Defunct restaurant chains and retailers

[abefroman329]

Bertucci's is in trouble, filing Chapter 11 bankruptcy today, and closing some locations immediately, including the one in my town.  Reports say winding down business may happen.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/companies/bertuccis-files-chapter-11-bankruptcy-pizza-chain-may-close-restaurants/ar-AAvWakP?OCID=ansmsnnews11

That's a shame. Can't say I've eaten at one since moving away from DC, though.

[ThatRandomOshawott]

Dawahares-This was a regional store, headquartered in Lexington, KY.
Mr. Steak-This was a restaurant chain that went extinct in the 1990's. This is an abandoned location in St. Charles, MO:https://www.google.com/maps/@38.7820374,-90.520574,3a,90y,207.13h,93.77t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1sXra2lnu9Yi2H_dYQ-9hJgg!2e0!6s%2F%2Fgeo3.ggpht.com%2Fcbk%3Fpanoid%3DXra2lnu9Yi2H_dYQ-9hJgg%26output%3Dthumbnail%26cb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile.gps%26thumb%3D2%26w%3D203%26h%3D100%26yaw%3D250.52367%26pitch%3D0%26thumbfov%3D100!7i13312!8i6656
The Bon-Ton just fell victim to the retail apocalypse.

[abefroman329]

Yep, which means that the Carson Pirie Scott chain is also going under.  I don't think I helped by not shopping there in decades, though.

I'm not sure if this was already mentioned in the Kmart thread, but the last remaining Sears store in the city of Chicago is closing.

[roadman65]

Whatever happened to Morrisons and Piccadili Cafeteria's?  They both were big down south in the 90's with the former being in existence since the 60's I believe.

Also Davis Brothers also had a cafeteria set up.  They had one in Orlando on I Drive while the rest of the chain was mostly in Tennessee and also there were some in Kentucky.

[briantroutman]

Whatever happened to Morrisons and Piccadili Cafeteria's?  They both were big down south in the 90's with the former being in existence since the 60's I believe.

I went to a Morrison's once around 1997–when a charter bus made a lunch stop around Annapolis. The following year (1998), Morrison's, which was suffering due to the declining popularity of cafeterias in general, was acquired by its chief competitor, Piccadilly.

Since then, Piccadilly has continued to close locations due to declining sales and profitability–both of its own brand and of the Morrison's locations that it had acquired–and both chains are down to a total of 41 locations (down from 273 locations total in 1998). Apparently one Morrison's branded location is still open: Springdale Plaza in Mobile.

[hbelkins]

My mind was jogged yesterday about a former fast-food chain called Scottie's. I'm 95 percent sure that was the spelling vs. Scotty's. Anyway, this was sort of a poor man's White Castle before Krystal came to this area. They served small hamburgers and the prevailing price, as I remember was 22 cents. There was a location near me in Irvine, Ky., and I also remember one in downtown Danville, near Centre College, back in the mid-1970s.

There was a popular rumor back in the day that the burgers were actually made of dog food and that someone had found a bunch of empty dog food cans in the garbage at one of their locations.

I understand there may be two or three of these left in Tennessee, but the spelling may vary. It may be Scotty's instead of Scottie's. If anyone has run across one of these places, please post the location. A short day trip may be in order.

(Crossposted in the "regional fast food chains" thread.)

[inkyatari]

My mind was jogged yesterday about a former fast-food chain called Scottie's. I'm 95 percent sure that was the spelling vs. Scotty's. Anyway, this was sort of a poor man's White Castle before Krystal came to this area. They served small hamburgers and the prevailing price, as I remember was 22 cents. There was a location near me in Irvine, Ky., and I also remember one in downtown Danville, near Centre College, back in the mid-1970s.

There was a popular rumor back in the day that the burgers were actually made of dog food and that someone had found a bunch of empty dog food cans in the garbage at one of their locations.

I understand there may be two or three of these left in Tennessee, but the spelling may vary. It may be Scotty's instead of Scottie's. If anyone has run across one of these places, please post the location. A short day trip may be in order.

(Crossposted in the "regional fast food chains" thread.)

This the place?

Caryville, TN

https://www.google.com/maps/@36.2999416,-84.2209283,3a,75y,226.44h,83.67t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1s3JN7EBnGOvqcYaCU8PJuBA!2e0!7i13312!8i6656

[hbelkins]

EDIT: The one in Danville wasn't a Scottie's, but an Ollie's Trolley -- another now-defunct regional chain.

[hbelkins]

My mind was jogged yesterday about a former fast-food chain called Scottie's. I'm 95 percent sure that was the spelling vs. Scotty's. Anyway, this was sort of a poor man's White Castle before Krystal came to this area. They served small hamburgers and the prevailing price, as I remember was 22 cents. There was a location near me in Irvine, Ky., and I also remember one in downtown Danville, near Centre College, back in the mid-1970s.

There was a popular rumor back in the day that the burgers were actually made of dog food and that someone had found a bunch of empty dog food cans in the garbage at one of their locations.

I understand there may be two or three of these left in Tennessee, but the spelling may vary. It may be Scotty's instead of Scottie's. If anyone has run across one of these places, please post the location. A short day trip may be in order.

(Crossposted in the "regional fast food chains" thread.)

This the place?

