Restaurant Chains that closed some markets and are much alive in others

[jeffandnicole]

The "breastaurant" genre, if you can call it that, is a weird one. I've never been into them and neither are my closer friends, but I knew quite a few people who were regulars at Brick House. Definitely a concept that works best in tourist destinations and college towns, given who they're targeting. Hooters is somewhere I go exactly once a year for their "all you can eat" wing deal when it is offered. Never been to Tilted Kilt or any of the others not named Brick House (which I was at once with a group).

I ate at a Hooters in Novi, Michigan around 10 years ago. The food was among the worst I'd ever come across, not "off-night"  quality bad, just pure low-quality crap. That included sampling quite a bit of what they had to offer as well. It all sucked.

About 20 years ago, the company I worked for then had one of their training centers in Largo, Florida just south of Clearwater.   At my first class there, one of the handouts  detailed all the local restaurants, one of which was the original Hooters on Gulf to Bay Boulevard just east of US-19.  Our instructor raved about this place and insisted we go there for lunch our first day.  I was less than impressed with the food and service and haven't been in one since.

Food isn't what drives people into a Hooters. 

The original Hooters is the only one I've been in where we actually found the food to be actually ok!  We wound up visiting it when my flight leaving Tampa was delayed.  We considered going there, or further into the Clearwater area.  Thank goodness we didn't - As it turned out, the flight's departure time became not as delayed as first announced, so we had to hightail it out of there back to the airport.

...I know there was one in Wethersfield in what was formerly a Bennigan's.  The nearest one now is in Sicklerville, NJ...

This is the one near me.  A friend of mine goes there way too often; knows all the bartenders - has their phone numbers; knows all the regulars at the bar as well.  The unfortunate thing is that nearly everyone eating/drining at the bar are all regulars, and there's rarely anyone elsewhere in the restaurant.  It operates like a local hole in the wall when it comes to their operation and the salty language (lol), but can't survive like that in its chain-restaurant format.  The owner also owns the Friendly's restaurant next door, so the money coming in from that is probably the only reason why the Kilt can continue to operate.  I'll have to ask my buddy if he's heard anything about reopening after the pandemic.

[1995hoo]

Frisch's Big Boy left Indianapolis but have several in Cincinnati

There's at least one in the Dayton area; technically, the town is Englewood. It's on OH-48 just north of the I-70 interchange.

Big Boy was called Bob's Big Boy in Northern Virginia. They've all been closed for years, but the legacy lives on because the Springfield slug line is commonly referred to as the "Bob's" line–in the evening, a driver pulling up to a slug line seeking riders to Springfield will typically say "two to Bob's." The name refers to the Bob's Big Boy that used to occupy a plot near the commuter lot.

[ftballfan]

The "breastaurant" genre, if you can call it that, is a weird one. I've never been into them and neither are my closer friends, but I knew quite a few people who were regulars at Brick House. Definitely a concept that works best in tourist destinations and college towns, given who they're targeting. Hooters is somewhere I go exactly once a year for their "all you can eat" wing deal when it is offered. Never been to Tilted Kilt or any of the others not named Brick House (which I was at once with a group).

I ate at a Hooters in Novi, Michigan around 10 years ago. The food was among the worst I'd ever come across, not "off-night"  quality bad, just pure low-quality crap. That included sampling quite a bit of what they had to offer as well. It all sucked.

About 20 years ago, the company I worked for then had one of their training centers in Largo, Florida just south of Clearwater.   At my first class there, one of the handouts  detailed all the local restaurants, one of which was the original Hooters on Gulf to Bay Boulevard just east of US-19.  Our instructor raved about this place and insisted we go there for lunch our first day.  I was less than impressed with the food and service and haven't been in one since.

Food isn't what drives people into a Hooters. 

The original Hooters is the only one I've been in where we actually found the food to be actually ok!  We wound up visiting it when my flight leaving Tampa was delayed.  We considered going there, or further into the Clearwater area.  Thank goodness we didn't - As it turned out, the flight's departure time became not as delayed as first announced, so we had to hightail it out of there back to the airport.

...I know there was one in Wethersfield in what was formerly a Bennigan's.  The nearest one now is in Sicklerville, NJ...

This is the one near me.  A friend of mine goes there way too often; knows all the bartenders - has their phone numbers; knows all the regulars at the bar as well.  The unfortunate thing is that nearly everyone eating/drining at the bar are all regulars, and there's rarely anyone elsewhere in the restaurant.  It operates like a local hole in the wall when it comes to their operation and the salty language (lol), but can't survive like that in its chain-restaurant format.  The owner also owns the Friendly's restaurant next door, so the money coming in from that is probably the only reason why the Kilt can continue to operate.  I'll have to ask my buddy if he's heard anything about reopening after the pandemic.

I've never eaten at a Hooters. They used to have several locations in Michigan (including as far north as Traverse City), but most of them have closed. AFAIK, the only Hooters left in MI are in Flint and Saginaw (there might be one left somewhere in metro Detroit and/or in the Lansing area). Tilted Kilt had a few locations in MI, all in metro Detroit, but I think they've all closed.

[Flint1979]

The "breastaurant" genre, if you can call it that, is a weird one. I've never been into them and neither are my closer friends, but I knew quite a few people who were regulars at Brick House. Definitely a concept that works best in tourist destinations and college towns, given who they're targeting. Hooters is somewhere I go exactly once a year for their "all you can eat" wing deal when it is offered. Never been to Tilted Kilt or any of the others not named Brick House (which I was at once with a group).

