (like a 2 story drive through coffee shed) they had a limited menu and one of the first places to offer seasoned curly fries. Later they turned into Gyro places.
Dee’s Hamburgers - used to be the local burger joint. Was later bought by Hardees.