# Stores or restaurants you used to go to in your youth **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [November 19, 2020, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stores-or-restaurants-you-used-to-go-to-in-your-youth/925972 "2020-11-19T15:53:15Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 7
**Author:** ![pirviii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pirviii/32/3233_2.png) [@pirviii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pirviii)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2020, 11:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stores-or-restaurants-you-used-to-go-to-in-your-youth/925972/121 "2020-11-26T23:11:15Z")
In my dads small town, they have the Frostee, which has limited hours, and I’m not sure is even open in the winter. It’s next to mini golf, so it’s tradition to get a cone after we play in the summer. ---
**Author:** ![Catamount](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/catamount/32/2840_2.png) [@Catamount](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Catamount)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2020, 11:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stores-or-restaurants-you-used-to-go-to-in-your-youth/925972/122 "2020-11-26T23:23:51Z")
I remember seeing a Tastee-Freez in Asheville a couple of years ago but it looks like they changed their name to [The Freeze](https://wlos.com/news/local/asheville-tastee-freez-changes-its-name) in February. ---
**Author:** ![ChockFullOfHeadyGoodness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chockfullofheadygoodness/32/511_2.png) [@ChockFullOfHeadyGoodness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ChockFullOfHeadyGoodness)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2020, 12:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stores-or-restaurants-you-used-to-go-to-in-your-youth/925972/123 "2020-11-27T00:09:07Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > Norms and Big Boy. A couple of both still exist but they were everywhere in CA and we ate at them all the time. Big Boy is hard to find, but Norms is expanding! Before the pandemic, they were planning on opening two or three new ones out the in San Fernando Valley. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2020, 3:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stores-or-restaurants-you-used-to-go-to-in-your-youth/925972/124 "2020-11-27T03:06:08Z")
Nice. They have a steak dinner at a great price point. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2020, 3:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stores-or-restaurants-you-used-to-go-to-in-your-youth/925972/125 "2020-11-27T03:29:01Z")
This thread reminds me of a little restaurant in my hometown called Jock’s. We used to go there when I was a kid (it was a favorite of my grandparents’). Jock’s closed long ago. It was well over forty years ago and might have been fifty. But for some reason, the people who bought the building never took down the sign. As recently as two or three years ago, you could still see the sign for Jock’s on the front of the building even though it hadn’t operated as a restaurant for decades. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2020, 4:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stores-or-restaurants-you-used-to-go-to-in-your-youth/925972/126 "2020-11-27T04:44:42Z")
I found Dog & Suds Root Beer at a local hardware store about a week ago. I just might drink one of them right now. I remember Woolco, but not fondly. The store in my area was dirty and the merchandise was very poor quality. ---
**Author:** ![carrps](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carrps/32/2957_2.png) [@carrps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carrps)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2020, 6:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stores-or-restaurants-you-used-to-go-to-in-your-youth/925972/127 "2020-11-27T18:39:00Z")
Man, I just remembered Bit O’ Scotland. They were essentially a fish and chips restaurant in an old Craftsman house on Westwood Blvd between Pico and Olympic. They had cod, shrimp and scallops. You could get them either breaded and fried or sauteed in butter. Fries were all fresh and perfectly fried. Not greasy. Dessert was either a square of homemade shortbread (which I always ordered) or a nondescript cheesecake (order the shortbread). We went there ALL the time. One of the waitresses was the mother of one of my brother’s classmates, so we got friendly with her and her sister (a fellow waitress there). It was homey. The menu was limited, but the food was GREAT. I haven’t had fish and chips as good since they lost their lease. There was always a wait. The waiting area was a screened in patio area in the front with lawn chairs and a giant swordfish mounted on the side wall. God, I miss it. ---
**Author:** ![peccavi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peccavi/32/388_2.png) [@peccavi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/peccavi)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2020, 2:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stores-or-restaurants-you-used-to-go-to-in-your-youth/925972/128 "2020-11-28T02:27:32Z")
It took me a while to dredge up memories of the restaurants from my childhood. I remember dinners with my grandparents at Spenger’s in Berkeley. I loved the maze of small rooms and always got the cracked crab. For pastries and sundaes, there was Edie’s where they had eclairs with real cream as the filling. Both are out of business (I didn’t realize until I looked it up just now that Spenger’s had been around for 128 years when it closed in 2018, so not only my grandparents ate there, but their parents as well). Closer to home, there was On Lock Sam’s in Stockton and summertime meals at the Elim Grove Cafe in Sonoma county. On Lock Sam’s is still around, but the Elim Grove Cafe is now a bakery. ---
