Waffle House: Come in Hungry, Leave on Probation
I went to Dreamland BBQ’s original location in Tuscalosa AL, now they have 10 locations in AL and GA.
Ain’t nothing like ’em nowhere.
I’ve been to the original Dunkin Donuts in Quincy (more than 50 years after it opened) and the original St Louis Bread Co. now Panera in the first year or two of its existence (in 1990). It was a small chain at the time and very, very good.
I’ve been to Cafe du Monde in New Orleans’ Jackson Square. I believe it has multiple locations now but not in the same format as the mothership. I know there was one in Atlanta in the late 1990s, but was just a counter service place next to the MARTA (Transit) station. It’s no longer there. The only locations appear to be in New Orleans and suburbs.
I also went to the original 99 Ranch Market (Asian Supermarket) in 1995 or 1996. I was amazed to see an Asian market in the format of an American supermarket (over 40,000 square feet, wide aisles, proper signs and price labels, a dozen cash registers). There are a whole bunch of them now, but it was quite unique 30 years ago. At the time they had a few locations in Los Angeles area and the Bay Area. Apparently they are now in 69 locations.
I hear that Five Guys has “reopened their original location” but the whole shopping area that they were in has been torn down and the new location is in a mixed used (residential/office/retail) building that has replaced it. I have not eaten there. I’ve actually only been to Five Guys three times, and each time it’s because I was outvoted by my lunch companions. I’m not sure of going to that “original location” would qualify in the spirit of this thread. But the “Original Dunkin” was also torn down and rebuilt, but as far as I know was only closed for a short time during construction, not for years or decades like the Five Guys one.
I used to regularly eat at the original KC Masterpiece restaurant in Kansas City when they were a small chain with locations in St Louis and Chicago as well as KC, but I see they are long gone.
Were you local at the time? I lived in the KC Metro for a very long time and not only did I never set foot in KC Masterpiece, I didn’t know anyone else who had either. I even worked just down the street from the Overland Park location for years. I kind of assumed that the only people who ate there were folks from other places who had eaten the potato chips with their name on it.
ETA - I just looked it up and that OP location was the original apparently. I can say that I’ve been in the parking lot of the original, but never inside. 
I have never heard of their chips. I knew of them for their BBQ Sauce which I have never tried. I didn’t know that it started as a restaurant but I’m not surprised.
I once lived ~300 feet (as the crow flies) from the original Five Guys in the strip mall and visited often.
It started as the sauce, actually.
These are the chips:
Yes. I was local at the time. But the only time I went there was when out of town visitors wanted to go there. I lived in a “high rise” in the Country Club Plaza, so it was very convenient.
I’m not a barbecue person, so it was all lost on me. They did have a bourbon bread pudding that was very nice.
Wait, KC Masterpiece is now known as a chip flavor, not a barbecue sauce?
I guess I can sort of say I’ve been to the the original location of Tower Records, but long after Tower Records went out of business. Russ Solomon first started selling records out of his father’s drug store, Tower Drugs. That space now houses the Tower Cafe, and I’ve eaten at the Tower Cafe, therefore I’ve been in the space where Tower Records started. Albeit, the first standalone Tower Records was in a strip mall over on Watt Ave.
Ultimately, the “Tower” name comes from the Tower Theater in Sacramento. To this day many businesses near the theater are named “Tower something”.
It got famous for the sauce (not sure why, as Kansas City easily has 50 better sauces) and then became both a now defunct (see above) restaurant and a no longer used BBQ chip flavoring.
Fun fact. KC Masterpice is owned by Kingsford Charcoal which is a subsidiary of…Clorox. Yum. Yum.
I’ve been to the first KFC franchise restaurant (a Pete Harmon’s south of Salt Lake City)
The original Steve’s Ice Cream in Somerville MA (probably almost nobody remembers Streve’s)
The original Jordan Marsh in Boston, with its ornate metal facade
The original Filene’s, and Filene’s basement in Boston
I didn’t go to the original Pizzeria Uno, but I ate at their second location (when they only had two), which was appropriately called “Pizzeria Duo’
The original Macy’s and Bambergers in NYC
Harrod’s, in London
The original Regina’s Pizza, in Boston’s North End
When I was very small, Dad took the family to the original Uno’s during a trip to Chicago.
Pretty sure that was the first time I went to a men’s room on my own. When I got back to the table, the rest of the family had piled all the veggies I picked off my pizza onto my remaining slice.
Just remembered another pizzeria whose original location I’ve visited: Famous Famiglia, at 96th and Amsterdam in Manhattan. (Or as Jon Stewart calls it, “convenience pizza.”)
I’ve been to the first Wawa in Folsom, PA. Fun fact: that store was supposed to be the second to open, but construction got delayed on the original “Store#1” in Aston, PA, so Folsom ended up opening first, and the respective corporate store numbers were reassigned.
I mentioned it earlier in the thread when I went through my “originals” for Boston premium ice cream shops.
The origins of Kingsford charcoal comes from Henry Ford, who wanted to make use of the waste wood he used from the Model T production. When Ford died, it was sold off an renamed for Edward Kingsford who helped Ford source the wood and create the charcoal.
Not only did I go to Filene’s basement, my girlfriend in college worked there.
I’ve been to both Pizzeria Uno and Duo also. But I suspect you did not go to the original Macy’s, as has been mentioned above. Unless, that is, you are very, very old.
I have been to the original John Wanamaker’s in Philadelphia, back when it was a Wanamaker’s.
I’ve been to the original location/flagship store of Sibley, Lindsay, and Curr Company, commonly just called Sibley’s, in Rochester NY. The main building, smack in downtown, had topiaries worked into its facade so that they looked like trees. It also had an impressive dining room. Now, alas, all gone.
I’ve been to the flagship store of the Zion’s Cooperative Mercantile Institution (ZCMI) in Salt Lake City, but the original building had been pulled down and a new one built. They retained its original cast iron facade (something they wanted to do with the Jordan Marsh facade in Boston, but Macy’s had other plans), which they restored on the building. Even though ZCMI is no more, the facade now graces the Macy’s at City Creek Center in downtown Salt Lake. (It wasn’ until many years later that I realized that the Herk Harvey low-budget horror film, carnival of Souls, was filmed partly in Salt Lake. Some of the scenes were filmed in the 1950s-era ZCMI building, as is clear from the signage).
I haven’t been in it, but I’ve been past the original J. C. Penney’s store. I was flabbergasted when I saw the sign for it. I knew Penney’s from growing up in New Jersey, and saw many stores in the northeast. Naturally, I thought it had started in some big city there. I didn’t. The original Penney’;s was in Kemmerer, Wyoming, a tiny town in the southwestern corner of the state. (they soon moved to Salt Lake City)
I had forgotten that I’ve been to the original Shakey’s Pizza in Sacramento. I think I was about eight, on a road trip (sort of, it’s only about 45 miles from where we lived) with my dad. Dad loved Shakey’s, and even thought about opening a franchise in our city. I wish he had. Then I’d have the recipe for Mojo Potatoes.