# Turn off restaurant names **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 19, 2018, 1:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/turn-off-restaurant-names/816350 "2018-06-19T01:30:47Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Ponch8](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ponch8/32/9883_2.png) [@Ponch8](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ponch8)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2018, 11:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/turn-off-restaurant-names/816350/41 "2018-06-19T11:05:40Z")
There is a Vietnamese restaurant called Viet Nom Nom. I refuse to try it, simply because the name is so stupid. ---
**Author:** ![jz78817](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jz78817/32/1028_2.png) [@jz78817](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jz78817)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2018, 11:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/turn-off-restaurant-names/816350/42 "2018-06-19T11:42:00Z")
> [@Ludovic](#): > > What annoys me about Little Caesar’s is the ad where the mascot hits the ground with his spear and the pizzas that are on it flip off the spear and then back onto it. Pizzas aren’t rigid enough to do that, at least not ones that I am interested in eating, and furthermore, if anything the pizzas should go further down the spear rather than flip upward and past the spearhead. Jokes about their pizza aside, a real Detroit style deep dish has a thicker crust and doesn’t flop around. And if you’re not interested in trying it, oh well. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2018, 12:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/turn-off-restaurant-names/816350/43 "2018-06-19T12:37:02Z")
**Sweetie’s** is a little ice cream stand near us. Because we only think to go there when it is uncomfortably hot out, we’ve always called it **Sweatie’s**. I’ve mentioned this to a number of friends over the years. Out of the blue, I heard someone refer to **Sweatie’s** ice cream. When asked, she couldn’t remember why she called it that. ---
**Author:** ![SanVito](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sanvito/32/2805_2.png) [@SanVito](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SanVito)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2018, 12:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/turn-off-restaurant-names/816350/44 "2018-06-19T12:48:13Z")
> [@Ponch8](#): > > There is a Vietnamese restaurant called Viet Nom Nom. I refuse to try it, simply because the name is so stupid. I think that’s genius. My former local chinese, in a town called Shirley, was called The Shirley Temple, which was also genius. ---
**Author:** ![naita](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/naita/32/5862_2.png) [@naita](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/naita)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2018, 12:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/turn-off-restaurant-names/816350/45 "2018-06-19T12:56:27Z")
Kentucky Raw Chicken used to turn people off. Their name change was very sensible. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2018, 1:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/turn-off-restaurant-names/816350/46 "2018-06-19T13:01:13Z")
For some reason Pizza places end up with problematic names. **Shakey’s Pizza** always bothered me – it sounded as if it was named after someone with a neurological disorder – and it was! > [@](#): > > Shakey’s Pizza was founded in Sacramento, California, on April 30, 1954, by Sherwood “Shakey” Johnson and Ed Plummer. Johnson’s got his nackname from tremors which resulted from nerve damage following a bout of malaria suffered during World War II. > **[Shakey's Pizza](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shakey%27s_Pizza)** > > Shakey's Pizza is a pizza restaurant chain based in the United States and The Philippines. Founded in 1954, it was the first franchise pizza chain in the United States. In 1968, the chain had 342 locations. The chain had about 500 stores globally, and 58 in the United States, as of July 2019. Currently, the stores can be found in the states of California and Washington, as well as in the Philippines, Singapore and Japan. > Shakey's Pizza was founded in Sacramento, California, on April 30, 1954, b... Either that, or name after a Dick Tracy villain. When I lived in Binghamton NY we had a chain of **Pudgy’s Pizza**. That strikes m as poor advertising. The Pudgy’s I used to go to (they DID have good slices) is gone, but a quick Google search shows that there still lots of Pudgy’s pizzas out there. **Little Caesar’s** has already been mentioned (does anyone even consider the Edward G. Robinson/small time crook angle?), but there also used to be **Godfather’s Pizza** , allowing you to support (at least in name) don Corleone and Family. I haven’t seen one in ages, but Wikipedia says there are still over 500 of them around. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2018, 1:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/turn-off-restaurant-names/816350/47 "2018-06-19T13:14:06Z")
