Chuck-E Cheese, closest one is 1 1/2 hours away
Sonic, the one we had closed years ago, closest on is 50 minutes away
Ponderosa steak house, I have no idea where one might be in the entire state
Captain Nemo’s seafood buffet, yea its what? only like 3 hours away?
Long John Silvers, closest is like 57 miles away
I also see ads for Joe’s Crabshack which is apparently a chain. I have no idea where one is in relation to me, but given that I live in DC, I bet you there’s a better crab shack somewhere in Maryland that’s closer.
Yes, there is one in SA.
Jack in the Box.
We had them for ~10 years here in middle Tennessee, but they’ve all gone bust. The skeletons are still there, where they haven’t been bulldozed to make room for something more profitable, and many times weeds and vandals have had their way with the properties. I’m not sure if it was a case of one franchisee owning them all and going tits up during the recession or they just didn’t catch on. The last one that I was at had extremely poor service and even worse food.
And for you Sonic haters, there are a few good things there. Try their breakfast buritos, tots, coffee, onion rings, popcorn chicken and limeades.
to me, 30 miles away is still “local.”
the last “wasted” ads I can remember was for Chik-fil-A, as they were running national ads long before there were any in my region.
could be over-franchising or over-saturation; Quizno’s seemed to be doing OK then it was like most of them evaporated overnight.
The food is pretty bad. The drink menu is great, though.
None in South Florida (Miami-Dade, Broward, Palm Beach) either…not sure if that’s worse than having a Sonic in the general vicinity or not.
See my comment in post 12. 
I hate the guys in the ads but I rather like Sonic food, especially the drinks, the tots, and the onion rings.
Same here, I see them but the nearest one is 120 miles away and i doubt thier food and ambience is that good.
The ambiance isn’t that bad but the food isn’t worth it unless they are running one of their buy-a-$15-entree-and-get-$10-free-video-games deals.
Sonic
Ci-Ci’s Pizza
Golden Corral
Old Country
Hardee’s and Carls Jr
Boston Market
Our TV comes out if Scranton almost 2hours away. I will drive nearly a hour to State College for IHOP or Chick-fil-A but that’s pushing it.
Used to be Sonic, but after YEARS of seeing the commercials on cable, we finally got several locations here.
These days it’s Checkers/Rally’s, where there’s like one location, and it’s been closing then reopening periodically for like 20 years. Not sure if it’s open or shut down currently.
And Hardee’s/Carl’s Jr. They used to have a ton of locations around back when they still served mainly roast beef sandwiches, but a grand total of one left in the current incarnation.
Long John Silver’s abandoned the area for some reason. There was a fairly remote KFC/LJS combo for a while, but it’s since gone too.
These days the only Pizza Huts left are too far to get delivery or for carry out.
The biggest restaurant chain with no nearby locations is Blimpie sandwiches. But there are always Blimpie coupons in the Sunday paper.
Firehouse Subs
Dairy Queen, there is one near here but they don’t sell any sandwiches, just ice cream.
Chalk up another for Red Robin and Dave and Buster’s. I’ve never seen them, and never even heard of them until the ads started running. If there are any of either one anywhere near me, I’m sure unaware of it.
But as someone said upthread, a national ad is a national ad. Everybody sees it.
The only one I know of personally is in Jacksonville, Florida — the largest (by area) city in the country. But I realize that could be an outlier.
Come to think of it, Sonic would be on my list, too, if it weren’t for that one, which is two blocks from my in-laws — I don’t think we have any here in CT. I like their burgers, when I’m in the right mood. And my wife and daughter are addicted to the tots.
There is an upscale Dave and Buster’s north of Dallas that is fairly posh. I have taken my kids there but it is clearly geared more towards adults. It certainly isn’t a Chuck E Cheese. It is more like a Las Vegas casino where you have no hope of winning any money (OK, mostly just like a Las Vegas casino). In any case, the food and bar are decent and the games are fun. It isn’t a bad way to spend an evening every now and then.
My nomination is Red Lobster. I live in New England. We already have plenty of lobster and other seafood so they stay far away and wisely so. Oddly enough, the same doesn’t apply to Olive Garden. There are more real Italian restaurants than you can ever eat at in a lifetime yet Olive Garden exists and it is usually busy. I guess it is like the Taco Bell model. Sometimes you don’t want anything authentic, you just want a lot of something completely predictable.
At least 1/2 of these applied to my area at one point. Then we got some (Sonic, Ci-Ci’s, Old Country) that failed after a year or 2. I just noticed the long abandoned Sonic building is being torn down. Somehow the Boston Market that’s in between a Taco Bell and McDonald’s by an abandoned strip mall stays in business, but I’ve never seen anyone there.
It’s been quite a while since I checked because I never liked the food but aren’t the two locations in Murfreesboro still open??
The nearest to Philly area Hardees in Willingboro, NJ and in Bear, DE