Hilarious chain knockoffs

[tdindy88]

Whatever happened to the Indiana based "Waffle House" restaurant chain that was not the more famous national chain based out of Atlanta?

Waffle House (the huge corporation) could not use their name when expanding into IN as the name was already taken. They were (and still might be) named "Waffle Steak." The familiar yellow sign looked about the same.

First of all, it was Waffle & Steak, as I remembered the sign had the same blocks that the normal Waffle House resturant had plus a smaller block in between with the & on it. But to answer another question, they have since been converted to regular Waffle House resturants. I live near one of these and do remember Waffle & Steak, but it was still Waffle House in everything but the name (not sure how that counts toward the knockoff clause.) As for the other Waffle House, I think it's still there somewhere, but nowhere where I live, in any case it was a slightly different resturant from the diner-style that is Waffle House. They may have taken a different name by now as you honestly only see the actual Waffle House around town nowadays.

[US71]

Gas stations do it too:

DeQueen, AR

[roadman65]

In the town I grew up we had a White Diamond instead of a White Castle.  If you ate the food at this greasy spoon, you would know why this is a hilarious knockoff.  All through high school we used to make jokes about the place, but before you could be old enough to hang out in bars, this was all we could do. 

The common denominator besides "White" is the name 'Rat Burgers' which just like the big chain, so were these guys burgers we named them as.

[Alps]

In the town I grew up we had a White Diamond instead of a White Castle.  If you ate the food at this greasy spoon, you would know why this is a hilarious knockoff.  All through high school we used to make jokes about the place, but before you could be old enough to hang out in bars, this was all we could do. 

The common denominator besides "White" is the name 'Rat Burgers' which just like the big chain, so were these guys burgers we named them as.

White Manna (or Mana) dates back to the 1930s and still has a couple of locations in NJ. They are greasy spoon diners, and not slider servers.

[thenetwork]

Downtown Toledo used to have 3 or 4 street-corner greasy spoon diners called White Tower all the way into the late 80s.  Never ate at one, but when I used to ride the bus into downtown T-Town, I was amazed that these 3 or 4 diners were all within a 1 mile radius of each other.

[Brandon]

Downtown Toledo used to have 3 or 4 street-corner greasy spoon diners called White Tower all the way into the late 80s.  Never ate at one, but when I used to ride the bus into downtown T-Town, I was amazed that these 3 or 4 diners were all within a 1 mile radius of each other.

White Tower was a chain of White Castle-like restaurants.  At their peak, they had about 230 outlets across the Midwest and Northeast.  The last one, apparently, is in Toledo.

[empirestate]

Well, not so much hilarious as merely expected, but damn near every place in Rochester, NY seems to sell a "trash plate", "rubbish plate", or just plain "plate" (hamburg plate, hot dog plate, breakfast plate, not to mention less obvious connections such as "heartburn special") to go with Nick Tahou's famous Garbage Plate.

[djsinco]

In the town I grew up we had a White Diamond instead of a White Castle.  If you ate the food at this greasy spoon, you would know why this is a hilarious knockoff.  All through high school we used to make jokes about the place, but before you could be old enough to hang out in bars, this was all we could do. 

The common denominator besides "White" is the name 'Rat Burgers' which just like the big chain, so were these guys burgers we named them as.

White Manna (or Mana) dates back to the 1930s and still has a couple of locations in NJ. They are greasy spoon diners, and not slider servers.

Au contraire, the White Manna in Hackensack definitely serves sliders, and has for almost 75 years. The White Mana, in Jersey City, apparently was opened by the same gentleman. The sign-maker misspelled "Manna," and the owner just let it "slide." I have not been to the JC location, so not sure about what they serve, but probably the same menu.

Is White Castle a knockoff of White Manna???

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_Manna

[broadhurst04]

Waffle House (the huge corporation) could not use their name when expanding into IN as the name was already taken. They were (and still might be) named "Waffle Steak." The familiar yellow sign looked about the same.

The Food Lion grocery chain had a similar experience when they expanded into GA. At the time, the chain based in NC was called Food Town. There was already a chain in GA called Food Town. So the NC Food Town changed its name to Food Lion.

[OracleUsr]

LFPINC...Lowest Food Prices in NC (/SC/VA).

I remember Food Town.

[Scott5114]

There is a small doughnut chain in Massachusetts called Gourmet Donuts, in the central part of the state north of Worcester.  Their former logo was a very close rendition of the Dunkin' Donuts logo.

That reminds me... someone needs to open a donut shop in Duncan, OK and name it Duncan Donuts

[roadman65]

I do not know if this counts, but Ker's Winghouse of the Tampa Bay-Orlando-Daytona Beach areas could be one of Hooters.  If you ever get to Florida and are in those metro zones, go inside and you will see everything as Hooters is, except the uniforms are black instead of Orange and White.  The floor is wood, they also hang Christmas lights (except red is what Ker uses exclusively), the tables and chairs, as well as the whole decor is exactly like Hooters.

However, unlike most Hooters that do not serve a full liquor bar, though changing that slowly, they do have a full bar.  The Wings are better, but Hooters has better hamburgers, so other than personality traits it could be a knock off.  I do not know if its  considered hillarious as the place is as nice as its competitor, but it was sued by Hooters in court which could make it hillarious as Hooters lost the battle as its just like Home Depot suing Lowes.

