Restaurant chains are strange creatures to be sure. Some chains have succeeded to the point where they are universally recognized, like McDonalds, Burger King, Wendy’s, Subway, KFC, and more. Others are not as prevalent, but become cult favorites like In-n-Out. Others start out hot, but as time progresses, the novelty wears off, and many places either shrink in numbers or disappear all together as newer restaurants become the hot items. For every Chick-Fil-A rising, a Hardee’s is losing restaurants. Sometimes it’s location, other times it’s the food, and other times it’s the service.
Just recently, I found out that Mrs. Winner’s Chicken and Biscuits has all but closed up shop with just a handful of franchise stores scattered in North Carolina and 1 or 2 left in Georgia. The Website has been taken down without fanfare, and it took a Facebook link to figure out why. In the last Facebook page from the Mrs. Winner’s Company, they stated that all the corporate locations had closed in August of 2011 and that only franchises were left to carry on the name. This departure saddened me personally. My family had regularly visited the location in Lawrenceville when I was younger. Unfortunately, they got caught in an era of increasing competition. KFC is the king of Fried Chicken, but pressure from traditional Fried Chicken places like Popeye’s, Bojangles’ and Church’s, plus new chicken entities such as Chick-Fil-A and El Pollo Loco seemed to push the largely metro Atlanta chain to bankruptcy and ultimately to near extinction.
Mrs. Winner’s is just the latest restaurant I grew up with in Atlanta, Chicago, and Baltimore that developed a national or regional following once upon a time, only to shrink back and/or disappear completely for a number of reasons. How many longtime metro Atlanta residents remember that Sizzler used to be in Atlanta? I vaguely remember a Sizzler on Memorial Drive near Hambrick. However, Sizzler left Atlanta and I thought they were gone until a passing reference in the movie “White Men Can’t Jump” pointed me to the fact the Sizzler had retreated back to its origins in the West Coast.
How many people also remember Bonanza or Ponderosa in Atlanta? The chain of buffet restaurants used to be in metro Atlanta before disappearing in the 1980s. I found them again in the 1990s in Valparaiso, but I guess that I ate them out of town. Bonanzas and Ponderosas still exist, but they are few and far between these days.
Steak and Ale used to be the place to get a good steak—or at least an expensive one. For the longest time, they were the national steak chain. But competition from family steak houses like Outback, Longhorn, and Texas Roadhouse and fine dining steak houses like Mortons, Ruth’s Chris, and Flemings drove Steak and Ale to Chapter 7 liquidation.
Bennigan’s was founded in Atlanta in the 1970s and was a great place to get Burgers, Sandwiches like Monte Cristos, and the famous Death by Chocolate dessert. But several competitors also drove the corporate locations to extinction leaving a handful of franchise places scattered throughout the country.
Shoney’s was part of the Big Boy group, then struck out on its own to compete outside the Southeast, and appeared to be doing well. But the all-you-can-eat buffets could not be sustained nationally and, just like Sizzler and Bonanza/Ponderosa before it, Shoney’s started disappearing rapidly. All of the corporate restaurants closed leaving just franchise locations scattered across the southeast—about a quarter of the number of restaurants Shoney’s had at their peak. You can still find them around, but not at the levels they once were.
Damon’s was one of the first to have giant TVs for customers to enjoy sporting events, but it also had a back room where large dinner groups could be housed away from the rest of the restaurant. In fact, when Liz and I got married in 2006, we had our rehearsal dinner at Damon’s and it was a wonderful affair. At one point, Damon’s had 5 restaurants in the Baltimore area and they had 2 dozen restaurants in Michigan. But a failure in further innovate and competition from national chains like Buffalo Wild Wings and regional competition like the Green Turtle drove the chain into bankruptcy in 2009 and by the end of 2011, there were no more Damon’s in the Baltimore area, just two in Michigan, and none in Columbus Ohio, which was Damon’s Headquarters.
Pizza Inn, Fazoli’s, The Blackeyed Pea, Chi-chi’s, Western Steer Steakhouse, and Po Folks are other examples of chains that once were popular in Atlanta, but have since left the Atlanta area. Many still survive, but at far fewer numbers than they once did. Chi-Chi’s disappeared in the US, but still lives on overseas.
Del Taco used to be the primary Mexican fast food place in Atlanta. Taco Bell bought out most of the stores in the late 1980s in Atlanta, but now it appears Del Taco is starting to make a comeback in Atlanta starting with Snellville. So, even when restaurants appear to die off, they sometimes have a way of coming back from exile.
What restaurant chains (national or regional) do you recall once being prevalent in your towns but are no more? What do you remember best about these chains? What chains would you like to see return? And what currently dominant restaurant do you think will/should eventually disappear from your area? I’d love to hear your thoughts…
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