The quirky, Mom and Pop establishments with local flavor and culture are still there, you just have to look harder for them; they’re not on the Interstate, but the local roads in each community.
I live in Maine, and while we have no shortage of McDonald’s, Burger Kings, Pizza Huts, Kentucky Fried Chickens, Starbucks and WalMarts, we also have Mom and Pop restaurants with giant, fake lobsters outside the front door, Jaspers Restaurant and Motel in Ellsworth, Maine with lobster 19 ways; quirky ice cream stands who sell blueberry cheesecake ice cream AND fried clams, along with scores of other items; lobster rolls; seaside eateries in coastal lobstering towns that have changed little in a hundred years, etc.
The same is true about the rest of the country.....you just have to look harder for these quirky establishments of local flavor.....look beyond the interstates and their national chains.
PS: In Bar Harbor, Maine, there is a restaurant called the Route 66 Cafe. It’s quite a distance from where Route 66 begins, on Michigan Avenue in Chicago!
Not to be taken simultaneously!
We must warn the others.
I agree those kind of places are still around in *some* states. Maine is one. My family is from ME, we still go there every summer to our camp on the lake. And we get off on Rt1 and do some scenic driving (nice change from 95!) But most of those places have disappeared from around here. Even in Sturbridge, I remember a store that was shaped like a wedge of cheese, don’t think it’s there anymore (replaced by Friendlys or Cracker Barrel or Starbucks?) We used to have places like that where I live, huge dairy queens or hut shaped stores or statues outside of 10 room mom and pop hotels- statues which seemingly have no connection with anything, lol. Even a 15 foot concrete dragon from a local store was taken down, a huge totem pole from another gone...all the interesting little theme places replaced around here. It’s sad.
I wish I could have traveled Rt55 in its heyday. I’ve seen pictures (concrete wigwams, cows, businesses in train cars..) Unfortunately, by the time I was born, the big days had passed and now there’s not much there.
PS People around here are amazed when I tell them every McD’s sells lobster rolls up there! And strawberry-rhubarb pie along with GrapeNuts pudding at every little roadside restaurant!