[Takumi]

Quite the bump, but this 7-Eleven near me lost its franchise and became a knockoff of itself.

[Roadrunner75]

I've seen a few former 7-11s around with 'clever' names, such as this 8-12:
https://maps.google.com/maps?ll=39.854345,-75.125142&spn=0.000004,0.002575&t=m&z=19&layer=c&cbll=39.85444,-75.125142&panoid=qNdlRquXQIXSxq8YHv3WjA&cbp=12,324.5,,0,-8.6

[formulanone]

Found this in Plant City, Florida two years ago:



Not really a chain, but a knock-off that never seemed to get off the ground:

[1995hoo]

Somewhere back earlier in the thread I'm sure I linked the article about the guy who owned the Eleven-Seven deli and then got bolder and opened "New Kentucky Fried Chicken," subsequently renamed "New Kantacky Fried Chicken" when KFC threatened to sue him. The article has loads of pictures of weirdly-named chicken joints in the New York area–funny stuff.

[Scott5114]

Newcastle, OK has a convenience store called J-Mart. Which is kind of funny, because there are no K-Marts in metro OKC.

[Takumi]

Reminds me of this S-Mart convenience store in Richmond (photo 2012...also spot the directional errors)


(S-Mart was also the K-Mart knockoff in the movie Army of Darkness.)

[Fred Defender]

There used to be an "Armada Inn" at the southern end of Nags Head. They built it intending to become a Ramada but then were denied a franchise, so they swapped two letters.

Same case by Atlanta at I-20 and GA 70.  Used the same font as Ramada too, then was bought and changed its name, but then closed.  It was reportedly a real seedy motel.

No photo. But I get a kick out of the "Hilltop Garden Inn" every time I pass through Forsyth, GA on I-75. Pretty clever. And the sign looks similar.

[Fred Defender]

As for Dairy King, that one kills me.  Thank you for posting that.  It reminds me of a Burger Queen I saw many years ago.  I just wish I could remember where it was.

I saw a Burger Queen in southern Oregon (I think Lakeview) in 2011 or so.  It was not a Burger King knockoff.  But that caught my eye anyway, since for a time one of my college classmates was known as the "Burger Queen" when she was a senior vice president at Burger King.

I was just going to post about Burger Queen. We had a Burger Queen in Venice, FL in the early-to-mid 1970's. It didn't last very long (food sucked). I believe that there were a few others around Florida but don't recall where. Can any of you other old-timer Floridians help me out?

[hbelkins]

Reminds me of this S-Mart convenience store in Richmond (photo 2012...also spot the directional errors)


(S-Mart was also the K-Mart knockoff in the movie Army of Darkness.)

Those signs could go in the redundancy thread.

And I remember an S-mart store actually existing years ago.

I saw a Burger Queen in southern Oregon (I think Lakeview) in 2011 or so.  It was not a Burger King knockoff.  But that caught my eye anyway, since for a time one of my college classmates was known as the "Burger Queen" when she was a senior vice president at Burger King.

I was just going to post about Burger Queen. We had a Burger Queen in Venice, FL in the early-to-mid 1970's. It didn't last very long (food sucked). I believe that there were a few others around Florida but don't recall where. Can any of you other old-timer Floridians help me out?
[/quote]

There was a Kentucky-based Burger Queen chain that operated in many small towns that, at the time, did not have any other fast-food places. Burger Queen had a mascot called Queenie Bee. The franchise became Druther's and was bought out by Dairy Queen International. There is one Druther's left, in Campbellsville, Ky.

[SteveG1988]

Burlington Center Mall in Burlington NJ for a few years had a "Taco Shell" Resturant.

[Pete from Boston]

One day I'll find and post my pics of Central Mass chain Dippin' Donuts, which is the same as what it looks like, but better because it's not them. 

[Takumi]

Those signs could go in the redundancy thread.

I think I've posted them in one of the threads in Traffic Control before. Probably Erroneous Road Signs because of the North/South banners on the one unisign.

[gilpdawg]

Whatever happened to the Indiana based "Waffle House" restaurant chain that was not the more famous national chain based out of Atlanta?

Waffle House (the huge corporation) could not use their name when expanding into IN as the name was already taken. They were (and still might be) named "Waffle Steak." The familiar yellow sign looked about the same.

First of all, it was Waffle & Steak, as I remembered the sign had the same blocks that the normal Waffle House resturant had plus a smaller block in between with the & on it. But to answer another question, they have since been converted to regular Waffle House resturants. I live near one of these and do remember Waffle & Steak, but it was still Waffle House in everything but the name (not sure how that counts toward the knockoff clause.) As for the other Waffle House, I think it's still there somewhere, but nowhere where I live, in any case it was a slightly different resturant from the diner-style that is Waffle House. They may have taken a different name by now as you honestly only see the actual Waffle House around town nowadays.

Since this thread came back from the dead, I can answer this one. The old Indiana Waffle Houses are now called Sunshine Cafe. I'm not sure how many are actually left. There's one in Richmond. The old Waffle and Steak restaurants are now Waffle Houses, and have been for several years now.