I ate at a Hooters in Novi, Michigan around 10 years ago. The food was among the worst I'd ever come across, not "off-night"  quality bad, just pure low-quality crap. That included sampling quite a bit of what they had to offer as well. It all sucked.

About 20 years ago, the company I worked for then had one of their training centers in Largo, Florida just south of Clearwater.   At my first class there, one of the handouts  detailed all the local restaurants, one of which was the original Hooters on Gulf to Bay Boulevard just east of US-19.  Our instructor raved about this place and insisted we go there for lunch our first day.  I was less than impressed with the food and service and haven't been in one since.

Food isn't what drives people into a Hooters. 

The original Hooters is the only one I've been in where we actually found the food to be actually ok!  We wound up visiting it when my flight leaving Tampa was delayed.  We considered going there, or further into the Clearwater area.  Thank goodness we didn't - As it turned out, the flight's departure time became not as delayed as first announced, so we had to hightail it out of there back to the airport.

...I know there was one in Wethersfield in what was formerly a Bennigan's.  The nearest one now is in Sicklerville, NJ...

This is the one near me.  A friend of mine goes there way too often; knows all the bartenders - has their phone numbers; knows all the regulars at the bar as well.  The unfortunate thing is that nearly everyone eating/drining at the bar are all regulars, and there's rarely anyone elsewhere in the restaurant.  It operates like a local hole in the wall when it comes to their operation and the salty language (lol), but can't survive like that in its chain-restaurant format.  The owner also owns the Friendly's restaurant next door, so the money coming in from that is probably the only reason why the Kilt can continue to operate.  I'll have to ask my buddy if he's heard anything about reopening after the pandemic.

I've never eaten at a Hooters. They used to have several locations in Michigan (including as far north as Traverse City), but most of them have closed. AFAIK, the only Hooters left in MI are in Flint and Saginaw (there might be one left somewhere in metro Detroit and/or in the Lansing area). Tilted Kilt had a few locations in MI, all in metro Detroit, but I think they've all closed.

There's one in Roseville and one in Taylor that's it though unless those two have closed. The one in Bay City closed a few years ago it was on the Saginaw River at the end of Midland Street. The one in Saginaw was relocated several years ago it use to be on Niagara Street also on the Saginaw River but moved to Kochville Township. I think there may have been a murder at the original Saginaw location which prompted them to relocate.

[hbelkins]

The "breastaurant" genre, if you can call it that, is a weird one. I've never been into them and neither are my closer friends, but I knew quite a few people who were regulars at Brick House. Definitely a concept that works best in tourist destinations and college towns, given who they're targeting. Hooters is somewhere I go exactly once a year for their "all you can eat" wing deal when it is offered. Never been to Tilted Kilt or any of the others not named Brick House (which I was at once with a group).

I ate at a Hooters in Novi, Michigan around 10 years ago. The food was among the worst I'd ever come across, not "off-night"  quality bad, just pure low-quality crap. That included sampling quite a bit of what they had to offer as well. It all sucked.

I've eaten at Hooters twice in my life, both instances were years ago when I was single, and went with a buddy of mine. I got nothing out of the experience. The food was overprices and wasn't very good at all, and I never got a thrill out of looking at scantily-clad women that I would never have a realistic chance of dating or having sex with because they wouldn't give a guy like me a second glance. I always tended to be a realist about things like that. That's the reason I never went to strip clubs or places with "exotic dancers" in my youth. It was just never my thing.

[kphoger]

I've heard that the food at Hooters isn't very good, but my co-workers have raved about their club sandwich–said, in fact, it's the best they've ever eaten.

[Flint1979]

I've heard that the food at Hooters isn't very good, but my co-workers have raved about their club sandwich–said, in fact, it's the best they've ever eaten.

I haven't been to a Hooters in a long time. The one in Saginaw is about 10 minutes from me but it's never really appealed to me either. Buffalo Wild Wings is another overrated place. I had a $25 gift certificate there one time and went there to eat it wasn't all that. I think a lot of these chain restaurants are overrated.

[Flint1979]

The Hooters in Bay City closed last year is that when the other Hooters that closed closed also?

[ftballfan]

The Hooters in Bay City closed last year is that when the other Hooters that closed closed also?

Most of the others closed between 2009 and 2017

[RobbieL2415]

In Maryland, there used to be a bunch of Fuddruckers, but they all closed down recently, although still alive elsewhere.  I would now have to go to SE Pennsylvania (Lancaster or York) to get my Fuddruckers fix.

Also in Maryland, all the locations (at least four) of The Tilted Kilt have closed; the nearest one now is in Petersburg VA.

The Tilted Kilt is a restaurant with a bad vision. They would do fine in touristy areas or cities where there's plenty of single men. Instead they open up in suburban locations where a lot of families live. Many of their locations have closed, and the ones that remain open are busy at the bar but not in the seating area.

You can say that again.  People in Schenectady, NY were not happy when it popped up in a suburban area and it only lasted a year or two before it closed.

I'm wondering if some of it has to do with the murder of Heather Elvis, who was a waitress at a location down South.  She was likely murdered by a maintenance man she had hooked up with.

[US71]

The Hooters in Bay City closed last year is that when the other Hooters that closed closed also?

Most of the others closed between 2009 and 2017

Fayetteville, AR Hooters closed  several year ago after one of their (heavily inebriated) customers wandered out onto the highway and got run over...twice.