**Author:** ![pkbites](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pkbites/32/204_2.png) [@pkbites](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pkbites)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2020, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stores-or-restaurants-you-used-to-go-to-in-your-youth/925972/129 "2020-11-28T16:44:56Z")
> [@nearwildheaven](#): > > I found Dog & Suds Root Beer at a local hardware store about a week ago. I just might drink one of them right now. There actually are a couple of Dog n Suds drive in still open. There is one right across the state line in Richmond, Il. Took my Grandsons to it last summer. Not bad. Root beer isn’t as enticing as A&W. ---
**Author:** ![jnglmassiv](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f07891/32.png) [@jnglmassiv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jnglmassiv)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2020, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stores-or-restaurants-you-used-to-go-to-in-your-youth/925972/130 "2020-11-28T18:58:55Z")
> [@pkbites](#): > > There actually are a couple of Dog n Suds drive in still open. There is one right across the state line in Richmond, Il. [Dog & Suds 1970s in sort-of nearby Rockford](https://old.reddit.com/r/VintageMenus/comments/bngm8v/a_dog_n_suds_menu_board_from_the_rockford/) Possibly unrelated but similarly named Dog-N-Suds Drive-In [in Lafayette, IN from about 1960](https://old.reddit.com/r/VintageMenus/comments/9ot3xz/dognsuds_drivein_lafayette_indiana_c_1960_doggone/). Just dial 2. ---
**Author:** ![Sternvogel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bc79bd/32.png) [@Sternvogel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sternvogel)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2020, 3:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stores-or-restaurants-you-used-to-go-to-in-your-youth/925972/131 "2020-12-02T03:32:35Z")
> [@jnglmassiv](#): > > Possibly unrelated but similarly named Dog-N-Suds Drive-In [in Lafayette, IN from about 1960](https://old.reddit.com/r/VintageMenus/comments/9ot3xz/dognsuds_drivein_lafayette_indiana_c_1960_doggone/). Just dial 2. I live in Lafayette, and can tell you with authority that not only is it the same chain, but there’s also an outlet in West Lafayette. We also have perhaps the sole surviving Mountain Jack’s, a onetime franchiser specializing in prime rib. Just ate Thanksgiving dinner there last week. ---
**Author:** ![Machine\_Elf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/82dd89/32.png) [@Machine\_Elf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Machine_Elf)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2020, 1:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stores-or-restaurants-you-used-to-go-to-in-your-youth/925972/132 "2020-12-02T13:03:15Z")
From the 70s through the 80s, here are some restaurants that I went to as a child and teenager that I haven’t been to since: > **[Arthur Treacher's](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Treacher%27s)** > > Pages for logged out editors learn more > > Arthur Treacher's Fish & Chips is an American fast food seafood restaurant and former chain. At the peak of its popularity in the late 1970s, it had more than 800 stores. However, as of June 2021, there is only one stand-alone Arthur Treacher's location remaining. The menu offers fried seafood or chicken, accompanied by chips (French fries). > The chain's namesake is Arthur Treacher (1894–1975), an English character actor typecast as "the perfect ... > **[Red Barn (restaurant)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Barn_(restaurant))** > > Pages for logged out editors learn more > > The Red Barn restaurant was a fast-food restaurant chain founded in 1961 in Springfield, Ohio, by Don Six, Martin Levine, and Jim Kirst. In 1963, the small chain was purchased by Richard O. Kearns, operated as Red Barn System, with the offices moving briefly to Dayton, Ohio and in August 1964 to Fort Lauderdale, Florida. During the late 1960s United Servomation, also called Servomation, bought the Red Barn chain. In 1978 United Servomation merged ... > **[York Steak House](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/York_Steak_House)** > > Pages for logged out editors learn more > > > York Steak House was a national chain of steakhouse restaurants in the United States. It was among several chains owned at the time by cereal manufacturer General Mills. By 1982, there were nearly 200 restaurants in 27 states from Texas to Maine. Though popular in the late 1970s and early 1980s, the majority of its locations shut down in 1989. > The fate of the rest of the chain after 1989 still remains unclear. One source reported that the remai... > **[Sizzler](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sizzler)** > > Pages for logged out editors learn more > > > Sizzler USA Restaurants, Inc., doing business as Sizzler, is a United States-based restaurant chain with headquarters in Mission Viejo, California, with locations mainly in California, plus some in the nearby states of Washington, Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico, Idaho, Utah, Oregon and Puerto Rico. It is known for steak, seafood, and salad bar items. > Since 2011, Sizzler restaurants outside of the United States are currently owned by Australia-base... Also as a teen, I often went to **[Ax-Man Surplus](https://www.ax-man.com/pages/the-nature-of-surplus)**, which had three locations around Minneapolis/St. Paul. They still exist, but I moved away. As the name suggests, **[they buy surplus _anything_](https://www.ax-man.com/pages/got-surplus)** for pennies on the dollar, and sell it for only slightly more. Obscure electronic devices/components, giant rolls of packing tape, a barrel of molded Jabba-The-Hutt heads whatever. Their inventory was constantly changing, so you’d go back on a regular basis just to see what sort of crazy stuff they had for sale. They had a sense of humor in the descriptive pricing signs they placed on the various items and bins, which made it more entertaining. If you live in the Twin Cities, I highly recommend a visit. ---
