I can remember as a kid going to one in St. Louis Missouri on N. Lindbergh Blvd, Creve Coeur, Missouri They had all you can eat fried chicken on Monday evenings. It was really quite a great place to go until it closed. It then became a four-star restaurant named Wades. The building still stands but has been empty for more than 10 years.
Patel....need to know anymore...(keepers of the house) ...I know many of these persons from playing cricket with them in Florida ...I was one of two Americans that played....I met only 1 or two that I would break bread with...the rest can go F__k themselves.
Anyone remember the chocolate lollipops with a white chocolate face and the character still in dark chocolate?....the HOJO’s were a staple item on route 24 in Massachusetts....just crap now ......multi food onestop KFC?BK?TACO?...whATEVER WITH KIDS THAT COULD CARE LESS SERVING YOU ....sorry bout the caps.
My 1st underage drinking in an adult beverage serving establishment, and coincidently enough where I observed my 1st wet t-shirt contest as a 19 y.o. sailor in tbe U.S.N., occured in a Howard Johnson’s in Mayport Florida.
I know....shocking huh?
A tradition on Friday work days. Lunch at Ho Jo of fried clams or clam chowder...New England Clam Chowder. Two choices here: Ho Jo or the Marriott (no fried clams at the Marriott ever compared to those at Ho Jo
How I miss them.
You know, it isn’t that they were that great, but...they were oh-so-American.
My father was career Navy and both of my parents were from Massachusetts, and we spent much time with our family of eight crammed into a station wagon in the sixties driving up and down the Eastern Seaboard between Washington DC and Massachusetts to visit family.
Passing motels with yellow bug lights above the door to the office...neon signs on the highway. And that orange and turquoise Howard Johnson’s sign...it was inviting and familiar.
Sigh.
I often thought I must have singlehandedly put them into Chapter 11 when I would visit them on the “all you can eat-clam strip” nights. I would tell the server: “I don’t want any french fries. No rolls. No cole slaw. Just clam strips.”
They knew the score. How I loved their clam strips.
I will always remember the back of the station wagon...no seat belts, the seats folded down flat...all of us in the back in our pajamas with blankets. The street lights above the road flashing by as I looked up...the glare of headlights of oncoming cars filling the inside of the car with fleeting light. I would awake, everyone asleep, I would look ahead and see my father driving through the night, like a machine, driving, the car droning...droning on through the endless and wonderful night of my childhood. I felt so content and safe in that car.
And Howard Johnson’s. And Howard Johnson’s. So American.
They needed to keep the blue buildings with the orange roofs and that font. I bet you can trace the sharpest decline after that genius corporate “rebranding” they did in the 80s/90s.
I remember their fried clams, but not fondly. I was sick for 3 days because of them.
Fifty years ago they were everywhere.
Times change and everything slips away.
I remember the Howard Johnson’s on the Pennsylvania Turnpike in the 1960s. These were full-service restaurants and very busy with their location on the turnpike. Even before you got to the front door, the sound of clanging dishes and silverware being bussed served as a prelude to something big and exciting - especially for a young kid who had been riding for hours in the back seat of our Studebaker Hawk. This was certainly the place to be. Juicy hamburgers slathered with ketchup and teasing your mom by blowing bubbles in your milk glass with your straw. That was the best!
The hotels are still around and run by the Wyndham chain. According to wiki the hotels and restaurants were franchised separately starting in 1986. During the 60s and 70s it was the largest restaurant chain in the US. That was during the big rise in McDonalds so at some point the golden arches eclipsed HoJos.
I worked the midnight to breakfast shift at the San Diego interstate 8 location. This was 40 years ago. It was amazing how many orders we had going on that flattop grill at once.
And I’ve never ordered scrambled eggs since as that is where the ones you screwed up went.
A couple of years ago I stopped at the one in Lake George.
Biggest and last, my claim to fame...LOL!
My family moved to Florida when I was 12 years old. Our first morning there, we went to breakfast at the local Howard Johnson’s. For some reason, I had a hankering for spaghetti. And even though it wasn’t on the breakfast menu, darned if they didn’t make me a batch anyway.