3 Defunct Restaurant Chains That Changed How You Eat Today
If you like clam strips, you oughta find out who invented them.
If there is one thing that I like to do, it’s find out the history of restaurants, menus, foods, and cocktails. It’s not just a hobby of mine. It’s actually how I feel connected to a culture and how I learn about what life was really like. That’s why I love studying restaurant chains of yesteryear.
Over the decades, there were a lot of restaurants that went the way of the dodo. Some were pretty hard to notice. They just kind of sucked. Others? Honestly, I really wish that I could have tried them before they had gone out of business.
Many people don’t realize how much of an impact some of these long-gone restaurants have had on American culture. They are almost entirely forgotten. But should they be? Nope, not at all. Let’s take a look at three culture-changing restaurants that no longer exist…
Howard Johnson’s
The big orange roof is now most commonly associated with a hotel chain, but this wasn’t the case during the 60s and 70s. Back in the day, the HoJo was mostly famous for being the equivalent of an Applebee’s.
This restaurant chain was notorious for having a ton of different choices, ranging from steaks to ice cream to sandwiches. Their biggest claim to fame, though, was inventing fried clam strips.
Believe it or not, people would celebrate their birthdays at Howard Johnson’s. They even had kids’ parties there. It was the original family-friendly place to go, with a peak number topping 200 different locations nationwide.
The ShowBiz Pizza Place
At first glance, this commercial looks like it belongs to Chuck E. Cheese. Believe it or not, it’s not. It’s Showbiz Pizza. Initially, Chuck E. Cheese was around and was the only restaurant of its kind. It was meant to be a one-off novelty.
Initially, Chuck E. Cheese didn’t actually have animatronics. Rather, it was basically an arcade with pizza that was meant to introduce kids to video gaming. Animatronics only came around in 1978.
Showbiz came around three years after the infamous rat pizza place’s beginning, and came up with improved animatronics. Partially spearheaded by one of the inventors of Pong, Showbiz ended up being Chuck E. Cheese’s primary competitor.
The heavy emphasis on animatronic shows is what made this chain a hit. Chuck E. Cheese co-opted the same strategy, eventually growing until they took over Showbiz Pizza. Once in a while, you might still see a Showbiz Pizza character in a Chuck E. Cheese venue.
Wag’s
Does that “W” look familiar to you? It should. It’s the same “W” font and color as the W in Walgreens’s logo. This is not a mistake or a knockoff. Rather, Walgreens actually had an in-store diner called Wag’s for most of the earlier part of last century.
This was one of the very first attempts that a chain retail store would have in the field of add-on cafeterias. And honestly? It worked out pretty well for people on the go. Wag’s itself had some (allegedly) decent food, but the concept died out by the 90s.
Nowadays, stores like IKEA and Nordstrom have their own take on an in-store restaurant. They have Wag’s to thank for that.