**Author:** ![P-man](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/p-man/32/3606_2.png) [@P-man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/P-man)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2020, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stores-or-restaurants-you-used-to-go-to-in-your-youth/925972/133 "2020-12-02T17:22:50Z")
There was an Arthur Treacher’s in a food court near Yankee Stadium in the late nineties. Ms. P and I would go to that food court occasionally, since she worked nearby. I’m not sure if I ever chose AT, since there was also a Taco Bell there. ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2020, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stores-or-restaurants-you-used-to-go-to-in-your-youth/925972/134 "2020-12-02T17:26:40Z")
2 blocks from the old Yankee Stadium was a Mr. Softy Ice Cream truck every game day. I wonder if it will be back next year. ---
**Author:** ![P-man](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/p-man/32/3606_2.png) [@P-man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/P-man)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2020, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stores-or-restaurants-you-used-to-go-to-in-your-youth/925972/135 "2020-12-02T18:29:49Z")
Mr. Softee is one of the things I miss most about New York. We have a knockoff called Mr. Soft in our neighborhood, but it’s not the same. ---
**Author:** ![Saintly\_Loser](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saintly_loser/32/4045_2.png) [@Saintly\_Loser](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saintly_Loser)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2020, 7:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stores-or-restaurants-you-used-to-go-to-in-your-youth/925972/136 "2020-12-02T19:39:18Z")
York Steak House is the second business mentioned in this thread at which I worked at some point in the past. In 1977, my first year of college, I worked at the York Steak House in Syracuse, New York. Apparently hiring me is the kiss of death for a business. ---
**Author:** ![Mighty\_Mouse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mighty_mouse/32/7776_2.png) [@Mighty\_Mouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mighty_Mouse)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2020, 10:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stores-or-restaurants-you-used-to-go-to-in-your-youth/925972/137 "2020-12-02T22:55:05Z")
My mother actually worked for three companies mentioned here all of which went bankrupt. Zaire, Ames and Bradlees. Previously she had worked for two other companies they went bankrupt (a Swedish rubber manufacturer and a British pharmaceutical company). She finally got a job as an accountant at a Catholic school. We joked that even she couldn’t bankrupt the Catholic Church. Within a year, she had uncovered accounting shenanigans that got the principal dismissed and booted from the religious order and the CPA losing his license. A few years later the whole Diocese filed for bankruptcy! The school is still going strong. Judging by its website it seems like in the 15 years since she left it had changed from a largely Irish and Italian community to overwhelmingly Hispanic. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2020, 11:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stores-or-restaurants-you-used-to-go-to-in-your-youth/925972/138 "2020-12-02T23:15:57Z")
By the way, some of the chains mentioned are now gone, but remnants remain, sometimes quite substantial. Like Zayre, for instance. They’ve been gone for a long time but they started TJ Maxx and BJ’s Wholesale Club stores, and both chains are reasonably successful today. And Sears is mostly gone but Allstate Insurance and Discover Card are still viable, and they were both started by Sears (which also owned at various times other businesses and brands like Lands’ End, Craftsman, Die Hard and so forth). And Alexander’s Department Stores in the New York City area are long gone but the company remains as a real estate trust owning, among other things, 731 Lexington Avenue, the Bloomberg headquarters. ---
**Author:** ![erysichthon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/d07c76/32.png) [@erysichthon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/erysichthon)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2020, 11:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stores-or-restaurants-you-used-to-go-to-in-your-youth/925972/139 "2020-12-02T23:35:38Z")
TG&Y was my favorite store when I was growing up in the 60s; we generally called it “the dime store,” although there were other stores, like Woolworth’s, that would qualify for that name. The range of stuff TG&Y crammed into a relatively small space boggled my youthful mind. It seemed to me that you could buy _anything_ there. I was amazed to learn from Wikipedia that the chain hung on by its fingernails until 2001. > **[TG&Y](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TG%26Y)** > > Pages for logged out editors learn more > > TG&Y was a five and dime, or chain of variety stores and larger discount stores in the United States. At its peak, there were more than 900 stores in 29 states. Starting out during the Great Depression in rural areas and eventually moving into cities, TG&Y stores were firmly embedded in southern culture as modern-day general stores with a bit of everything. The chain used the advertising slogan, "Your best buy is at TG&Y." The founders articulated... ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2020, 1:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stores-or-restaurants-you-used-to-go-to-in-your-youth/925972/140 "2020-12-03T01:24:10Z")
> [@P-man](#): > > Mr. Softee is one of the things I miss most about New York. We have a knockoff called Mr. Soft in our neighborhood, but it’s not the same. Me too. I can still hum the theme. Much better than Bungalow Bar (tastes like tar) another truck in my part of Queens. Though I seldom got ice cream, I got lemon Italian Ices in a cup. Lemon ices don’t seem to exist in California, only weird fruit flavors. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stores-or-restaurants-you-used-to-go-to-in-your-youth/925972.md?page=6) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stores-or-restaurants-you-used-to-go-to-in-your-youth/925972.md?page=8)