Only 1980s Kids Will Remember These Restaurants :
- G.D. Ritzy’s. Anyone who lived in middle America and grew up in the ’80s likely knows the odd name G.D. Ritzy’s. First…
- All-American Burger. Although it was a regional chain (it was mostly centralized to California), All-American Burger was…
- Bennigan’s. Who doesn’t love a restaurant with good food and a great happy hour? That’s what Bennigan’s, an Irish-themed…
- Naugles. Serve customer fast. … That was the motto of Mexican fast-food chain Naugles. Launched by a…
For those of us of who grew up in the ’80s, restaurants like Roy Rogers was a staple of our childhood. Pizza Hut was my favorite restaurant in the ’80s, but there is only a handful left today. Just like many malls and retail stores, restaurants like Chi-Chi’s, Bennigan’s, Beefsteak Charlie’s, and Steak and Ale are now closed. 10.
Despite an off-and-on economy, the 1980s was a decade in which Americans ate out more often than ever before. Gone were the days when people indulged in a nice restaurant dinner only when traveling or celebrating a birthday or anniversary.
Marriott claimed a few franchises in the ’80s, such as Gino’s Hamburgers, which was started in Baltimore by a pair of NFL players in 1957. The chain’s signature hamburger was the Sirloiner, made from sirloin steak. By the mid-’70s, the chain was spread throughout the East Coast and attempting to open in the Midwest.
In the 1970s the restaurant industry and the custom of eating in restaurants grew rapidly. The decade was the gateway to the present in many ways. Despite economic woes (recession and inflation), the energy crisis, urban decline, crime, and escalating restaurant prices, restaurant-going continued to rise.
How many Roy Rogers chains were there in the 80s?
While the chain had a rocky financial status through the ’70s, there were over 300 chains in operation by the ’80s. All the Roy Rogers locations were sold off in the ’90s. But the name was re-franchised in 2003, and there are still some Roy Rogers in Maryland, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Virginia. 6.
Originating in El Paso, Texas, Pancho’s Mexican Buffet grew in popularity, thanks to its all-you-can-eat “buffet”-style service. Unlike a regular buffet, you could raise your flag and a server would bring more of whatever you’d like, whether it be tacos, flautas, tamales, guacamole, or sopapillas.
Roy Rogers. Roy Rogers/Facebook. Starting out as RoBee’s House of Beef in Indiana, Roy Rogers became the more common name for this chain in 1968. They sold roast beef sandwiches, fried chicken, and milkshakes throughout America.
La Petite Boulangerie wanted to be every neighborhood’s neighborhood market—and in the ’80s, they made a pretty good run at doing just that. There were at least 140 locations at its height, with spots serving up bread in Denver, New Jersey, San Francisco, and more.
If you were a kid in the ’80s, there’s a good chance you had a birthday party or two at Showbiz Pizza Place. An animatronic hillbilly bear named Billy Bob greeted kids as they watched a show, played arcade games, and ate not-super-outstanding pizza.
Taco Viva started in 1968, but it was at its peak in the ’80s, when it had around 80 locations across the country. It served as competition to other taco fast-food chains like Taco Bell, with its burritos, nachos, enchiladas, and six sauces.
Anyone who lived in middle America and grew up in the ’80s likely knows the odd name G.D. Ritzy’s. First founded in Ohio in 1980, the 1950 s-style restaurant grew quickly, with about 100 locations at its peak. It was known for its burgers, hot dogs, and milkshakes. Although the company liquidated in 1991, there are a handful of independently owned stores left around the United States.
Why were restaurants important?
Restaurants were for convenience, but also for entertainment, pleasure, new experiences, and sometimes only incidentally for nourishment. A food elite emerged, composed of frequent restaurant-goers with insatiable hunger for new cuisines and unfamiliar foods.
Taste of a decade: 1980s restaurants. Despite an off-and-on economy, the 1980s was a decade in which Americans ate out more often than ever before. Gone were the days when people indulged in a nice restaurant dinner only when traveling or celebrating a birthday or anniversary. Now no reason was needed at all.
Losers included coffee shops, Cantonese Chinese and red-checkered Italian restaurants, and even sanctums of haute French cuisine. Black men, who formed the basic waiter corps of the 19th century, largely disappeared from restaurant dining rooms and kitchens, replaced by immigrants, white college students, and white women.