Caryville, TN

https://www.google.com/maps/@36.2999416,-84.2209283,3a,75y,226.44h,83.67t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1s3JN7EBnGOvqcYaCU8PJuBA!2e0!7i13312!8i6656

Not sure. The restaurants I remember were in prefab-type buildings with yellow and orange panels on the walls. The one in Tennessee appears to be a more permanent structure.

This is how the one in Irvine looks now.

https://goo.gl/maps/GpTbqUB8a3t

[roadman65]

Amoco was one and now I heard the name BP will become defunct as on AA Roads FB page it shared an article about BP being rebranded back to Amoco.

[jon daly]

I hope that they bring back the logo below.

[Big John]

^^ Not quite.

[abefroman329]

^^ Not quite.

That just makes me picture an oil rig on fire.

[briantroutman]

Amoco was one and now I heard the name BP will become defunct as on AA Roads FB page it shared an article about BP being rebranded back to Amoco.

From what I read, the BP brand isn't going away by any means. From BP's official press release:

...the Amoco brand will be available to BP marketers as a complementary retail offering in cities where there could be additional growth opportunities. It also will help resolve local, competitive station conflicts in markets where there may already be one or more BP stations in close proximity.

So I read this as follows: Let's say you own a BP station in Camden and someone else owns a franchise in Cherry Hill. And you'd like to open a BP station in Cherry Hill, but the guy who already owns the BP franchise in Cherry Hill has a contract stating that he has exclusive rights to operate stations under the BP trademark in Cherry Hill. So to get around this limitation, BP sells you the right to open an Amoco-branded station in Cherry Hill–still selling the same BP fuel. Basically, it's a loophole that makes their new contract with you technically consistent with their old contract their with the other guy, even if it is a violation of it in spirit.

[jon daly]

Boo to that logo.

[TheHighwayMan3561]

Boo to that logo.

It looks almost exactly like the old one. What's wrong with it?

[jon daly]

The color scheme. Plus, as abe points out, it looks too Deeply Horizon.

[abefroman329]

The color scheme.

Yeah, it's a little too 1970s.  The colors remind me of the old Continental Airlines logo.

[roadman65]

I cant think of its name but in Bucks County, PA there was a store called Clover (not the defunct Strawbridge and Clover) but a small five and dime that used the name clover.  There was one at the former end of the Trenton Freeway near Morrisville where US 1 Business now ends at its parent since the Oxford Valley Bypass was extended.

I believe some existed in NJ (primarily way South Jersey) but cannot be sure.

[briantroutman]

It looks almost exactly like the old one. What's wrong with it?

This old vs. new Amoco logo is a good object lesson in how details matter. In this case, yes, they basically started out with the old logo and kept adding gratuitous swooshes and gradients until they got to a point where some guy in a suit said "Yeah...that looks "˜now'" .

For what it's worth, the audience (mostly professional graphic designers) over at Under Consideration gave this logo redesign a decisive thumbs down: 58% rating it as "Bad" , 29% as a mediocre "Fine" , and only 13% as "Great" , which is about as low as ratings on that site ever get.

I cant think of its name but in Bucks County, PA there was a store called Clover (not the defunct Strawbridge and Clover)...

Did you mean Strawbridge and Clothier?

[roadman65]

It looks almost exactly like the old one. What's wrong with it?

This old vs. new Amoco logo is a good object lesson in how details matter. In this case, yes, they basically started out with the old logo and kept adding gratuitous swooshes and gradients until they got to a point where some guy in a suit said “Yeah...that looks ‘now’”.

For what it’s worth, the audience (mostly professional graphic designers) over at Under Consideration gave this logo redesign a decisive thumbs down: 58% rating it as “Bad”, 29% as a mediocre “Fine”, and only 13% as “Great”, which is about as low as ratings on that site ever get.

I cant think of its name but in Bucks County, PA there was a store called Clover (not the defunct Strawbridge and Clover)...

Did you mean Strawbridge and Clothier?

No it was called Clover.  Not the famous one you mention here, it was like a Kmart or Caldor (if you are from the North Jersey or SE New York you would have known that one) and it usually was in a typical outdoor strip.

[jon daly]

This old vs. new Amoco logo is a good object lesson in how details matter. In this case, yes, they basically started out with the old logo and kept adding gratuitous swooshes and gradients until they got to a point where some guy in a suit said "Yeah...that looks "˜now'" .

For what it's worth, the audience (mostly professional graphic designers) over at Under Consideration gave this logo redesign a decisive thumbs down: 58% rating it as "Bad" , 29% as a mediocre "Fine" , and only 13% as "Great" , which is about as low as ratings on that site ever get.

Yeah, what he said. At the risk of digressing even further, I don't like Pepsi (or soda generally, like malls these are childish things that I've mainly discarded) but I applaud them for bringing back the old logo.

[jon daly]

I forgot that Amoco descended from Standard and that their logo has a similar oval shape to the old Esso oval.

[Brandon]

I forgot that Amoco descended from Standard and that their logo has a similar oval shape to the old Esso oval.

Actually, Amoco is Standard Oil Of Indiana and has little to so with Standard Oil of New Jersey (Esso/Exxon) after 1911.

Indiana Standard history: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amoco  https://web.archive.org/web/19980212074422/http://www.amoco.com/what_we_do/ss/library/t_and_o.html
1961-70 Logo: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amoco#/media/File:1961%E2%80%931970_Standard_Oil_of_Indiana_logo.jpg
Maintaining the trademark: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amoco#/media/File:Bpstandarddurand.jpg

[roadman65]

Amoco in NJ was called American brand before the late 70's.