Author Topic: Favorite Defunct Restaurants.... (Read 1762 times)

JustOneFix · « **on:** April 11, 2011, 08:01:46 PM »

GuildNavigator's Vienetta posts got me to thinking about restaurants I liked but are no long with us. What are yours?

Bill Knapps- God dammit I miss Bill Knapps. The jokes about it being god's waiting room & polident on your plate aside, Bill Knapps was a good place to get a cheap but quality meal. I ate there every chance I got and even enjoyed Bing Crosby singing Happy Birthday to me when I got 24% off my check for my 24th b-day. The free Chocolate cake helped too.

Morrison's Cafeteria-
Predominant in the Southeast, Southern food served Cafeteria style and here again it was a cheap place to eat. (see a trend yet?) Blueberry muffins the size of a dinner plate and never a bad meal.

Ryan's Steakhouse.

A chain of steak & buffet restaurants. I ate here often as a kid and even met a few of the Detroit Tigers at the local Ryan's back in the 1980s. (Tigers spring training grounds are 3 blocks from where the local Ryan's used to be)

There's more but I'll let y'all add yours.

b_dubb · « **Reply #1 on:** April 11, 2011, 08:17:54 PM »

Burger Chef. i remember badgering my father to take me there when Star Wars ( in '77 ) was in the theaters. they had 5 different posters. i think i managed to get two. Threepio and Artoo both did tv commercials from Burger Chef. i don't remember the food being terrible good. but they had Star Wars posters. and at that time ... Jar Jar Binks did not exist in any way. and that's a good thing. cause Lucas basically ruined Star Wars for me with the prequels

Fly By Night · « **Reply #2 on:** April 11, 2011, 08:26:09 PM »

Bob's Big Boy. I think there may be a few left, but most are gone

guildnavigator · « **Reply #3 on:** April 11, 2011, 08:37:14 PM »

something else that I have nostalgia for is the older packaging materials for food products, eg the "old" pepsi can, the, previous-previous generation taco-bell with the brown and yellow motif and their no longer used questionable/offensive slogan, "run for the border," and the packaging of the doritos bag that Jay Leno used to eat from in the commercials.

even the shit that's still here is different!

guildnavigator · « **Reply #4 on:** April 11, 2011, 08:38:15 PM »

remember farrell's ice cream parlor?

C110 · « **Reply #5 on:** April 11, 2011, 08:41:18 PM »

Sambo's and Howard Johnston's. Sambo's being my favorite of the two. Went there as a kid. I think they went under or sold out in the late 70's.

Shakey's Pizza. Great pizza. Enjoyed wathcing the movies they showed there.

Usagi · « **Reply #6 on:** April 11, 2011, 08:45:05 PM »

I always had a fondness for the now defunct Steak & Ale. If only for the faux-fancy feel it gave me when we used to go for particularly special occasions as a kid. I don't necessarily remember what the food tasted like, though. I mainly recall the separate little room areas and fireplaces. I guess it's the sort of nostalgia I would feel if Red Lobster up and died - ehh food, but good memories.

guildnavigator · « **Reply #7 on:** April 11, 2011, 09:02:57 PM »

Quote from: guildnavigator on April 11, 2011, 08:38:15 PM

remember farrell's ice cream parlor?

oh my god! I just read the wikipedia page for them, and there are some startling things in it, the following is pasted from wikipedia, and I am only leaving the interesting stuff:

Farrell's became known for their offer of a free ice cream sundae to children on their birthday.
In 1983, the Selective Service purchased Farrell's "Birthday Club" data and mailed warnings to young men to register for the draft before their 18th birthday. Farrell's blamed the situation on an unauthorized sale by a list broker, and the government announced they would stop using the list.

see next post

guildnavigator · « **Reply #8 on:** April 11, 2011, 09:06:51 PM »

Farrells Sacramento Location Tragedy

On September 24, 1972 a privately owned F-86 Sabre jet piloted by Richard Bingham failed to take off while leaving the Golden West Sport Aviation Show in Sacramento, California. The jet went through a chain link fence at the end of the runway, across Freeport Boulevard, crushing a parked car and crashed into a local Farrell's Ice Cream Parlour. The ice cream parlour was occupied in part by the Sacramento 49ers "Little League" football team. Twenty-two people were killed, including twelve children and two people in the parked car. An eight-year-old survivor of the accident lost nine family members including both parents, two brothers, a sister, two grandparents and two cousins. A family of four was also killed in the accident and immediately after the crash an elderly couple trying to cross the street to the crash site were struck by a vehicle killing the wife.[5]
Nearly ten years after the Sacramento tragedy, on April 9, 1982, a small private plane crashed in the parking lot of the Farrell's location inTorrance, California and burst into flames. The pilot and his two passengers were killed but there were no injuries or fatalities to the people on the ground.[6]

haloedorchid · « **Reply #9 on:** April 11, 2011, 09:13:27 PM »

What a horrifying tragedy, guild. Damn!

I had to laugh at the first post about Farrell's, though. When my sister was about 7 or 8 we went to Farrell's and she got up on the table and sang Happy Birthday to herself. We were just talking about that this weekend, again celebrating her birthday.

JustOneFix · « **Reply #10 on:** April 11, 2011, 09:15:02 PM »

Quote from: guildnavigator on April 11, 2011, 08:37:14 PM

something else that I have nostalgia for is the older packaging materials for food products,

Same here, I used to have a large collection of old food packaging and bottles, cans etc. Most of it got tossed during the divorce and I had to downsize. I still have a few things here & there like a Pepsi XL can, an old box of Captain Crunch (sans food), etc.