1981 Social indicators – small families, working women, projected long-term increases in real income and leisure, and more single-person households — promise growth in restaurant going according to a Bank of America Small Business report.
A 1981 study conducted in NYC found that Black workers rejected the low pay and poor conditions typically found in restaurant kitchens, preferring to take better jobs in industry if they could.
Many luxury restaurants rejected them as waitstaff in the belief that patrons attributed higher status to male servers. Other objections were their alleged “boyfriend problems” and lack of “tableside” skills such as meat carving and salad making.
What were the biggest food chains in the 80s?
The stronghold of McDonald’s, Pizza Hut , Burger King , and other giants of the ’80s made the competition stiff. And some fan favorites—like Burger Chef, G.D. Ritzy’s, and Howard Johnson’s—fell by the wayside.
Howard Johnson’s might just hold the title for most sorely-missed failed restaurant chain of not just the ’80s, but any era. According to Eater, during the height of its popularity in the 1960s, Howard Johnson’s served “more meals outside of the home than any entity in America, except for the U.S. Army.”.
The chain was sold for $630 million in 1979, and heading into the ’80s, HoJo’s became a victim of its own success. Similar restaurants that were more adaptable to changing tastes became fierce competitors. Children of the 1980s certainly remember savoring their last spoonful of HoJos ice cream.
At its pinnacle in the 1970s, Burger Chef had 1,200 locations and was a thriving competitor of McDonald’s. And for kids, in particular, Burger Chef was the top choice: It was the first fast-food chain to include toys with its kids’ meals.
If you were around in the early ’80s, you might remember Lum’s for its signature beer-steamed hot dogs, and if you weren’t a hot dog person, there was always the beloved Ollieburger .
There were 60 locations in the New York metropolitan area by 1984. But in 1987, Beefsteak Charlie’s was sold to Bombay Palace Restaurants and went out of business soon thereafter. Though Beefsteak Charlie’s slogan was, “I’ll feed you like there’s no tomorrow,” sadly, tomorrow came for this chain restaurant by the end of the 1980s.
In 1979, McDonald’s launched its Happy Meal. Sadly, to the dismay of fans across the country, Burger Chef failed to keep up and was ultimately sold to the owner of Hardee’s in the early ’80s.
How many restaurants did Howard Johnson have in 1975?
See more ’80s Nostalgia. By 1975, the Howard Johnson Company had more than 1,000 restaurants and more than 500 motor lodges in 42 states and Canada. The company reached its peak that year, but the late 1970s marked the beginning of the end for the Howard Johnson Company. 9.
The Female Stars Of Dynasty Made It The Sexiest Show Of The ’80s. By Philip Joseph LoPresti / June 17, 2021. Dynasty was one of the most sexiest TV shows of the ’80s. Audiences were treated to all the opulence, sex…
See more ’80s Nostalgia. Chi-Chi’s was a Mexican-restaurant chain that once operated in the United States and Canada but exited those countries in 2004. Currently Chi-Chi’s is also a brand of Mexican-themed grocery foods (later purchased by Hormel) with an emphasis on salsa. 1. Roy Rogers. See more ’80s Nostalgia.
Steak and Ale went bankrupt in 2008. 4. Beefsteak Charlie’s (Closed in 2009) See more ’80s Nostalgia. Beefsteak Charlie’s was a well-known restaurant chain based in the New York metropolitan area, which grew to over 60 locations in the early 1980s.
See more ’80s Nostalgia. Bennigan’s was an Irish pub-themed casual dining restaurant chain founded in 1976 in Atlanta by restaurateur Norman E. Brinker as one of America’s original casual dining concepts. In July 2008, all of Bennigan’s 150 corporate locations across the US were closed. 2.
The last Kenny Rogers Roasters operating in North America was located in the Ontario Mills mall in Ontario, California which closed on December 31, 2011. 6. Ponderosa Steakhouse (2008) Ponderosa Steakhouse menu included steaks, seafood, and chicken entrées, all of which come with their buffet for a nominal charge.
Kenny Rogers Roasters (Closed in 2011) In 1991, country singer/songwriter Kenny Rogers ventured into the fast-food business. By 2000, the chain was down to 90 franchised restaurants, 40 of those in the U.S.
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