Tell us about your local/regional restaurant chains

Cafe Society
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First, lets set the parameters for this thread. To count as a chain a restaurant must have a minimum of 3 locations. And since I mostly want to hear about chains that aren’t really well known outside their home regions, for the upper limit let’s say they should be mostly located within one state, although I’ll allow a small number of locations across state lines.

I’ll start, for the NorCal region, mainly the Sacramento area.

Beach Hut Deli is the chain that inspired this thread when I mentioned them in another thread a few weeks back. I didn’t actually realized they started in the Sacramento area (Their first location was in Granite Bay, specifically). They now have 45 locations if I counted correctly, with the highest concentration around Sacramento but also many elsewhere in California, plus two in Oregon and one in Nevada. They’re known for thick, meaty sandwiches that make generous use of cream cheese and avocado, and they’re very tasty. They are my go-to sandwich place.

Jimboy’s Tacos is also a Sacramento based chain, with over 40 locations according to Wikipedia (I didn’t bother counting the exact number). Again, the majority of them are around the Sacramento region, plus a couple in Reno, and apparently one oddball location in Fort Worth, TX. I actually avoided them for a long time after I moved to the area, because they just looked like Taco Bell style fast food tacos, but I finally decided to try them recently. Yeah, they are crunchy tacos filled with seasoned ground beef, cheese and lettuce, but they just the outside of the shell with parmesan cheese, so you get this burst of umami in every bite. So their signature taco is actually pretty tasty. Everything else does seem to be pretty much standard Tex-Mex fast food, though. But I would say a bit higher quality than Taco Bell.

Squeeze Burger (Formerly Squeeze Inn), was featured on Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives back when they were still in their original Sacramento location, which only seated about 10 people (hence the name). Now they have four locations listed on their web site, but I don’t think that’s up to date, because there’s a Roseville location that’s not listed there. Plus they have a few food trucks. They’re known for the “cheese skirt”, which is probably better explained by just directing you to the pictures on their web site.

Chando’s Tacos, is a repetitively new establishment, founded in Sacramento in 2010. Now they have 8 locations around Sacramento, plus some food trucks, and apparently now they have a franchise in Atlanta. Many, including me, consider them to be the best burritos in Sacramento.

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You are probably aware of Chicago Fire pizza restaurant - they have 4 locations around Sacto. I am sure many of the Chicagoans on this board will scoff at this place, but even if it’s not as authentic as something there, it’s a good product for around here.

But, do you remember Shakey’s Pizza? They started in Sacramento before massive expansion, and then retraction. Almost all of their current locations are in Southern CA, with one in Oroville, and a couple in Washington. There was one on Balboa Blvd in the San Fernando Valley near where I lived as a kid - I still can smell the pizza when I see their old sign, and remember the picnic tables and benches in the dining area, and the jazz music! The original location is still there on J and 57th near downtown Sac, but sadly is no longer a restaurant.

I like Jimboy’s, but was turned-off at first by the anglo-sounding name for a Mexican restaurant. Good tacos, tho! I don’t care for Beach Hut, preferring Mr Pickles for subs - they are only in CA and AZ, evidently, so should count for this thread.

I had not heard of Chandos, but will definitely be on the lookout.

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D’oh! Relatively. I meant relatively. I must have picked the wrong spell check suggestion.

And apparently I screwed up the link. So here’s the correct link for Chando’s. https://chandostacos.com/

Actually I don’t. Possible because I lived on the East Coast before I moved here.

But I should also add Dos Coyotes to this thread. They’re sort of a Cal-Mex place, with 11 locations around the Sacramento region. Plus a location in the airport food court that’s not listed on their website. I enjoy their fish tacos. And sometimes their seasonal specials.

Come to think of it, there’s a Squeeze Burger at the airport, too. So they definitely have more than just the four listed on their website. But I guess it makes sense to not list the airport locations, since mostly just ticketed passengers and airport/airline employees can access them.

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So McDonalds, Taco Bell, Der Wienerschnitzel, Del Taco, and Juan Pollo are out?

Then I offer Baker’s Burgers, who pioneered the twin kitchen concept of doing burgers and “Mexican.” 39 locations around Southern California. Pretty good food, too.

I have often waxed rhapsodic over The Hat, another local burger chain known for their monstrous portions. A dozen locations and the closest is 30 minutes away by freeway. Probably best I don’t live too close to one.

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Me too. My next trip to the San Gabriel Valley isn’t until December. I hate you for posting that image.

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A good one to mention. There is also Rubio’s, which seems to be playing in the same space, cuisine-wise, in CA, NV, and AZ. Their fish tacos and burritos are good, as well as some of their salsas, and simply prepared (if you do not want the fish battered and fried). They are slightly “gringo”, but acceptable.

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There are 11 L. George’s Coney Islands in the Detroit metro area. Just plan good quality food. Breakfast, burgers, gyros, steak and salads can be had all day. And its clean and safe, which many of the of coney islands aren’t.

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That’s because Ralph Rubio spent his time surfing in Baja rather than paying attention in college. It’s cultural appropriation, I tell you! Sweet, delicious appropriation…

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I used to love Shakey’s!

First place I ever played the Street Fighter arcade game. (Not Street Fighter II, I mean the original one.)

Technically I can still go to one, there is one about 20 minutes away from my house, in Renton.

