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MONTGOMERYVILLE, PA — Local dad Justin Simpson took a trip to the mall on Christmas Eve to begin his Christmas shopping, only to find a vacant lot where the mall once stood. "Oh man, I've been coming here forever," Simpson said. "I mean, it's been a few years, but I used to love getting malts at the Woolworth soda fountain. Then my mom would always make us buy some educational books over at Borders." A distraught Mr. Simpson had reportedly planned to shop for his entire family at the mall this year. "I figured I could get the older kids...

HOLLIDAYSBURG, Pa. — In truth, the last Howard Johnson’s restaurant closed long before the one in Lake George, New York, did last week. The only thing that particular location had in common with the fried clams and 28 flavors of ice cream the restaurant was famous for was maintaining the iconic orange roof that signaled to families for generations you were pulling up to a place you could trust for known comfort food at reasonable prices. What began as Howard Deering Johnson taking over his father’s struggling medicine store and soda fountain in Quincy, Massachusetts, in 1925 grew because of...

It all started when Howard Deering Johnson, who grew up in the town of Quincy, Mass., purchased a drugstore and began peddling homemade ice cream. His dessert became so popular, he then opened an ice cream stand on Wollaston Beach, where, legend has it, he sold as many as 14,000 cones in a single day. In 1929, the first Howard Johnson's restaurant opened in Quincy Square. Fast forward to 2022, and what was the largest restaurant chain in the United States throughout the 1960s and 1970s—with more than 1,000 locations—is now closing the doors to its last remaining location. According...

VIDEOIt's the end of an era. The last Howard Johnson's restaurant has just closed. Among the amazing things I found out while researching the subject of Howard Johnson's is that famous French chef Jaques Pépin was hired by the company to improve their menu. Pépin was slated to become a chef at the JFK White House but chose to work on the Howard Johnson's menu instead. Later Pépin co-hosted cooking shows on PBS with Julia Child. This video also reveals how Pépin rendered a CBS reporter speechless.

“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....

BANGOR, Maine — The closing of one of the last two Howard Johnson restaurants in a couple of weeks will mark the end of its fried clam strips, ice cream and other menu staples that nourished baby boomers and leave the once-proud restaurant chain teetering on the brink of extinction. The slice of roadside Americana will no longer be served up in Bangor after Sept. 6. For waitress Kathe Jewett, it's the only job she's held since starting work when the restaurant opened in 1966. "It's bittersweet, but it's nothing to be sad about," the 68-year-old Jewett insisted Tuesday during...

Unbelievable - During funeral for Senator Daniel Inouye, Obama diverts remembering Inouye for by speaking of himself for about 10 minutes

BANGOR, Maine (AP) -- The orange roof is long gone and the Simple Simon plaque is history. The famous "28 flavors" of ice cream have dwindled to 16 varieties. But at least the Howard Johnson name sits atop the building, which is a lot more than hundreds of one-time Howard Johnson's eateries can say. The venerable chain once had more than 800 restaurants from coast to coast, but these days you can count them on two hands. Some fear that HoJo's, as it is affectionately known, and its trademark orange roofs, fried clams and timeless air will soon go the...

WHEN word spread that the last Howard Johnson's restaurant in New York City, in Times Square, would probably close, there was something of an uproar. Though plans are uncertain, brokers say it is likely that a big retail chain will replace it. The idea that this icon of American dining will disappear from the city landscape made me particularly sad, since it was at Howard Johnson's that I completed my most valuable apprenticeship. I had been in America only eight months when I started working at Howard Johnson's. I moved there from Le Pavillon, a temple of French haute cuisine,...