As long as there has been human society, there have been eating establishments. Let's face it, some nights, cavewomen just didn't feel like cooking.
We Boomers grew up with a lot of familiar names on billboards which have sadly slipped from the scene. The good news is that some of these chains have living examples still around. The chain may be gone, but the last survivors stubbornly hang on, to the delight of local residents who appreciate the treasures that they have.
Such is the happy case with a number of Griff's Burger Bars. Griff's was a familiar sight in the midwest in the 60's. Founded early in the decade in Kansas City, at one time they must have had hundreds of locations, I wasn't able to find an exact number. They spread south to Texas and Louisiana, and at least as far west as Denver. The earliest buildings were amazing A-frame models which a hungry kid in the back seat of the Plymouth instantly recognized. The clown mascot logo was also a familiar sight. And the 15 cent burgers were fat-laden heaven.
Griff's (the franchise) bit the dust sometime in the 80's, I believe. But at least thirteen restaurants are still open today, with Griffy the clown sitting atop the sign outside, beckoning you to enter. In 2004, he even coaxed Zippy into stopping by.
Thanks to The Road Wanderer for the graphic! Burger Chef was another favorite stopping point for us kids way back when. In 1954, brothers Frank and Donald Thomas patented the Flame Broiler and started their own restaurant in Indianapolis, Indiana, which featured the marvelous contraption that gave food a smoky flavor. In 1956, they changed the name of their restaurant to Burger Chef. Its popularity led to expansion, and by the early 70's, only McDonald's had more locations.
Burger Chef's flame broiled burgers were the stuff of legend. They were healthy before anyone knew what healthy was, but it was their flavor that caused new Burger Chefs to spring up all over the US. The brothers sold out to General Foods in 1968, and the chain flew higher than ever with massive corporate money available.
Still greatly popular in 1982, the Burger Chef name was sold to a Canadian company which also owned Hardee's. Thus began the firm's demise. It wasn't through financial difficulty, it was a corporate decision to push one brand and downplay another. Imasco systematically began converting existing Burger Chef's to Hardee's's (spellchecking friend Bert Burt will have fun with that one ;-). Burger Chef owners protested, to no avail. The parent company was determined to make the name of their former rival disappear. Chain owners had the choice of switching to another name or go out of business. Thus, the last Burger Chef disappeared in 1996, when the Cookeville, Tennessee location finally lost in court and was renamed Pleaser's. But here's a commercial you'll enjoy, which, I suspect, is probably being petitioned for withdrawal from Youtube by the humorless owner of its franchise name.
About 1966, if I recall, a drive-in was built in hometown Miami, Oklahoma called the Ku-Ku. It was one of a midwest chain which has thoroughly slipped into obscurity. Basically, the only things I have to go on are my own memory banks and a mention or two in newspaper articles. But Ku-Ku's were aimed at college towns in the 60's, and quite a few once existed. Today, the lone example is proudly sitting in Miami.
Bought out in the early 70's by Gene Waylan, the Ku-Ku continues to serve up burgers to a delighted hometown crowd, as well as Route 66 aficionados who stop in to see a living relic. Mr. Waylan continues to run the place, and here's hoping it lasts many, many more years. And here's hoping Imasco (should that be Emasco?) never purchases the name and forces a shutdown.
Finally, here's a sad example of a chain which has completely vanished.
Nickerson Farms was a regular stopping point for the Enderlands on the road back in the 60's. Dad really liked the place, and there were some on the road to Texas and Iowa that got our business at least once a year.
In 1957, I.J. Nickerson had built the first Stuckey's west of the Missisippi in Eldon, Missouri. He wanted to make some basic format changes to the place which W.S. Stuckey wouldn't allow. Stuckey had basically decided upon a fast-food concept, but Nickerson wanted a full-service restaurant for hungry and tired travelers. Nickerson simply dropped the Stuckey's name and began calling his place Nickerson Farms.
Eventually, sixty or so Nickerson Farms restaurants were located along busy highways. Most featured on-site beehives and fresh honey for sale. And they all had full parking lots. But the notorious 70's economy eventually caused them to begin closing. The franchise shut down in 1980, and sadly, the last remaining restaurant closed soon afterwards. Nickerson Farms branches were company-owned (old man Nickerson didn't want anyone pulling off what he did with Stuckey), and when the name went bankrupt, so did the stores.
Readers, there were lots more chains that vanished, or shrank to a single location or two. I await your own recollections.
Comments (17)
Loved this post...do you remember Biff Burger? They were my favorite.