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In south eastern Wisconsin, there’s the famous George Webb restaurants, diner-style places, which always have two clocks on the wall, set 1 minute apart, next to each other. Supposedly, back when George opened his first restaurant in 1948, there was a law against 24 hour establishments. George claimed his “hamburger parlor” was open 23 hours, 59 minutes and 59 seconds, seven days a week and on Sundays!” George hung two clocks – set one minute apart – in the restaurants to demonstrate that they were, indeed, closed and reopened every day in exact compliance with the law. Another legend says that passing streetcars rattled his first restaurant so badly they’d make a clock fall off the wall, so the other was a spare.

They’re famous for their guarantee that if the Milwaukee baseball team (first the AA Brewers starting in 1948, then the Braves, then the Brewers) ever won 12 games in a row, they’d give every customer a free hamburger. They had to make good on that guarantee twice, first in 1987, then in 2018.

They make a pretty good place to go after the bars close, or for comfort food, or for breakfast anytime, with decent Eggs Benedict. They also offer a “chicken flavored noodle soup”.

They’ve got 31 restaurants, 30 of which are clustered around Milwaukee and suburbs, and one way the heck up nort dere in Peshtigo.

It’s not fine dining, but it is a slice of Milwaukee life. Grandpa would take me there for a soda back during the Kennedy administration.

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I lived most of my life in Southern California but now live on the Central Coast. The three chains I miss the most are the aforementioned The Hat, Original Tommy’s, and Super Mex - the three basic food groups: Pastrami, Burgers, and Tacos.

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Mandarin: A chain of Chinese buffet restaurants mostly in the greater Toronto area. I used to love it (decent food and a large selection), but the last few times I went I was less impressed. Then the pandemic hit and they’ve tried to pivot out of the buffet game. They still have radio ads, so they must not be dead yet…

Asian Legend: Five locations, all in the Toronto area. They serve northern Chinese food (a la carte, not buffet). We used to go there once or twice a year for Peking duck, but my wife got the idea that the quality has degraded so we stopped going there.

Pickle Barrel: Twelve locations, mostly in the Toronto area. It’s like 95% Applebee’s and 5% Jewish deli. (Not my favourite.)

Congee Queen: Nine locations in the greater Toronto area. A large selection of authentic-ish Chinese food with dozens of varieties of congee. Not bad if you have the occasional hankering for congee.

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In the Chicago area:

Portillo’s specializes in Chicago-style hot dogs and Italian beef sandwiches. They’ve been slowly expanding in recent years, and have a few restaurants in neighboring states, as well as a couple in Florida, Arizona, and California.

Blueberry Hill is a small, suburban chain of breakfast cafes (eight of them in total, according to their website). I’ve been going to their location near me for over a decade, and have become good friends with the owner of that location.

And, back in my home state of Wisconsin, there’s Rocky Rococo, which does pan-style pizza. They’re based in Madison, where I went to college, and eating at Rocky’s makes me very nostalgic. Like a lot of chains, they expanded their footprint in the late '80s and '90s, but weren’t successful with that, and have pulled back to about 40 restaurants, almost all of them in Wisconsin.

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I haven’t been here yet, but a friend tells me they’re good:

16 locations around the Sacramento area.

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In northern Ohio, there’s a short-order hot-sandwich place called Mr. Hero. Their signature sandwich is the Romanburger, the bastard love-child of a hamburger and an Italian sub. They’re grease-bombs, but totally addictive.

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On the Central Coast we have Sylvester’s which is probably my favorite burger and onion rings anywhere. They have three locations. I usually get the Heart Attack burger with bacon, cheese, avocado, and a fried egg. Just expect to pay $25 for a burger, rings, and a drink.

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Going back to my home state of North Carolina, Char-Grill has been a fixture in Raleigh since 1959. For a long time they had just the one location, but they started expanding around the time I graduated from college in the early '00s and moved away. Now it looks like they have 9 locations. They make a pretty darn good burger, which like the name implies is grilled over a charcoal flame.

Sadly, I just learned their original downtown location is slated to be demolished. :frowning:

I was going to mention Cook Out, but man, they’ve expanded a lot since I moved. They may be too big to qualify for this thread now. They’re more or less the same style burger as Char-Grill.

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Oh, yeah, the local one on Sepulveda and Overland (across from Earl Scheib’s!) was the place to go after high school football games. And it’s still there in Culver City.

There was one in Alhambra IIRC that the guys at work would sometimes go to back in the 90s. I usually declined to go if they asked. By that time, Shakey’s had lost its appeal.

And that was the place for post-drinking evenings or post-concerts. That’s where we went after the Rolling Stones Steel Wheels tour – the original Hat on Valley and Garfield.

Super Mex made the BEST carnitas tacos. I knew one of the family (she worked at the same company as us), and we always went to the one on Valley (across from the Norm’s?). I think it’s gone now, and I miss it. It was just an old adobe with a dirt parking lot in back. You’d enter through the back door and walk through the kitchen to the “living room.” So good.

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I haven’t been there yet, either, but now I’ll have to try them.

Also for chicken there’s Nash & Proper with Nashville style hot chicken. I think they’re pretty good, although someone actually from Nashville may beg to differ.

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There was a Shakey’s in Adelphi, MD. We used to go to it when the two better Pizza places (Ledo and Lenoni’s) were too busy.

Out here there is a great chain of Taco/burrito places - Maskadores.

And, the quintessential Mexican-greasy-spoon chain, Filibertos.