(Image: Peoria Public Library via Geocities.ws)
Going out to eat is something that many of us take for granted these days. Whether we’re heading for a steak house, a pizza place or just an ice cream shop on the way home from the game, today’s restaurants and fast food chains have their roots in decades of culinary service. Many of the places that have made today’s myriad of restaurants possible aren’t around any more, but all of them deserve to be remembered. The latest in our Retro Fails series delved into the history of 10 such establishments.
10. Childs Restaurant
The brainchild of brothers Samuel and William Childs, the first Childs Restaurant opened its doors in 1889 – and it changed the face of dining out. The restaurants operated under a simple idea that’s still at the core of a successful establishment today – great food at a decent price.
(Image: Peyser & Patzig, public domain)
Childs would grow into an impressive operation with 120 restaurants along the country’s east coast and into a few of the Midwestern states. The menu was simple, but it was good, and it included the basics like eggs and omelets, soups and stews, sandwiches, salads and steaks, with desserts like ice cream and apple pie for good measure.
There may have been 120 locations, but the most famous one was on the boardwalk to Coney Island. Originally, Childs had opened on the boardwalk in 1917 but when streets were widened, they were forced to move. And the building they moved into was nothing short of magnificent, a Spanish Colonial masterpiece with arches, columns, towers and a terracotta facade. It was decorated to a nautical theme and, from its opening in 1923, was one of the most recognizable buildings on the boardwalk.
And it was a booming success, in large part because they kept to their business plan and their standards. While many restaurants on the boardwalk were offering the vacation experience – acceptable, expensive food – Childs became the place to go no matter what age you were, whether you lived there or were just visiting.
After enjoying several years of success, Samuel died in 1925, and William changed the winning menu to a vegetarian-only one. The decision led to pretty quick failure and fighting within the company as the shareholders took control and restored the menu to its original form. In 1932, fire raced along the boardwalk, stopping at the Childs building. By that time, the Great Depression had set in, and their slow, downward spiral continued. In 1947 the chain was sold, then sold again to T.G.I. Fridays, who turned many of the old locations into its own chain restaurants.
The famous Coney Island building still stands, and it’s served a few different roles over the years. Re-imagined as a roller rink and a chocolate factory, it’s once again up for another makeover – this time as a theatre, playground and open public space.
9. White Coffee Pot
Some places are home restaurants that are such a part of the community that no one can imagine their town without them. Servers and cooks have been there for years, they’ve seen children grow up and grandchildren born. And then… then comes the day when they’re forced to imagine their town without their beloved gathering place.
(Image: Mark Peters, cc-4.0)
That was the case with the White Coffee Pot. A Maryland staple since its inception in 1932, there was a time when there were 33 locations in the state, when the 1950s rock-n-roll that was playing was contemporary, and the stainless steel appliances were state-of-the-art. When the last locations started to close around 1993, for many of the staff and customers it wasn’t just the end of a diner, it was the end of a part of their lives.
For decades, the restaurant with the kettle logo was known for the best cup of coffee in town. And it had good American diner food, the kind of food where you don’t want to know the calories and the fat content of what you’re eating, you just know that it’s amazing. It was the place that people went before work for a quick bite to set them up through the day, and it was the place that people took their kids and their grand-kids, and where they greeted their waitress by name and asked about her kids.
Slowly, efficiency and size began to take over, and the White Coffee Pot locations started their slow decline. Regulars weren’t enough to keep the doors open, and gradually, as leases began to expire, owners simply chose not to renew and instead to close the doors.
8. Burger Chef
Anyone who’s a regular fan of Mad Men is probably familiar with the fast food chain Burger Chef. It’s a real thing, at least, it was, before it was bought out by and changed into Hardee’s.
(Image: Xnatedawgx, cc-sa-3.0)
Burger Chef first opened its doors in 1958, and its name was taken in direct response to Burger King. Burger Chef wanted to have a classier, more uptown feel than Burger King, and one of the things you absolutely can’t deny is that they were pretty revolutionary in their marketing. They’re the ones that are responsible for the staple of fast food restaurants even today – the combo meal. Burger Chef was the first one to sell a meal consisting of a burger, fries and a drink, and they called it the Triple Threat.
They also set the bar pretty high when it came to keeping franchised restaurants all the same. Those that were opening restaurants were required to go to Indianapolis, Indiana and learn how to do everything according to the Burger Chef standards – that meant everything from refilling condiment dispensers to hiring procedures.
It worked. In 1967, they were second only to McDonald’s, and by the early 1970s, they would reach their peak – more than 1,200 locations. In 1969, though, they were acquired by the giant General Foods, who made some pretty basic mistakes – like changing the management formula that was already working so well, and redesigning the logo.
After the ill-fated acquisition, the company changed hands a few more times, but it never saw anything close to previous levels of success. And, in 1978, Burger Chef was in the center of a burglary-gone-wrong that left four young employees dead. When police were called to the Speedway Burger Chef in Indiana, it originally looked like nothing more than a robbery – money was missing, after all, but so were the employees, all between the ages of 16 and 20. Their bodies weren’t found for two days, and the murders were never solved – even though the detective that work the case were certain they knew who had done it.
