There’s still a Kissin Cousins here but no gift shop (assuming we’re talking about the same chain).
We went there once many years ago on a family summer road trip. My brother and I hated the food, renamed the place “Stinkys” and successfully lobbied our parents against ever going again.
Stuckey’s has hardly gone extinct: http://www.stuckeys.com/find-a-stuckeys
Stuckey’s used to be the kings of the interstate exits, at least in the Midwest where I grew up. Their food was rather average, but if you were hungry and they were the only restaurant for 40 miles, you were glad to belly up to the counter or the table for some food.
I do remember at one time they had a breakfast bar that was actually quite good.
Not nearly as ubiquitous as they used to be though. I don’t really remember the food as much as that my Dad loved their pecan logs and would always grab a couple on every road trip. My favorite part was looking at the kitschy gifts they had. I still see the signature blue roof from time to time, but rarely are they still open as a Stuckey’s.
When I was a kid, what all the Sizzlers in our area were known for was the “buffet court”. You had the enormous salad bar, and then six or seven other themed stations - there was a pasta bar, a soup bar, a taco bar, a Chinese bar, a dessert bar, and a few other things I can’t even remember. It was all-you-can-eat, and you could get it either by itself or as an add-on with a grill entrée. It was the closest thing we got to a special occasion dinner when I was a kid, and there’d often be long lines just to get in the door at dinnertime.
I think they must have eventually drastically scaled down the concept because it was a huge loss leader and everyone was going to the buffet instead of ordering steak. We eventually ended up with just one in my town, and it just had the salad bar (with tacos and soup at the very end) and a dessert bar. Then it closed a few years ago because the franchisee couldn’t afford the rent payments on the building.
The steaks themselves were never very good. I mean, it was steak, and it was edible, but that’s about all one can say in its favor.
I remember a TV commercial from the early or mid ‘70s in which a bunch of kids came into the restaurant, each asking for a different flavor of ice cream cone. The counter man (played by Paul Winchell, IIRC) sang a sad song about how nobody ever wants poor ol’ vanilla in the house of 28 flavors. After a short pause, all of the kids start demanding vanilla, and he grins. I’d like to see that again, but it’s not on YouTube.
Three things that made HoJo distinct: (1) the uniquely shaped hot dog buns; (2) the pointy-topped ice cream scoops; and (3) Tendersweet Fried Clams.
EDIT: Oh, they also had something called the 3-D Burger; a double decker burger with a “secret sauce” that, as I remember, was similar to Thousand Island dressing.
They also had an all-you-can-eat spaghetti day once a week, and it was on one of those days when I was in high school that my father and I got into an argument about something or other. When the waitress brought our food, she stumbled and dumped a plate of spaghetti right in my lap. My father laughed hysterically, and (after a minute or two) I had to grin myself.
This also reminds me of another chain - Kountry Kitchen
The one’s I remember, except for one, were all local:
Paragon was on the junction of two highways about three miles east of my hometown. Great pizza. It took forever to get it but it was worth it. They had a ballroom attached to the east end of the building that I went to a couple dances in but the roof started leaking and the ceiling caved in and they never fixed it. It also had a little room on the west end of the dining room that had a pool table and my dad taught me and my brother how to play pool in there. At one time, before my time, there was also a gas station/auto repair shop attached. The owner also had an apartment there that they lived in. All it needed was a little store and it would have been a one-stop establishment. The owner just died last year. I like how they call it the ‘infamous’ Paragon.
Jim’s Cafe was on main street in my hometown. Walking in there was like stepping back in time from the wooden screen door (with spring) and heavy wooden entrance door to the big wood and glass candy counter and chrome coat rack just inside the door. The glass and chrome counter the cash register sat on. The Formica countertop with chrome edging and red and chrome stools. The checkerboard floor tile and wooden booths each with their own coat rack. The chrome and Formica tables and chrome soda fountain-type chairs. The big old malt mixer and glass pie cases behind the counter. It was pure nostalgia. Unfortunately they tore it down last year. Here’s a souvenir.
Al’s Oasis with it’s big salad bar and buffalo burgers. When you were done with your meal you could browse the gift shop and grocery store. They even have a website.
A & W Restaurant with it’s great scenery up on the bluffs overlooking the Missouri River in a town 20 miles to the west. It even had real car hops. It’s closed down now. When I was way younger, it was in a little ‘shack’ on the other side of town next to the drive-in movie theater.
Was this a place that served A & W root beer with hot dogs and fries? The chain is still around. It’s older than McDonald’s:
A similar chain is Stewart’s, which had those roadside stands where they gave you a tray that balanced on your car window. We had one in the next town over in NJ. There were several of them down the Jersey shore. They’re still around, too, although all the old ones I used to go to are gone:
They served their root beer in heavy, thick-walled and thick-bottomed handled glass mugs – no paper cups! The mugs were kinda deceptive, giving you the impression that you were getting more root beer than you actually got. But it was good, and so were the dogs and fries.
Wonder if that was the same Ground Round we regularly visited while spending a week in Rosslyn on Dad’s expense account.
Yes it’s the national chain. Which makes it the one which I said was not local. 
I used to have one of the small A & W mugs but I don’t know what happened to it. You can still buy them on eBay though.
I still have my 22oz root beer float mug from the Springfield Mall A & W though about half of the printing has worn off.
Yep. One of my sisters worked in one before going off to college.
Don’t think the rest of the family ever stepped foot in there.
They also had the Papa Bear, Mama Bear, and Baby Bear burgers. We used to walk to one from my grandparents house in a tiny town in Iowa.
I got excited when I saw one many years later with my son in a mall on a soccer trip (no idea where at this point). I was quite disappointed that the food just seemed like a basic fast food now.
The funny thing is I have followed several of the links in this thread and several mention how they were a family owned business doing very well and then bought out by a large corporation which drove them into the ground with cost cutting etc. They are now trying to make a comeback by the family.
I forgot all about Dog 'n Suds! We didn’t get there very often as the nearest one was 45 miles away.
According to the link I post above, Dog n. Suds is owned by the same folks who now own Stewart’s.
Until this thread, I’d never heard of Dog ‘n’ Suds.
The nostalgia is probably better than the food was. 
It was a lot like A & W (and I imagine Stewart’s (?)) in that you pulled up to the speaker and ordered and the car hop brought it out.
When I was a pup ('65), there was a Henry’s Hamburgers at each end of our town (Glen Burnie, MD), and one in Huntsville, Alabama. Were there others? My favorite hamburgers of all time.