Favorite Closed Stores/Restaurants (AKA Flying Chicken fan thread)

[nexus73]

Sambo's with 10 cent music, er, coffee!  The building which was built for what was a new Sambo's in the later Sixties over here was such a nice example of Googie.  Now it is gone completely as today we just saw the Natural Grocers food store open on the site where Sambo's and a small car lot/mechanic shop was.

This has got to me the most bifurcated thread ever...LOL!  Oh well, I do have an original iPod with a bit over 1000 songs.  That thing is built like a tank!  The battery was replaced once by me.  Think I'll keep it around.

Rick

[Rothman]

Ha!  Sambo's, the restaurant that got behind the 8-ball PC-wise.

When I was very young, there was one in Bloomington, IN, I believe at the intersection of IN 45 and IN 46.  Begged my parents to go there, just because I liked the name.  Went there once and never again.  I figure my parents hated it.

[abefroman329]

I figure my parents hates it.

Probably - same reason why we never ate at Showbiz or Chuck E. Cheese.

Speaking of restaurants our parents hated, Lum's.  They used to describe bad restaurants as "Lum-ish."

[hbelkins]

I remember Sambo's. My recollection was that it was similar to Denny's, IHOP, Shoney's/Frisch's, etc.

[hotdogPi]

I don't remember Sambo's, but I have a "wooden dime" that's good for a 10¢ cup of coffee.

[formulanone]

Ha!  Sambo's, the restaurant that got behind the 8-ball PC-wise.

I've never been to one, but I'd heard from other family members who went to them. I didn't realize there were over 1000 locations!

[abefroman329]

I remember Sambo's. My recollection was that it was similar to Denny's, IHOP, Shoney's/Frisch's, etc.

Many were converted to Denny's.  In fact, Sambo's logo looks very similar to the old Denny's logo.  I'm not sure if that was intentional.

[Dougtone]

I still miss the Flying Chicken. :'(

[amroad17]

Have any of you that live, or have lived, in Central New York ever heard of the Squat and Gobble?  I heard about it from acquaintances in Chesapeake, VA.  It was located somewhere on NY 5 between Oneida and Utica.  So, I had to check it out on my honeymoon on my way to Saranac Lake in 1987.  It was there, however, we did not go in--just took a picture of the sign.  I was wondering if it is still around (more than likely, no), or, like I asked before, if anyone had heard of it?

[jp the roadgeek]

I remember Sambo's. My recollection was that it was similar to Denny's, IHOP, Shoney's/Frisch's, etc.

Many were converted to Denny's.  In fact, Sambo's logo looks very similar to the old Denny's logo.  I'm not sure if that was intentional.

The Sambo's in my town was converted to another similar restaurant: Friendly's. The Friendly's location about a half mile south moved, as the Sambo's building has more space.  It remains one to this day (the old Friendly's is an office building, but you can still see the telltale facade).  There is a Denny's about a half mile away that opened when Sambo's was still there.

[tolbs17]

I miss Circuit City and Blockbuster. Those were good times. I think it got killed by Amazon and Redbox.

[Brandon]

I miss Circuit City and Blockbuster. Those were good times. I think it got killed by Amazon and Redbox.

Circuit City died long before Amazon became big.  You can blame Best Buy for that one (as well as Circuit City's own suicide).

[roadman65]

Howard Johnson's Restaurants!   Miss their 28 flavors of ice cream and they had great food in their day.

[amroad17]

Howard Johnson's Restaurants!   Miss their 28 flavors of ice cream and they had great food in their day.

Seconded from here!  Our preferred one in the 1970's and 1980's was in Williamsburg, VA.  Also grew up with one in Fairmount, NY across from the old Carrol's (another favorite for me as a child).

[jp the roadgeek]

Used to have a HoJo's in my town.  Became a Bickfords, and has been about 4 different locally owned restaurants since.  Also had a HoJo's motor lodge behind it that is now a Days Inn (had about 5 different names since HoJo's).  It retained the signature shape of the orange roof until recently.  There was a HoJo's in Waterbury, CT until about 2006. 

[OracleUsr]

Used to have a HoJo's in my town.  Became a Bickfords, and has been about 4 different locally owned restaurants since.  Also had a HoJo's motor lodge behind it that is now a Days Inn (had about 5 different names since HoJo's).  It retained the signature shape of the orange roof until recently.  There was a HoJo's in Waterbury, CT until about 2006. 