7. Sandy’s
Calling Sandy’s a fail might be a little harsh, but it’s a fail in the sense that it’s not around any more, even though the lasting impact that its founder had can still be felt in the way that it’s shaped current restaurants. And, it has a pretty cool story that we want to tell.
(Image: Peoria Public Library via Geocities.ws)
In the 1950s, entrepreneur ‘Brick’ Lundberg and several friends decided that they were going to open a McDonald’s franchise. When debates about how much the franchisees were going to have to pay (all based on their location) and who was going to hold the lease for the building got out of hand, they decided to strike out on their own and open Sandy’s in the location they’d already been preparing. They started from scratch, and when it came time to open new locations, their dealings with McDonald’s made them extremely aware of what they didn’t want.
Rather than selling the traditional franchises, Sandy’s was sold to owners that had been deemed invested enough in the company that they could make their own decisions. They were allowed to source their own product, didn’t pay a lease from the company, and were allowed to run without the restrictions of the overseers hands. Lundberg – everyone knew him as Brick – would make it a point to visit all his stores’ locations, where he was known for greeting everyone with an earnest handshake and excitement to see those who were as invested in his creations as he was. And by the time he left, every employee knew that they were important.
Lundberg gradually came to want to spend less time in the restaurant and less time driving, and more time with his family and volunteering for the community. Ultimately, the disappearance of Sandy’s wasn’t due to competition, hardship, or a lack of customers, it came from a merger with Hardee’s. The partnership went through – the two chains were similar and their territories didn’t overlap – and what was also part of the deal was Lundberg’s management style. The merger was official in November of 1971, signs were changed in 1972, and Sandy’s was no more.
6. Big Daddy’s
Opening in Brooklyn in 1964, the red and white stripes of Big Daddy’s were unmistakeable. If you did happen to overlook them, you certainly couldn’t overlook the kids’ carnival rides that were often in the parking lot, used to help keep that Coney Island feeling going.
(Image: Bigdaddysconeyisland.com)
In an area of the country where there were plenty of pizza stands and hot dog joints, Big Daddy’s had a menu that was a little more eclectic – they served up not only the popular staples, but chow mein on a bun, donuts, and frogs’ legs, and they had a raw clam bar. Under the guidance of Robert “Big Daddy” Napp, the chain expanded from their original location into other New York City suburbs and then into Virginia, Miami Beach, and into the Bahamas. One of the major competitors to the other neighborhood giant, Nathan’s Famous Hot Dogs, Big Daddy’s had a family connection to Nathan’s – it was half owned by the nephew of Nathan’s founder Nathan Handwerker.
For as popular as it was, and as many fond memories there are out there about Big Daddy’s, the first branch closed in 1977, with others quickly following… without much information out there that tells just what happened to the colorful, eclectic chain.
5. White Tower
Technically, there’s still one White Tower restaurant left, and it’s in Toledo, Ohio. During their heyday, there were more than 200 restaurant locations, though, and they might have had better luck if they hadn’t modeled everything in their restaurant on White Castle.
(Image: Jim Rees, cc-nc-sa-4.0)
From the colors of the uniforms and the designed of the building to their slogan (White Castle’s was “Buy ‘em by the sack”, while White Tower’s was “Take home a bagful”), the difference was a pretty shocking rip-off, and, not surprisingly, White Castle took them to court over it. Father-and-son White Tower owners John and Thomas Saxe opened their first restaurants in 1921, had 120 locations in 11 cities by the 1930s, and when they lost their court case by the middle of the decade, they not only needed to overhaul all their branding and the look of their buildings, but they were also required to pay White Castle what today would amount to a settlement of about $1.3 million.
White Tower buildings were given more of an Art Deco look and feel to them, gradually getting away from the White Castle theme that had gotten them into trouble in the first place. Buildings were redone with reflective materials on the outside, medieval towers turned into clock towers, and some turned blue.
White Tower relied on the manufacturing industry as its bread-and-butter, selling hamburgers to workers in need of a quick, affordable lunch. Throughout the 1950s, they expanded to more than 230 restaurants, with 17 in Philadelphia alone.
As manufacturing failed, the target clientele of White Tower moved away. Gradually, location by location began to close, in force throughout the 1970s and 1980s. Now, there’s only one location left, but the signature White Tower look can still be seen in several hundred buildings, now occupied by nail salons, computer stores and other fast food chains.
4. Lum’s
Lum’s was a Miami and Florida staple throughout the 1960s and 1970s. They first opened in Miami Beach in 1956, and within only a handful of years, they not only had expanded to 500 locations but they were the eventual owners of Las Vegas’s Caesar’s Palace.
(Image: Florida Memory, public domain)
As large as they got, they were also a family restaurant with employees including generations of family members both younger and older than the restaurant’s founders, brothers Stuart and Clifford Perlman. The winning formula was one that appealed to college students in the area – burgers, hot dogs and fries, and all done extremely well.
