Gone but not forgotten: Photos of fast-food chains we miss
There was a time when the American roadside was full of competing visions of what fast food could be. Not just McDonald’s and Burger King, but dozens of chains that felt like genuine destinations.
Then they closed.
Some folded under competition. Others were bought out or rebranded into oblivion. What follows are the ones that earned a place in the memory of anyone who grew up between the 1950s and the 1980s.
Image Credit: Northridge Alumni Bear Facts / Flickr.
Burger Chef
Burger Chef was once the second-largest fast-food chain in the country, trailing only McDonald’s with over 1,000 locations by the mid-1960s. It invented the Fun Meal, one of the first kids’ meal concepts with a toy included, years before the Happy Meal existed. Sold to Hardee’s and gradually converted, the last Burger Chef closed in 1996.
Image credit: Ebay
Howard Johnson’s
Howard Johnson’s orange roof was a landmark on every American highway. At its peak in the 1960s, it had more locations than McDonald’s and Burger King combined, built on 28 ice cream flavors and reliable road-trip comfort food. Franchise mismanagement gradually hollowed it out. The last full-service location closed in 2022.
Image Credit: Phillip Pessar / Flickr.
Arthur Treacher’s Fish & Chips
Arthur Treacher’s opened in 1969 and grew to 826 locations by the late 1970s, serving British-style battered cod, thick-cut fries, and malt vinegar across the country. The Cod Wars between the U.K. and Iceland sent fish prices soaring, and the chain never recovered. A few locations survive in northeast Ohio.
Image credit: Rax Roast Beef / Wikipedia
Rax Roast Beef
Rax Roast Beef reached 504 locations across 38 states by the mid-1980s as a genuine rival to Arby’s. Then corporate leadership expanded the menu to include pasta, tacos, pizza, and Chinese food, added solariums to the dining rooms, and launched an ad campaign so confusing it became a punchline. Bankruptcy followed, and hundreds of locations closed. Six survive in Ohio, Illinois, and Kentucky.
Image credit: Flickr
Lum’s
Lum’s started as a hot dog stand in Miami Beach in the 1950s and grew to 400 locations on one distinctive idea: hot dogs steamed in beer. The menu eventually included fried seafood, roast beef sandwiches, and an international beer selection. The chain was sold in the late 1970s, and most locations closed by 1983. The last holdout, in Nebraska, closed in 2017.
Image credit: Planet2527 / Reddit
Steak and Ale
Steak and Ale filled a role no longer occupied: the affordable steakhouse where a family could get a decent cut and an unlimited salad bar without spending serious money. Founded in Dallas in 1966, it grew to hundreds of locations. Sales slumped as casual dining multiplied, the parent company filed for bankruptcy in 2008, and all locations closed.
Image credit: Car Museum / Facebook
Sandy’s
Sandy’s launched in Peoria, Illinois, in 1958 after its founders were denied a McDonald’s franchise. They built their own instead, complete with Scottish branding, a tartan mascot, and a sandwich called the Big Scot. At its peak, Sandy’s had 240 locations across 20 states before merging with Hardee’s in 1972 and disappearing by 1979.
Image Credit: Simon G./ Yelp.
Wrap Up
Each of these chains left something behind, a specific taste, a particular booth, a parking lot where something happened. The chains that replaced them are fine. They are not the same thing.
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Related:
- 7 defunct burger joints that will hit you right in the nostalgia
- Old-school, discontinued fast food menu items that give us serious nostalgia
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