When i move into the new digs, my kitchen will have advertising from the 1930s for such things as Corn Flakes, etc.

JustOneFix · « **Reply #11 on:** April 11, 2011, 09:26:36 PM »

Quote from: Usagi on April 11, 2011, 08:45:05 PM

I always had a fondness for the now defunct Steak & Ale. If only for the faux-fancy feel it gave me when we used to go for particularly special occasions as a kid. I don't necessarily remember what the food tasted like, though. I mainly recall the separate little room areas and fireplaces. I guess it's the sort of nostalgia I would feel if Red Lobster up and died - ehh food, but good memories.

I've a similar thing for the old Kapok Tree Restaurant in Clearwater, FL. I was just a little kid everytime we ate there, but everything was just so over the top decor wise. the irony is the food prices weren't much more than going to something like a Golden Corral or Outback.

Take a look at the pics on this link and you'll see what I mean. It's now a Sam Ash music store, with little change in the decor. Bought my first Ibanez bass there years back.

http://benzplace.com/kapok/index.html#tour

guildnavigator · « **Reply #12 on:** April 11, 2011, 09:35:14 PM »

holy shit, that is a restaurant and a half, must have been amazing to sit there. reminds me of the brookdale lodge off the 17 in santa cruz, with the dining hall that has an actual river running through it. supposed to be haunted to.

JustOneFix · « **Reply #13 on:** April 12, 2011, 10:57:17 PM »

More props to Bill Knapps......
It appears as if they are making Bill Knapps baked goods again. Unlike Guild's Vienetta, you can pick up these at certain grocery stores in Michigan. I know I'll spend a shitload of money when I go up there this fall, not for gas or hotels but for the wide variety of Bill Knapps products I will be bringing back to FL.
http://www.billknapps.com/our-products.html

b_dubb · « **Reply #14 on:** April 12, 2011, 11:02:20 PM »

Quote from: JustOneFix on April 12, 2011, 10:57:17 PM

More props to Bill Knapps......
It appears as if they are making Bill Knapps baked goods again. Unlike Guild's Vienetta, you can pick up these at certain grocery stores in Michigan. I know I'll spend a shitload of money when I go up there this fall, not for gas or hotels but for the wide variety of Bill Knapps products I will be bringing back to FL.
http://www.billknapps.com/our-products.html

are you sure those aren't just E-Foods Direct / Entenmann's baked goods in a different box?

999 · « **Reply #15 on:** April 12, 2011, 11:18:00 PM »

Quote from: JustOneFix on April 12, 2011, 10:57:17 PM

More props to Bill Knapps......
It appears as if they are making Bill Knapps baked goods again. Unlike Guild's Vienetta, you can pick up these at certain grocery stores in Michigan. I know I'll spend a shitload of money when I go up there this fall,
snip

...deer hunting?

JustOneFix · « **Reply #16 on:** April 12, 2011, 11:25:36 PM »

Quote from: 999 on April 12, 2011, 11:18:00 PM

...deer hunting?

Nope, I'll be in Dearborn for the "Old Car Festival" in September, and visit relatives but primarily going for the old Fords. It's how I makes my livins!

Michael Vandeven · « **Reply #17 on:** April 13, 2011, 11:14:59 PM »

Quote from: b_dubb on April 11, 2011, 08:17:54 PM

Burger Chef. i remember badgering my father to take me there when Star Wars ( in '77 ) was in the theaters. they had 5 different posters. i think i managed to get two. Threepio and Artoo both did tv commercials from Burger Chef. i don't remember the food being terrible good. but they had Star Wars posters. and at that time ... Jar Jar Binks did not exist in any way. and that's a good thing. cause Lucas basically ruined Star Wars for me with the prequels

Wow, b_dubb. You're a lot older than I thought.

Sent from my DROIDX

b_dubb · « **Reply #18 on:** April 13, 2011, 11:35:47 PM »

i'm 40. i won't be collecting Social Security anytime soon. or ever

Bounder · « **Reply #19 on:** April 17, 2011, 01:23:08 AM »

Not entirely defunct -- the Santa Barbara original never fell -- but the chain is gone forever. The price of the founders' ignorance vis-à-vis racial slurs.

b_dubb · « **Reply #20 on:** April 17, 2011, 04:18:24 AM »

i thought Sambos merged with / became Denny's

Bounder · « **Reply #21 on:** April 17, 2011, 02:02:57 PM »

Maybe. I'm basing my understanding on the news as it was at the time.

b_dubb · « **Reply #22 on:** April 17, 2011, 06:23:53 PM »

can't believe anyone had the balls / bad judgement to name a restaurant chain Sambos

Bounder · « **Reply #23 on:** April 18, 2011, 01:38:52 AM »

Truly! Germane to a different thread: I've heard the co-founders were Mormons.

b_dubb · « **Reply #24 on:** April 18, 2011, 11:31:42 AM »

of course

but ... were they?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sambo%27s

Lunger · « **Reply #25 on:** April 18, 2011, 12:10:43 PM »

Sambo's

It was a better version of a Denny's

EvB · « **Reply #26 on:** May 04, 2011, 06:06:49 PM »

Quote from: Bounder on April 17, 2011, 01:23:08 AM

Not entirely defunct -- the Santa Barbara original never fell -- but the chain is gone forever. The price of the founders' ignorance vis-à-vis racial slurs.

Someone ought to mention ethnic insensitivity to THESE PEOPLE i simply cannot bring myself to buy my dog treats called "Sophie's Choice"