If it's the one off CT 8, my parents and I stayed there three times en route to/from Maine.  Unfortunately, the last time was not a pleasant experience (1988) and the nearby diner we liked had closed.

My list:

Chains:

Quincy's--loved their breakfast bar until I discovered Golden Corral's
Mr. Dunderbaks--some really good German food to be had there
Crazy Fire Mongolian Grill (though only one location closed, in Burlington, NC)--used to not charge by the plate and, man, the concoctions my friends and I could come up with ruled
Spaghetti Warehouse (location in Charlotte closed some time ago, not sure about the Marietta, GA, locatiion)

Non-chains:
Azteca Grill in Jonesboro, GA--My first meal out during my first solo drive to Atlanta, pepper jack quesadillas and some awesome fajitas
Country BBQ in Statesville, NC--granted, it was replaced by an even better place, Randy's Barbecue, but still...
Acropolis, Cornelius, NC--just discovered it had been torn down.  A place I used to love to treat myself to on my birthday if I was unable to get with my parents (and when I was single)
Uncle Theos, Greensboro, NC--fast food Greek.  It was inside the now-defunct Forum VI mini-mall

[RobbieL2415]

We had a Bickford's in Vernon for a while but it's not a hibachi restaurant.

We had a Ground Round in Manchester near the mall but it got bulldozed and is now a Sonic.

Bugaboo Creek was up the street from Ground Round until about 2009/10.

[hotdogPi]

We had a Bickford's in Vernon for a while but it's not a hibachi restaurant.

Breakfast, right? There's still one in Woburn, MA.

[KEVIN_224]

There's a Friendly's which closed along US Route 5 in Brattleboro, VT (by the rotary at I-91 Exit 3) several years ago. I think a nearby Bickford's was closed. Today that space is occupied by Ramunto's Pizzaria. I think they also have a couple in NH and MA.

[ozarkman417]

My submission isn't a restaurant or store, but a local skating rink named "Skateport" in Springfield, MO. The place opened in the '70s when roller skating was popular among Gen-Xers. Many years later, my elementary school started hosting "skate parties". I was never any good at skating, so I just hung out at the snack bar with a few friends and played the arcade games & pinball.

Being on a roads forum it's hard to say that the reason the skating rink closed down was that the Missouri Department of Transportation wanted to extend Luster Avenue south to Glenstone Ave & Independence Street, and the the old shack that created Olympian skaters and countless memories was in the way. It was torn down in 2014.

https://www.google.com/maps/@37.1450706,-93.252243,17z it was just northwest of the Andy's, where Luster Avenue is now.

Some of the Graffiti Art on the building before it was demolished: https://www.news-leader.com/story/news/local/ozarks/2014/06/02/memory-walls-skateport-still-standing-now/9884511/

[jp the roadgeek]

Used to have a HoJo's in my town.  Became a Bickfords, and has been about 4 different locally owned restaurants since.  Also had a HoJo's motor lodge behind it that is now a Days Inn (had about 5 different names since HoJo's).  It retained the signature shape of the orange roof until recently.  There was a HoJo's in Waterbury, CT until about 2006. 

If it's the one off CT 8, my parents and I stayed there three times en route to/from Maine.  Unfortunately, the last time was not a pleasant experience (1988) and the nearby diner we liked had closed.

The restaurant in Waterbury was only a restaurant from what I remember.  This one is off I-84 about 15 minutes east of CT 8. 

I remember The Ground Round in Plainville.  It was torn down and is now a Walgreens.  The one in Rocky Hill is now Wooden Tap, Waterbury is now a Japanese steakhouse, and the one in Hampshire Mall in Hadley, MA is now partially occupied by bathrooms (can still see the colored paneling motif).

[RobbieL2415]

Used to have a HoJo's in my town.  Became a Bickfords, and has been about 4 different locally owned restaurants since.  Also had a HoJo's motor lodge behind it that is now a Days Inn (had about 5 different names since HoJo's).  It retained the signature shape of the orange roof until recently.  There was a HoJo's in Waterbury, CT until about 2006. 

If it's the one off CT 8, my parents and I stayed there three times en route to/from Maine.  Unfortunately, the last time was not a pleasant experience (1988) and the nearby diner we liked had closed.

