Wow I have not heard of most of these places and I grew up in a major metropolitan area. IHOP and Friendly’s were around. I am not sure if these were major chains or just local, but anyone recall:
RoyRogers
Hot Shoppes
Hillary’s Ice Cream
HA Winston
Sbarro (total mall food)
There are sbarro’s in the Ohio turnpike service plazas.
Saturday Night Fever made White Castle famous.
Sbarro - one of those enormous slices of pizza was enough to feed all three of my kids!!
H. Salt Esquire Fish & Chips was a West Coast restaurant chain.
I have never eaten at Chuck E. Cheese.
I think Sbarro is alive and well. We used to call Chuck E. Cheese “Upchuck Cheese.”
@thumper1 We still have a Brown Derby in Canton. Near Belden Village.
I grew up in the section of Brooklyn with the original Sbarros. It was more of an Italian deli than a pizzeria. Sadly, that location closed many years ago.
There are several Roy Rogers in MD. Some previous franchisees bought back the rights to the name. There’s one near me.
When we lived at Ft. Leonard Wood, MO (1973-75), the closest McD’s was in Jefferson City, two hours away.
Are there Krystal’s still around? There was a 24-hour shop across the street from my dorm in college, and it was the place for late night munchies. Like White Castle, they did sliders.
Been to both Roy Rogers and Sbarro within the year. My aunt used to take me out for a “fancy” meal at Hot Shoppes during the early bird special.
The original Sbarros slice was unbelievably delicious. Today’s slice is embarrassing.
I remember Carroll’s too! My mother, sister and I would go shop at the mall and always stopped at Friendly’s for lunch. I didn’t care for their lunch so much but I always got ice cream too. I miss those days!
Lum’s was another one that I remember.
Old Country Buffets, anyone? They were gross. Not sure if they still operate anywhere.
When S2 was about 8 or 9 yo, he liked going to Old Country Buffet for his birthday. We never went there any other time. He liked the dessert bar, and because it was his birthday we let him get as much dessert as he wanted.
Our annual visit to the restaurant ended the year we actually saw a woman keel over and drop dead there.
We still have Old Country Buffet in AZ, but Golden Corral seems to be the preferred choice for the over-90 crowd here.
I’ve yet to go to a Golden Corral that isn’t packed (all pre-Covid). It seems to be a favorite of many we know all up and down the east coast. They have the perk that there’s something for everyone there with as much as they offer. We don’t choose them on our own though (too many calories).
My kids went through a Golden Corral stage so for a while we ate there when it was their turn to pick, maybe 3x per year. Ours had a chocolate fountain which I think was the main attraction for them. All the food tastes pretty much exactly the same. Except the breads which were way too delicious though. Ours was clean enough but we stopped at one near Disney World on vacation once that was the grossest place I’d ever seen. I think that was the last one we went to.
We’ve got an Old Country Buffet and though I probably only went once, it was far from gross (except for the volume of food.) Mostly, we indulged my grandmother and a friend of hers, somewhere in Phoenix. Those gals adored the place.
@CountingDown there is still at least one Krystal’s in Memphis, where I grew up. When I was a kid, I really liked their little hamburgers.
One restaurant I haven’t seen mentioned here that I have fond memories of was Shakey’s Pizza. We used to go there quite often to listen to the live music, although I don’t remember the pizza being anything special. In fact, we had a family friend who played banjo and often used to perform there. There used to be one close to where I live now but it closed several years ago. When my son was young we had several soccer parties there. Are there still any open in the U.S.?
I remember Shakey’s and vaguely remember live music. They had a great pizza buffet at lunchtime on weekdays. They are still around; there’s one in my county.
I also remember Godfather’s Pizza. I had an extra large Godfather’s mug. If you brought it to the restaurant, they would fill it up with soda for 99 cents.