# The Last Howard Johnson's has closed **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** food-cooking\ **Created:** [June 2, 2022, 12:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-last-howard-johnsons-has-closed/965565 "2022-06-02T12:43:12Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2022, 12:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-last-howard-johnsons-has-closed/965565/41 "2022-06-03T00:11:39Z")
Cool! Good to hear they’re still out there. As a kid in SoCal or as a USAF Lieutenant in the desert Southwest, no run down an interstate was complete without a stop at some Stuckey’s. ---
**Author:** ![ThisSpaceForRent](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thisspaceforrent/32/345_2.png) [@ThisSpaceForRent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThisSpaceForRent)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2022, 12:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-last-howard-johnsons-has-closed/965565/42 "2022-06-03T00:27:36Z")
que Maxwell Smart … “I did not know that !!” ---
**Author:** ![jnglmassiv](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f07891/32.png) [@jnglmassiv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jnglmassiv)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2022, 12:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-last-howard-johnsons-has-closed/965565/43 "2022-06-03T00:58:06Z")
Here are some old menus. Sorry for the inconsistent formatting. [Howard Johnson’s breakfast menu from the 1970s](https://i.redd.it/lol0b4u8jm091.jpg) This one looks quite a bit later. [https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B9nUIUJHcnLjODc1YTI3MWMtMzAzNi00YTk1LWFhYjQtZDYwNGU1M2UzMGE0/preview?resourcekey=0-VyWiFK0Spf9lmvTZgzaUDw](https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B9nUIUJHcnLjODc1YTI3MWMtMzAzNi00YTk1LWFhYjQtZDYwNGU1M2UzMGE0/preview?resourcekey=0-VyWiFK0Spf9lmvTZgzaUDw) [Howard Johnson’s Late Supper Suggestions, 1964](https://i.redd.it/wwb5j8f3z0e51.jpg) ![170 votes and 24 comments so far on Reddit](https://preview.redd.it/tdujm9n51xa31.jpg?auto=webp&v=enabled&s=f8ad7bde6fdcfe70ac19e59fc811c956a7664db7) [Howard Johnson’s, 1964 / Fried Tendersweet Clams, 75¢.](https://i.imgur.com/DuiyqIo.png) ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2022, 1:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-last-howard-johnsons-has-closed/965565/44 "2022-06-03T01:22:01Z")
> [@kenobi\_65](#): > > When I was a kid, in the '70s, Howard Johnson’s had the contract to operate the food-service business at the series of “Oasis” rest areas on the Illinois Tollway; originally, they were built on overpasses above the tollway: > > [BAD POSTCARDS: Image](https://64.media.tumblr.com/f81f9e1dc10b3fa136321fa2b457c1be/tumblr_or9f3xByeM1qbyf2jo1_1280.jpg) I remember eating at these while on summer vacation in Illinois—my dad was “based” in Joliet for most of the '60s. I especially liked HoJo’s breaded clams. And there was always a little gift shop where you could buy miniature cast-metal dinosaurs and collections of _ **Peanuts** _ reprints. The last time I remember eating at HoJo’s was in Flint, MI, in the summer of 1968. (My dad and I were staying at the adjacent hotel.) Two things stand out to me: having Welsh rarebit for the first time and reading the first report of a pulsar in the morning paper over breakfast. (Nobody knew what the hell they had picked up; at first they thought it was too regular to be natural.) ---
**Author:** ![notfrommensa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/f14d63/32.png) [@notfrommensa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/notfrommensa)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2022, 11:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-last-howard-johnsons-has-closed/965565/45 "2022-06-05T23:59:59Z")
Oddly, I think my family stopped at a HoJo’s on Exit 19 on the NY Northway when we made our annual trek to/from Washington DC to our cabin in Vermont. Mom/Dad would always get their thermos filled with coffee. This was in the late 1960’s and I think it was Exit 19 at the time. ---
**Author:** ![dummygladhands71](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c0e974/32.png) [@dummygladhands71](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dummygladhands71)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2022, 1:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-last-howard-johnsons-has-closed/965565/46 "2022-06-12T01:47:09Z")
The odd sideways hot dog rolls, the chocolate cake/ice cream roll and OMG I loved their clam chowder. All along the PA turnpike, ---
**Author:** ![Tilt-A-Whirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e79b87/32.png) [@Tilt-A-Whirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tilt-A-Whirl)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2022, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-last-howard-johnsons-has-closed/965565/47 "2022-06-13T18:19:40Z")
I also have fond memories of their clam chowder, and went on a search to find a chowder like it. I was in New England on a trip, and stopped at so many seafood places. Many had very good chowder, but none had it like I remembered it at HOJO’s. I finally found one far away from New England that matches my childhood memories, at the soup bar at Publix supermarkets. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-last-howard-johnsons-has-closed/965565.md?page=2)