> [@Beckdawrek](#): > > I have always hated Chucky Cheese. Mainly because their spokesperson was a rat. The name gives me visions of small children being violently ill in a restaurant. ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2018, 1:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/turn-off-restaurant-names/816350/48 "2018-06-19T13:41:40Z")
> [@zombywoof](#): > > Pho restaurants seem to go in for punny names (“Pho King” is one near me) almost as often as sewing stores (“Make it Sew!”)…they all make me want to puke. We’ve got a “Phat Phuc” restaurant. Hilarious. > [@madsircool](#): > > Sambos used to be a popular chain of restaurants. I remember eating at one as a child. I thought Denny’s had bought them all long ago but perhaps not. Not a restaurant but there’s a tattoo parlor near us named “Sweeney Tats”. Because when you’re in a chair and a stranger is pressing a sharp implement against your skin, you want to be reminded of Sweeney Todd. :rolleyes: ---
**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:** [June 19, 2018, 1:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/turn-off-restaurant-names/816350/49 "2018-06-19T13:57:19Z")
> [@Bayard](#): > > The sea food chain Legal Sea Foods ([https://www.legalseafoods.com](https://www.legalseafoods.com)) bugs me. Better than “Barely Legal Sea Foods.” ---
**Author:** ![Ukulele\_Ike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/df788c/32.png) [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2018, 2:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/turn-off-restaurant-names/816350/50 "2018-06-19T14:01:19Z")
Brooklyn’s Fourth Avenue is home to the Chinese takeout restaurant Fu King. ---
**Author:** ![enipla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/54ee81/32.png) [@enipla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/enipla)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2018, 2:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/turn-off-restaurant-names/816350/51 "2018-06-19T14:22:03Z")
> [@Colibri](#): > > I used to eat there regularly when I was at CU in the 1980s. The Packerburger was pretty good. > > On Alferd Packer Day they would serve a special menu with a giant hamburger shaped like a human leg and cut pieces off for individual servings.🙂 I ate there in 1979. I once got what I thought was a simple hot dog. Bit into it and this yellow goo started seeping out. I nearly lost it. It was a cheese dog. basically spray cheese squirted into it. I would have been OK with that if I had known ahead of time. ---
**Author:** ![JohnM](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/848f3c/32.png) [@JohnM](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnM)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2018, 2:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/turn-off-restaurant-names/816350/52 "2018-06-19T14:33:04Z")
> [@Bayard](#): > > The sea food chain Legal Sea Foods ([https://www.legalseafoods.com](https://www.legalseafoods.com)) bugs me. If your marketing strategy is that you meet the legal requirements necessary to operate a seafood restaurant, I’m gonna just go ahead and give it a pass. I’ll head down the street for Edible Steaks or maybe Nontoxic Subs. I had always been curious about the name, so this post inspired me to look it up. The name comes from the Legal Cash Market which preceded it, which in turn took its name from the Legal Trading Stamp company. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2018, 4:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/turn-off-restaurant-names/816350/53 "2018-06-19T16:00:00Z")
> [@Scoobysnax](#): > > There is a Sambo’s restaurant in Santa Barbara, California. [That’s the original one.](https://www.thedailybeast.com/pancakes-and-pickaninnies-the-saga-of-sambos-the-racist-restaurant-chain-america-once-loved) It took its name originally from a combination of the first name and last name of its two founders in 1957. But they promoted based on the children’s book [_The Story of Little Black Sambo_](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Story_of_Little_Black_Sambo) from 1899. (Sambo was originally supposed to be from South India, but the version I read when I was a kid in the 1950s depicted the family as African.) It eventually became a nationwide chain. I remember eating at one in the 1970s. The chain eventually went under, but the original has been continued by the founder’s grandson. ---
