Restaurant chains we might lose in 2020?

Jbird

Jbird

Kick Henry Jackassowski


For the TL/DW crowd:

1. Perkins
2. Marie Callender's
3. Boston Market
4. Red Robin
5. Tim Horton's (U.S., not in Canada)
6. Steak N Shake
7. Ruby Tuesday
8. Friendly's
9. Luby's
10. Pie Five


Never even heard of the last 3.
And Marie Callender's is a restaurant chain? I see their pot pies in the freezer section of the grocery store, but have never seen a brick n mortar location. Didn't know they were a chain :embarrassed:
 
Friendly's were all over the place here. I think they have been gone for a while, but I think there are still some in Florida.

We also lost a bunch of the Boston Markets around here. Of that list, the only ones I like are Boston Market and Steak N Shake. The rest I've never heard of, or don't like.
 
There seems to be a real shakeout going in the the food service industry.

A lot of old venerable restaurants in the Greater Boston area have closed or are closing.

Friendly's is based around here, and there are a few. they got a new CEO a few years back who was determined to re-build the brand. Looks like it's not working.
 
No Perkins down here, but up north of the Mason Dixon I've eaten at a few. Always a been a safe choice for road food.
I kinda like me some Shake & Steak now and then.
The rest of em are no great loss to me.
 
Every Steak N Shake I've ever been to has been packed with customers. And every Steak N Shake I've ever been to has been unbridled chaos in the quality of service. Good burgers, though. If there were an actual human being in charge of the whole shebang instead of a soulless profit-taking hivemind, they might actually survive.

There was a Marie Callender's near the local mall here years ago. It sucked. I'm shocked there are any still in business.
 
Red Robin has good burgers, and the Kalamazoo location is always packed in the evening.

But Kalamazoo has several local places that have even better burgers. The herd-crowd/soccer moms probably doesn't even know those places exist though.
 
Jbird said:
Red Robin has good burgers, and the Kalamazoo location is always packed in the evening.

But Kalamazoo has several local places that have even better burgers. The herd-crowd/soccer moms probably doesn't even know those places exist though.
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Our Red Robin is located at the most popular/posh shopping/restaurant/movie complex around. Good overpriced burgers for the shopping starved. Def many other places as good or better but they're not high rent.
 
Interesting. From February through July I went through 43 of the lower US states. Little weird that I wouldn't have at least run across all of them at one point during that period of driving either in person or via roadside signs. Now if they were only in California, Oregon, Washington, New Orleans, and Vermont then I would have had no chance of contact. With that in mind however, there were a crap load of new eating places constantly going up everywhere I went.

1. Perkins: Never heard of it.
2. Marie Callender's: Never heard of it.
3. Boston Market
4. Red Robin
5. Tim Horton's (U.S., not in Canada): Never heard of it.
6. Steak N Shake: Never heard of it.
7. Ruby Tuesday
8. Friendly's
9. Luby's: Never heard of it.
10. Pie Five: Never heard of it.
 
we used to Friendly's, Kenny Roger's, Fazolli'. they're all gone. we used to have 5 or 6 Boston Markets, we now have only 2.
Tim Horton's are on every corner (well....a lot of them). and i don't go to them, so i don't care.
i would rather keep the few Steak n Shakes we have.
we only have 1 or 2 Red Robins and i've never been in one. they say their burgers are really good, but they're like 10 bucks+.
 
Yeah. Friendly's is based in my area. It is okay comfort food with good ice cream, but has been struggling for a while. Oddly enough I don't see many Boston Markets around here other than one on the Mass Pike. I have been to Red Robin recently and just found it to be overpriced and underwhelming.
 
Good riddance to all of them. Red Robin is the only one that makes what I would consider food, but it's too unhealthy to eat.

And fuck chain restaurants in general. Even the good ones just get bought out by private equity firms and go to shit.
 
Whenever I'm on the road I look for Steak & shake. It's a great place that's different than what we usually eat. I know a guy who eats at Red Robin all the time because they have gluton free burgers and he has celiac disease.
 
Marie Callenders is west c oast thing, I think they started in the 1960's in California. We used to have a couple in Tucson from maybe early or mid 1980's till around 1999 or so when they both closed at the same time.
I think we used to have a Luby's if i remember right as well.....it was a buffet type place.

chains suck though
 
1. Perkins Never heard of it. people eat Marlin Perkins? That's sick.
2. Marie Callender's Never heard of restaurant, only pot pies.
3. Boston Market Closed 10 or 15 years ago, I liked it.
4. Red Robin Seen commercials on TV, nowhere near me, never been.
5. Tim Horton's (U.S., not in Canada) Heard of, nowhere near me, never been.
6. Steak N Shake We actually have one of those. Not horrible. Would be so much better if malts were an option.
7. Ruby Tuesday It's in the mall that's on death's door. Never been.
8. Friendly's Never heard of it.
9. Luby's Only know of it because I lived in Texas in the early 80s. My parents loved it.
10. Pie Five Never heard of it. WTF does Pie Five even mean?
 
there was a period in late junior high/early high school where a Perkins on the west side of Madison became the default late night stoned hangout (it was open 24 hours, I think... unless I'm misremembering, it was basically like Denny's. Not good, but somehow compelling during that window of time when you either had access to a car or knew someone who did, wanted to stay up and late and drink coffee and be cool, but couldn't buy alcohol yet.

I've encountered all the others except Luby's and Pie Five and won't miss any of them
 
yabba said:
there was a period in late junior high/early high school where a Perkins on the west side of Madison became the default late night stoned hangout (it was open 24 hours, I think... unless I'm misremembering, it was basically like Denny's. Not good, but somehow compelling during that window of time when you either had access to a car or knew someone who did, wanted to stay up and late and drink coffee and be cool, but couldn't buy alcohol yet.

I've encountered all the others except Luby's and Pie Five and won't miss any of them
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The one in Kalamazoo (closed about 10+ years ago) was open 24/7 too, and was right across the street from the Kalamazoo Denny's. I always thought that the food at Perkins was just a little bit better than the food at Denny's. I never could figure out why at 2:embarrassed:0AM when the bars let out that the Denny's parking lot would always be full and the parking lot at Perkins would be relatively empty.
 
yabba said:
there was a period in late junior high/early high school where a Perkins on the west side of Madison became the default late night stoned hangout (it was open 24 hours, I think... unless I'm misremembering, it was basically like Denny's. Not good, but somehow compelling during that window of time when you either had access to a car or knew someone who did, wanted to stay up and late and drink coffee and be cool, but couldn't buy alcohol yet.

I've encountered all the others except Luby's and Pie Five and won't miss any of them
Click to expand...
Was that the one next door to Good n Loud Music?
 
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