Lum’s would be one of the first to experiment with seasoning their fries, and they were known for their spiced beef hamburgers. And looking at the vintage newspaper advertisements from their glory days, who doesn’t want a “frosty schooner of beer” with their hot dogs and burgers?
The last surviving location in the franchise closed in 2009. The contents and memorabilia in the Davie restaurant were sold at auction, and while the building will once again be used as a restaurant, it’s definitely not going to be the same. Many of their loyal customers had been visiting the same location for more than 30 years, and when you have that kind of loyalty, it’s a tough transition – even though they say they’re going to be serving up the same great food.
3. Huyler’s
Originally, Huyler’s was one of the premiere candy and chocolate making companies in the country; they were the ones that made candy for special occasions, holidays, and extra-special treats. John Huyler began by making molasses candies, and established his first shop in 1876 in New York. That first store was just him making the candy and one person selling it, but the success of Huyler’s supports one of the most basic business concepts – make a product people want, and they’ll buy it.
(Image: via Wikipedia, public domain)
He expanded into more and more different types of candies, and eventually, he was opening stores that included not only candy, but also small restaurants. By the 1920s, Huyler’s stores were selling light lunches and marketing themselves as a “man’s place” in an attempt to get part of the market that they hadn’t been appealing to with their candies.
As the family sold their interests in the company, Huyler’s began expanding in too many directions. In addition to candy and light lunches, they tried to incorporate the new smoking trends, along with new soda shop counters. Just as they were poised to open literally hundreds of their new stores, the Great Depression took the bottom out of their client base. Suddenly, they were selling what were high-priced luxury items rather than everyday treats, and it would lead to the devastation of the business.
After the economy rebounded, they tried to increase business in their remaining establishments by adding wine and liquor to their lunch counters, along with their candies and soda. By 1951, the company was bankrupt, though, immediately on the heels of a major, company-wide update. Restructuring attempts failed, and by 1964 the company’s stock was worthless. While there were a few independently owned and operated Huyler’s locations, those, too, ultimately closed.
2. The Pig Stand
America changed with the invention and introduction of the automobile, and it took Texas entrepreneur Jessie Kirby to realize that there was room for restaurants to change, too. Kirby was under the impression that people who owned cars were rather lazy, and as lazy people, they would be loathe to get out of their cars and walk anywhere. So, Kirby developed a new kind of restaurant – the kind where customers would be served without having to get out of their vehicles.
(Image: Carlos Lowry, cc-nc-4.0; the only Pig Stand still open)
More than just a restaurant, it was a spectacle. People would sit in their cars, served first by young men given the nickname “carhops” for their ability to hop onto the car before the driver had even stopped. Later, it was young women on roller skates that would come and take orders, then deliver food. The Pig Stand first opened in 1921, and by the mid-1930s, there were about 150 of them across nine states. They didn’t just invent the precursor of the modern drive-thru, they set some industry standards and perfected some staples that are still around today – like Texas Toast and deep-fried onion rings.
Part of the downfall started with gas rationing – once people were trying to find ways to conserve gas and make as few trips as they could, it cut down on the customer base for the restaurant. The 1950s might be the decade we always associate with waitresses on roller skates, but by this time, the only remaining locations of The Pig Stand were in Texas. Ultimately, the company declared bankruptcy in 2006 and closed their doors, although one location reopened in 2007. It’s absolutely not the same, though, and it’s only a sit-down restaurant now.
1. Manning’s Cafeteria’s
Manning’s Cafeteria’s were a chain of cafeteria-style restaurants that dominated the West Coast and started in Seattle. Seattle has long had a close relationship with coffee, and Manning’s was known for it.
(Image: Google Street View; San Francisco (inset), cc-nc-nd-4.0)
Not only could you stop in and get some of the best coffee around – at only 4 cents for a large cup – but you could also buy coffee in bulk to take with you. Manning’s was something of the early ancestor of Starbucks, with the roasting machines often right out front to lure people in with the smell of fresh-roasting coffee. Opened in 1908, by the 1920s, locations weren’t just serving coffee, but also tea and – like their modern counterpart – most included a bakery; it was a winning formula that would go on to spawn countless imitators.
The first store, in Seattle’s Pike Place Market, became a Lowell’s in 1957, but Manning’s survived in the form of other locations until the last finally closed in San Francisco in 1984. During the course of its run, there were 40 different locations at the height of its popularity, spanning nine states and always specializing in coffee, along with frozen foods.
They were also known for their pretty unique style, the space-age look called “Googie”, one that saw a renaissance in the 1960s. It’s the look of large windows, starbursts, and sweeping roofs. Sadly, one of the remaining Manning’s Cafeteria buildings – which had been given new life as Denny’s – was briefly declared a historic city landmark. Only briefly, though, as the city ultimately reversed their decision and allowed the building to be demolished for the building of condos.
Keep reading – reminisce about more Retro Fails here.
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