Bingo! I went to St. Lawrence for two years, so certainly Canton and maybe Ogdensburg as well. I looked online and the Jreck’s in Canton is actually still there - looks different, however!
You reminded me that we lived around the corner from the original Blimpies sub shop in Hoboken, NJ. Blimpies is also gone, I believe, and was never a favorite for me. I did like Sbarro’s when it opened at our local mall. They expanded briefly to Tokyo but I think the volume was probably overwhelming for people here and they didn’t last long.
Anyone remember Swenson’s Ice Cream. I think it originated in San Francisco, but eventually made it to the east coast.
Steve’s Ice Cream - they may have been the first to do “mix-ins.”
Maggie Moos Ice also did mix-Ins. I. Not sure if they exist or if they all changed to Coldstone Creamery. .
I think Marriott was started with an A&W restaurant.
Some of them definitely had roller skating delivery people.
This thread is so much fun - so many places I haven’t thought of in years, with all of them calling up memories of different times and places. I never encountered Shakey’s when I was a kid, but when I moved to Japan 30 years ago, Shakey’s quickly became the place I would go to escape my homesickness (being from NJ, “home” = “pizza”). Shakey’s was huge here, they had 500 yen all-you-can-eat buffets that were very popular. A lot of what they offered was pretty weird by NJ standards - corn pizza, squid pizza, pickled ginger pizza, etc., etc. - but it was enough to keep me going. Then Domino’s arrived in Japan, and Shakey’s gradually faded. Domino’s is still going strong. The real veteran US chain in Japan is KFC - somehow everyone here has been persuaded that KFC is the traditional US Christmas dinner. Many of the shops have life-size Colonel Sanders’ figures standing outside the door, and at this time of year, they dress them all in Santa suits.
Houlihan’s Old Place was a fern bar type chain that H and I went to when we could afford it. It even had a location in the French Quarter. I think its main appeal there was that its onion soup and bread was a good late night meal after too much bar hopping. Another chain that thrived in the FQ for a while was Benihana’s. Many years ago, I had a collection of their little HoTei mugs that had a straw hole just above the belly.
We still have Houlihan’s and Benihana’s in AZ, but that reminded me of Bennigan’s, another fern bar, which we used to frequent when we lived in Chicago in the 80s. According to Google, there are only 15 Bennigan’s remaining in the U.S.
Yes, my kids used to love Bennigan’s in Ann Arbor. I remember taking one of their friends and they must have offered unlimited drink refills because that girl down at least half a dozen lemonades!!!
Both Houlihan’s and Benihana are still around.
Reminds me of a time as a kid, my family went to Japan. Skidad asked the concierges for a quintessential Japanese restaurant recommendation. They sent us to a Benihana-type restaurant. ?