You’d think at least one could have survived whatever changes in America happened.
I’ve never heard of it..
they had the best maple nut ice cream....what a treat....
I had my first banana split at a Howard Johnson’s.
When I was a little kid and Dad got stationed from the west coast to the east coast, my parents and three (at the time) siblings and I took a long road trip, stopping to see sights and several relatives along the way.
Many a lunchtime stop was at Howard Johnson’s. It was our favorite.
Ordered from the kid’s menu when out with the family. With 4 kids, it was the most economical (99 cents). I can remember ordering the “little Boy Blue” meal. Hamburger patty, mashed potatoes, green peas, served with a fantastic yeast roll and real butter. No choice but to order milk to drink per the parental units. Would also include a scoop of ice cream. Chocolate almond was and continues to be my favorite.
Later as an adult, would love to get the clams. Sorry to see them go, it was always a treat to dine there.
It was a part of my childhood.
There is still a Stuckeys at exit 75 on I-40 in NC.
Another bit of Americana slides into history.
Howard Johnson’s were everywhere. Unfortunately as travel patterns changed the restaurants didn’t change with it. When people started doing most of their driving on the interstates instead of the US highways HJ should have opened more locations on the interstates and kept only the better ones on the US routes open.
As traffic to the restaurants declined the owners didn’t keep up with the maintenance. As the properties started to look ragged their traffic dropped even more until they finally closed.
HoJos can now join Sears, Radio Shack and others on the long list of dead American companies.
BTTT
HoJo blew their quality and pricing back in the 80s and their management didn’t give a crap. The rest of the industry passed them by and never looked back.
That sucks. Kinda expected it to always be around.
mint chocolate chip !!
On road trips with parents, always looked forward to stopping at on on the new interstates.
They did seem to be an east coast thing though. If they had them in the western US, do not recall seeing one. And my dad was a fool for road trips.
HoJos.
Remember the downtown Milwaukee one during the 1980s.
We had a Howard Johnsons in Concord.
But when it came to ice cream, it couldn’t compete with Kimball’s in Westford.
I never had one close enough to me to eat there. Oh well.
Their breakfast menu had names for the meals. The three HoJo pancakes, plus 3 sausages, plus OJ and coffee was called "Good Morning."
Loved the fried clams. Yummy!
I got food poisoning from their fried clams.