Southern smiles and world peace,
Sharon
~The Baby Boomer Queen~
Posted by Sharon/The Baby Boomer Queen | August 23, 2009 9:50 AM
Posted on August 23, 2009 09:50
Sharon, I found this link. Check it out.
Posted by Ron Enderland | August 23, 2009 10:17 AM
Posted on August 23, 2009 10:17
An interesting topic, Ron. Maine in the 60s, only had a couple cities or so that could sustain volume for burger joints. MacDonalds in Portland on St. John St. was very popular and used to be one of the busiest Macs anywhere in the USA. But as more branches opened, business got siphoned off. It still does well, due to the minor league baseball team that started up near there, the Seadogs, a Red Sox affiliate.
But there was a similar competitor to Macs in the 60s. Howdys! Sort of a western theme. We stopped at the one in Lewiston, 2nd biggest city of the time in Maine. There was one across the rive in South Portland, too, and eventually one at Morrills corner in the big city of Portland (65,000) ;-)
A&W had a few places here at one time. There were also local joints that served burgers here. Burger King came to Portland in 1969 or 70. But it would seem like hot dogs were bigger in Maine, or at least more of them available and often very small affairs. Popular at the beaches, too, as were the burgers. And of course, Drive Ins all served burgers, dogs, fries, pizza slices.
But we also had ice cream places. Plenty that sold hard cream. The most popular franchise was Dairy Joy, with a polar bear for a mascot. It was a Dairy Queen type soft serve place. I am having a senior moment here so I can’t be sure. There might have been a Tasty Freeze as well. They were much more common that Diary Queen. But the Queen did have the best location to this day at Cash Corner South Portland and has always done a big business, till the recent depression which thinned things out a little everywhere.
We had Friendlys and Deering Ice Cream joints. Some single sort of Dairy Queen types were around. But things began to change after the 60s. As I see it, there were 2 forces that changed things. First, as Maine grew and roads grew, routes changed and the locations and types of shopping changed. Shopping centers had maybe a couple anchor stores but when the Maine Mall come along in late 71, it totally revolutionized shopping in southern Maine. First, it was a location formerly no where near anything. 2nd, it basically caused downtown to die and then slowly, all the small chopping centers started to die out.
This served to change where fast food located and did business, too. Many times, fast food might find a busy route rather than near the Mall. But with former busy sites dying off and others suddenly appearing and thriving, it was unpredictable.
But then there is that other force. Big franchises could finance branches and franchises. It was this money behind some chains like Macs and Burger Kings and Wendys that let them thrive and get in good places where others could not afford, who were local mom and pop places.
Ice cream sort of got replaced by coffee and never got the financial backing that it probably should have got as either the Franchisees were not ambitious or aggressive or something, for I have always felt there was a market for more Dairy Queens as, per square mile or per 10,000, it seems like there was room for more but it never happened. Of course, charging $2 for a cone of ice cream might have done hurt them. If it had stayed affordable, how knows. Diary Queens in SP, Westbrook, Windham, Saco, they do a huge business. But with so few, one can not find one in many places, even if you wanted to. And most DQs sell brazier as well as ice cream. Believe it or not, DQ is much bigger in Nova Scotia Canada so it is possible and why not the USA?
But times change and so did the business environment. With large national orgs like Macs, they could obtain raw resources at very cheap prices hard to compete with on a local level. The USA has never been very hospitable to the little guy, in part, due to lack of adequate anti-trust, anti-monopoly laws and lack of enforcement on those on the books already. Our actions speak louder than words, do they not?
Further, in Maine, since the big boys got in on the ground floor and absorb most business, there is not enough population to bring in new chains such as Roy Rogers, Sonic, and other sorts of fast food places that would likely be better than some already here. So what we have will probably be all we get.
If you recall on a Simpsons episode, Homer caused the destruction of Fast Food Boulevard and they decided to build it back and said it was formed in 1972. That was about when such tings formed here in Maine, too. I wonder if Homer would be willing to come up here for a snack and take care of a few things while he is at it? ;-)
I love my Simpsons. It would be cool to hear from other areas of the country on this topic!
Posted by Scott Irv | August 23, 2009 2:24 PM
Posted on August 23, 2009 14:24
Shoney's Big Boy, Huddle House, Shakey's Pizza, S&W Cafeteria, Morrison's, Eckerd's Drugstore lunch counter, Mayberry Ice Cream Parlor, Roy Rogers BBQ, Lums, etc etc
Posted by Lee | August 23, 2009 10:06 PM
Posted on August 23, 2009 22:06
Thanks Lee! We had Shakey's (1) here, too. and 2 or 3 Lum's as well spread out. Its interesting to know what was going on elsewhere. What state was your home town?