**Author:** ![Hampshire](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hampshire/32/4887_2.png) [@Hampshire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hampshire)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2018, 4:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/turn-off-restaurant-names/816350/54 "2018-06-19T16:02:50Z")
> [@madsircool](#): > > [http://www.pinktaco.com/](http://www.pinktaco.com/) In Minneapolis we have several locations of Rusty Taco that have been around for years. The urban dictionary definition must have finally caught up with them since they’ve recently rebranded as R Taco. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2018, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/turn-off-restaurant-names/816350/55 "2018-06-19T16:04:19Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > **Little Caesar’s** has already been mentioned (does anyone even consider the Edward G. Robinson/small time crook angle?), but there also used to be **Godfather’s Pizza** , allowing you to support (at least in name) don Corleone and Family. I haven’t seen one in ages, but Wikipedia says there are still over 500 of them around. Here in Panama there’s a mob-themed _La Nostra_ Italian restaurant. My favorite name in Panama was the _Dago Restaurant_ that used to be on the Transisthmian Highway. I think the name was just taken from the nickname for Diego, with no awareness of the derogatory meaning. ---
**Author:** ![Bijou\_Drains](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bijou_drains/32/2814_2.png) [@Bijou\_Drains](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bijou_Drains)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2018, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/turn-off-restaurant-names/816350/56 "2018-06-19T16:04:24Z")
a popular beach place is the Sanitary fish market and restaurant [http://www.sanitaryfishmarket.com/](http://www.sanitaryfishmarket.com/) ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2018, 5:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/turn-off-restaurant-names/816350/57 "2018-06-19T17:13:59Z")
> [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](#): > > For me? > > “Soy” anything. ETA: I realize we’re not talking about the actual food, but rather the names of restaurants. I have seen restaurants with soy or soybean in their names. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2018, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/turn-off-restaurant-names/816350/58 "2018-06-19T17:25:52Z")
> [@Colibri](#): > > [That’s the original one.](https://www.thedailybeast.com/pancakes-and-pickaninnies-the-saga-of-sambos-the-racist-restaurant-chain-america-once-loved) It took its name originally from a combination of the first name and last name of its two founders in 1957. But they promoted based on the children’s book [_The Story of Little Black Sambo_](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Story_of_Little_Black_Sambo) from 1899. (Sambo was originally supposed to be from South India, but the version I read when I was a kid in the 1950s depicted the family as African.) > > It eventually became a nationwide chain. I remember eating at one in the 1970s. The chain eventually went under, but the original has been continued by the founder’s grandson. We had one down my way in the South Bay. Lots of cartoon tigers on the menus and placemats. And pancakes were heavily featured on the breakfast menu. It was the very last place where we could get a cup of coffee for five cents. ---
**Author:** ![Ashtura](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ashtura/32/2963_2.png) [@Ashtura](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ashtura)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2018, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/turn-off-restaurant-names/816350/59 "2018-06-19T17:41:49Z")
> [@KRC](#): > > We have a place in town called the Genghis Grill, after a guy mercilessly took over much of the world and killed millions. Does it serve roast peasants? In a few hundred years will we have Hitler’s Oven, Pol’s Pot, and Stalin’s Frostee Freeze? Anyone know of any other somewhat alarming restaurant names? Pol’s Pot? I’d go there. There was one place I’ve never gone because of the name, called “The Milk Bar”, but that’s mainly because it was not obvious what kind of cuisine it was from the outside. I don’t walk into restaurants if I have no idea what to expect inside. Maybe a lot of people were like that, because they are no longer in business. I just looked it up, they were American cuisine. Supposedly named because of their “all white menu”. I’ve also seen mention of scantily clad waitresses, so I’m guessing it actually was a titty joke with a retconned explanation. Oh well. ---
**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:** [June 19, 2018, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/turn-off-restaurant-names/816350/60 "2018-06-19T17:54:34Z")
> [@Scoobysnax](#): > > There is a Sambo’s restaurant in Santa Barbara, California. [That’s the only one left.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sambo%27s) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/turn-off-restaurant-names/816350.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/turn-off-restaurant-names/816350.md?page=4)