The restaurant in Waterbury was only a restaurant from what I remember.  This one is off I-84 about 15 minutes east of CT 8. 

I remember The Ground Round in Plainville.  It was torn down and is now a Walgreens.  The one in Rocky Hill is now Wooden Tap, Waterbury is now a Japanese steakhouse, and the one in Hampshire Mall in Hadley, MA is now partially occupied by bathrooms (can still see the colored paneling motif).

The HoJos in Vernon was also just a hotel.  It lost its franchise and is now a Days Inn.  But there's another Choice Hotel (Quality Inn) next door!

[ErmineNotyours]

"Flying Chicken fan" reminds me of slow-motion films of shooting frozen birds into jet engines.

Flakey Jakes: build-your-own-burger bars, from the same owner of Sea Galley.  Someone reopened a Sea Galley, but no one has bother to reopen a Flakey Jakes.  My step-dad remarked that they stored sacks of potatoes and flour in the restaurant.  He said that they shouldn't waste retail space with inventory storage.  Hey, it's for atmosphere!  Five Guys still stores potatoes by the line to the counter, but that could be because they really have nowhere else to store it.

Farrel's: ice cream stores.  I probably wouldn't go there much as an adult anyway.  They tried to revive the chain with stores in Honolulu and Orange County, but both stores closed and the chain is dead again.

I owned an iPod touch, and could make playlists of on-board audio, but the experience was sometimes buggy.  Then one night I noticed that there was something in the headphone jack that kept me from plugging it in all the way.  I could still hear audio, but the fob remote control wouldn't work.  So when I got home I tried to pick out what I thought was food stuck in the bottom of the round hole, using a metal jeweler's screwdriver.  It wouldn't come out easily, whatever it was.  I kept at it until it made a spark, and then smoke, and then the thing overheated.  Remembering the recent Galaxy fires, I stuck it in the freezer and hoped for the best.  Once the battery ran out the thing was dead.  And unlike phones, no one, not even Apple, will repair an iPod touch.

With my experience with the buggy iTunes software, and knowing that Apple was going to eliminate the headphone jack, I bought an android as my first smart phone.  As bad as iTunes was, Android has no playlist options at all.  Google music player plays tracks at random, no exceptions.  Rocket is a little better, but you have to drag songs one folder at a time, and sometimes one song at a time, for things to play in the proper order.  Some podcasts won't play on Rocket when taken from their website (but will play on the Google player), so I have to go to (yes) iTunes to get them.  Ironically, the iPod wouldn't play podcasts from the iTunes store, so I had to open and resave them in an audio processing program to get them to play.

And since this thread started, Microsoft closed their book store, stranding everyone who bought books from them.

[dlsterner]

The HoJos in Vernon was also just a hotel.  It lost its franchise and is now a Days Inn.  But there's another Choice Hotel (Quality Inn) next door!

Just a small nitpick - Although Quality Inn is part of Choice Hotels, Days Inn is not - rather Days Inn is part of Wyndham Hotel Group.  (HoJo is also part of Wyndham).

[Brandon]

Used to have a HoJo's in my town.  Became a Bickfords, and has been about 4 different locally owned restaurants since.  Also had a HoJo's motor lodge behind it that is now a Days Inn (had about 5 different names since HoJo's).  It retained the signature shape of the orange roof until recently.  There was a HoJo's in Waterbury, CT until about 2006. 

If it's the one off CT 8, my parents and I stayed there three times en route to/from Maine.  Unfortunately, the last time was not a pleasant experience (1988) and the nearby diner we liked had closed.

The restaurant in Waterbury was only a restaurant from what I remember.  This one is off I-84 about 15 minutes east of CT 8. 

I remember The Ground Round in Plainville.  It was torn down and is now a Walgreens.  The one in Rocky Hill is now Wooden Tap, Waterbury is now a Japanese steakhouse, and the one in Hampshire Mall in Hadley, MA is now partially occupied by bathrooms (can still see the colored paneling motif).

The HoJos in Vernon was also just a hotel.  It lost its franchise and is now a Days Inn.  But there's another Choice Hotel (Quality Inn) next door!

More like it was switched from HoJo (Wyndham) to Days Inn (also Wyndham).