Posted by Scott Irv | August 23, 2009 11:13 PM
Posted on August 23, 2009 23:13
And of course there is no more Howard Johnsons either.
Posted by Rusty | August 24, 2009 1:00 PM
Posted on August 24, 2009 13:00
Rusty, you beat me to it. About a year ago, HoJo's was down to one location. I miss their clam rolls. The name lives on in the hotel chain.
Shoney's is still popular around here, but they dropped the Big Boy name when Marriott or some other corporation bought the rights.
In the burger wars, there was Borden Burger and BBF. Either the name went from Borden Burger to BBF or the other way around. BBF stood for Borden Burger Foods.
Bowincals Hot Dogs and Ice Cream had several locations around here and all disappeared. They had lots of toppings and varieties for their franks.
Posted by David S PAleg | August 24, 2009 8:09 PM
Posted on August 24, 2009 20:09
Ron – you made a typo on my name. (Ed.: Fixed by the red-faced webmaster)
I don’t recall a Griff’s back east but I have always been a big fan of Bill Griffith’s work, especially Tales of Toad, Young Lust and your referent Zippy the Pinhead (The real Zippy was from Todd Browning’s 1932 classic Freaks - gooble gobble – One of us!!!)
I remember most of the other extinct or on life support mentions, but as I seldom patronized (in the last 30 or so years) any of the aforementioned establishments (besides DQ –still the best softserve for my money) I haven’t particularly missed them – anyone remember Dilly Wagon? It was a Conestoga shaped drive-in with carhops and killer Tex-Mex burgers. And Lumdogs (boiled in beer - Lum Yum)
Posted by Burt | August 25, 2009 6:33 PM
Posted on August 25, 2009 18:33
You can watch the entire Freaks movie at Youtube. It's cut up into manageable chunks. The whole thing last just over an hour. Definitely worth checking out, if you are into the slightly weird. Then visit imdb.com and read the actors' biographies. You'll be even more amazed.
For the record, the film takes a sympathetic, non-exploitative look at circus freaks' lives. Good stuff.
Posted by Ron Enderland | August 26, 2009 6:59 AM
Posted on August 26, 2009 06:59
I remember EMK RIP
Posted by Burt | August 26, 2009 3:39 PM
Posted on August 26, 2009 15:39
Scott,
I grew up in North Carolina
Lee
Posted by Lee | August 27, 2009 12:40 AM
Posted on August 27, 2009 00:40
We were regulars @ Howard Johnson's. I always got the clam roll as a kid...they embarrassed the crap out of me on my birthday once with a cake with a sparkler on it. Everybody in the place was looking at me! (I'm sure the PC police would not allow sparklers today...)My grandfather, who was beginning to get dementia at the time once referred to it as "Howard Taylor's" and to this day that's what we call it. I loved Bill Knapp's, too,(before they tried to "modernize") more recently defunct...
Posted by Michelle | August 27, 2009 12:47 PM
Posted on August 27, 2009 12:47
I grew up in South Forida and I have fond memories of two chains. The first was Royal Castle and their 'birch beer' served in a frosty mug. The second was Lums, located at South Beach in Miami. They advertised hotdogs boiled in beer, and there was mnothing better after a day at the beach.
Posted by Roberta | September 13, 2009 5:43 PM
Posted on September 13, 2009 17:43
We had a Ku-Ku in Winfield, KS in the early/mid 60s. It didn't stay Ku-Ku very long, though. It even had the bird. It went thru several incarnations as a hamburger place. it's stillthere, but not as a restaurent.
Posted by CL1053 KS | September 14, 2009 11:19 PM
Posted on September 14, 2009 23:19
We have a What-A-Burger here in West Columbia, SC. That's not the same as WHATABURGER, either.
Posted by Barc | September 24, 2009 4:16 PM
Posted on September 24, 2009 16:16
I had completely forgotten that Nickerson Farms had bee hives with bees visible behind glass. There was one near Mt. Cory, Ohio. Imagine the insurance risk of so many live bees in a restaurant now...hehe
Posted by James | April 23, 2010 2:10 AM
Posted on April 23, 2010 02:10
There were Scotties restaurants in Kentucky, don't know where else. We stopped once when driving through the state. We all got very sick within a few hours. I think I know why it went out of business!
Posted by Dave | July 16, 2010 12:19 PM
Posted on July 16, 2010 12:19