The last Howard Johnson’s restaurant is for sale - How HoJo lost its mojo

economist.com ^ | Feb 16th 2017 | LAKE GEORGE, NEW YORK

[11th_VA]

“DOES HoJo still serve fried clams?” asked a Howard Johnson’s patron, using the nickname for the restaurant chain. He recently ate there for the first time in nearly 40 years. Back then, “HoJo” could be found on almost every highway and byway and felt as ubiquitous as McDonald’s or Starbucks are today. At its height in the 1970s, Howard Johnson’s had more than 1,000 restaurants and was the biggest food chain in America. Only the army fed more people. Now, only one is left. The last one standing is in Lake George, a summer tourist spot in New York’s Adirondacks.

Howard Deering Johnson, the chain’s founder, started his food empire in 1925 with an ice-cream shop outside Boston. He was an early pioneer of franchising. At one point in the 1960s, a new restaurant opened every nine days. Growth coincided with the rise of the car, the highway system, the middle class and family holidays. Each franchise had to adhere to the “Howard Johnson’s Bible”, which dictated everything from decor to the amount of tartare sauce; and each had to use food prepared by central commissaries, which was delivered to the restaurants for final cooking. The large menu included 28 ice-cream flavours, tender sweet Ipswich fried clams and butter-grilled “frankforts”...

[Thibodeaux]

I can tell right off...... those are severely overcooked

[RegulatorCountry]

Wythe County, good old southwest Virginia. I remember the Shot Tower. We used to go up when I was a kid for the outlet stores. Don’t remember a HoJo but we didn’t go too far afield off of I-77.

[proud American in Canada]

Gosh, I remember Howard Johnson’s and Stucky’s from family vacations as a child! Fond memories!

[RegulatorCountry]

Didn’t they vaguely resemble one another? Seems as if they did, just a different roof color and Stuckey’s was usually smaller than a HoJo.

A Stuckey’s pecan log was an awesome thing to placate a kid on the way home from the beach and not happy about having to leave so soon, lol.

[Bubba Gump Shrimp]

they had a sweetheart deal here in Illinois for many years where they were the only restaurant in them over-head oasis things on the high ways.

They were horrible. Bathrooms were nasty, food was nasty, and they knew it, and didn’t care. They were the only exit over the high-way.

But for some reason, I loved Sambo’s and Big Boys (which my wife hated).

[Retired Chemist]

The Howard Johnson’s in my hometown also had a motel.

[EnquiringMind]

The best fried clams! But their tartar sauce was also the very best!

[Twinkie]

Shellfish give me migraines. Much chocolate also.
Both have THEOBROMINE.

[Maceman]

You can probably buy fried clams as good as I used to buy at Howard Johnson’s. When I find out where I can buy them I’ll let everybody know.

As a boy growing up in New York, I loved Howard Johnson's fried clams.

But then I moved to New England in my 20s, and suddenly discovered REAL fried clams. Howard Johnson's fried clams were actually clam "strips" -- meaning not the whole clam.

But in New England, fried clams have "bellies" -- which are a whole different -- and infinitely superior -- culinary experience.

These are fried clam strips:

These are whole belly fried clams:

Clam strips are like little strips of breaded rubber compared to the succulent mouth-watering joy of whole belly fried clams.

Once you try the whole belly fried clams, you'll never go back.

[aomagrat]

As a kid I loved the pancakes. It’s been almost 50 years since I’ve had them but I can still taste them. I don’t know if it was the pancakes or the syrup, but nothing tastes like them today.

[Larry Lucido]

As far as chain restaurants, some of the local Big Boys in the Detroit area do a decent job. They can be pricey, though.

[trisham]

Agreed.

[katana]

And a philosopher, too.

"Y'know, Nietzsche says: 'Out of chaos comes order'."

[Mr. Lucky]

I last went to a Howard Johnson’s about 40 years ago. I just checked and they said my order would be right up.

[nutmeg]

The last one standing is in Lake George, a summer tourist spot in New York’s Adirondacks.

How sad. I grew up within a couple of blocks of a great Howard Johnson's restaurant in Connecticut. The food and service was always fantastic. BEST ice cream I've ever tasted. The place was always crowded.

Great childhood memories. I wish the chain could have been saved somehow.

[nutmeg]

I remember that HoJo children’s menu! Thank you for posting that. :-)

[George from New England]

What about Shady Glen ? How big did that chain get ?

[ConservativeMind]

Sambo’s had good food. As a kid, I recall the pancakes as “wonderful.”

[ontap]

When I was a kid we ate at cafe’s....we couldn't afford restaurants!!!

[ViLaLuz]

Sambo’s might have had good food but the early snowflakes shut them down for being racist.