Shoney's Thanksgiving Dinner

Getting a drive-in Shoney's Thanksgiving dinner sounds like a dream come true! Extra Snowflake Potatoes, please!

Which parts?

"Extra Snowflake Potatoes, please!"

I don't like the sound of Grecian Bread for Thanksgiving. Sounds far-un to me.

I'd rather have a steak dinner at Bonanza. Sirloin and all the salad I can eat for $9.98!

Those potatoes seem too sensitive to live.

Shoney's is what, exactly?

Wow...I remember eating at Bonanza (in the 70's) growing up in Colorado...they're probably not around anymore

If you're from MA, NH, or southern ME you probably remember Yoken's. But I don't remember broiled...whale.

I hope the parts of celery include the leaves. I like to use it to brush after a big meal like that!

FAT WHORES REJOICE!

Bonanza combined with rival chain Ponderosa and still exists in the heart of deplorable country (Indiana, Ohio, Wisconsin, etc.). Rustler and York Steak House are gone though. Sizzler retreated back to the West Coast. Steak and Ale was a cut above them all, and was the fanciest steakhouse in many a one horse town.

Ponderosa gave me the shits.

R11, why would fat whore rejoice. - it's just a restaurant from the past...

I remember eating with my parents at a Ponderosa (I think, one of those steak restaurants) when I was an incoming freshman at an Ivy League university. There were none where we lived and the meal was pretty good. I came back to the dorm and told some of the guys we went there and they were so snobby about it. It was an introduction to that Ivy snob mentality I never forgot.

I think there is one York Steak House still in business in Columbus, Ohio.

I like my Tom’s young.

The only Ponderosa I want to go to involves Adam, Hoss, and Little Joe running a train on Ben Cartwright.

[quote]If you're from MA, NH, or southern ME you probably remember Yoken's. But I don't remember broiled...whale.

I remember the signs with the whale from when I was a child traveling through that area. "Thar she blows!" I found them very amusing.

If the Shoney's Thanksgiving meal was too pricey at $2.15 apiece, you could get a roast turkey dinner at Woolworth's for 95 cents, if your family didn't mind having their holiday dinner at a lunch counter.

That's like a scene out of a southern novel. Geraldine Page could play the mother.

I remember the older Black ladies in the grey starched uniforms with white aprons and little caps walking among the tables of Morrison's Cafeteria asking "Mo tea?" Mo tea?"

I was poor white trash in the rust belt, and I don't think we ever had Shoney's in that area.

The only American food buffet I can remember as a kid/teenager was Ponderosa, and maybe Hoss's (which was more salad but would have a few food items on it.)

I noticed once I was off to college that Chinese buffets seemed to grow in popularity.....must be that immigrant families were moving to the area and opening more and more.

My grandmother used to take us to the Heritage Cafeteria in Springfield,MO. Shortly before it closed for good my sister took my mom for old times sake. She said it was the worst meal she ever had.

I recommend the Blue Plate #2. (at 1:16)

What exactly is a combination salad? I mean what's in one?

As a kid, my favorite thing in the world was to go to Sizzler and get the chopped steak, steak fries and the ever-present Texas toast, of course. The salad that I'd construct at the salad bar had roughly equal parts lettuce and bacon bits.

Anyone else remember Quincy's? They were famous for their--and I quote--"big, fat yeast rolls." My father hated eating out when we were growing up, but we'd go to Quincy's on my parents' anniversary. The Friday night we'd normally go to celebrate inevitably coincided with a dinner seminar by a local chiropractor, who'd be shilling his practice on the other side of the folding partition wall. Even as a child, it became a running joke about the anniversary dinner at Quincy's, with the loud-mouthed quack talking on a hot mic a few yards away. They did have a great salad bar, though.

R28 Did Jack Klugman come in afterwards and perform an autopsy to see what food killed you?

Is young Tom Turkey available à la carte?

10 cents extra for Strawberry Pie? Do we look like the Rockefellers?

I spent a summer in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, and I dated a young hottie who ran a car wash. Every week he would take me to Shoney's for dinner, and then we'd go to his sister's house where we would fuck like mad men. So seeing that Shoney's menu gave me a hard-on.

I remember going to Shoney's as a little kid with my grandparents. It had Big Boy statue out front. But I don't remember it being a buffet. Just regular menu service and I think I would get the Big Boy burger or something like that. It came with a little American flag on a toothpick stuck in it.

No sweet potato anything? I'll pass.

By the way, snowflake potatoes are simply mashed potatoes with sour cream and cream cheese.

One time, our car broke down outside a highway rest stop. I told my mom, "Look, we got stuck at Stuckey's!"

R34 for dessert you can have fresh pumpkin or ice box cream pie. I'm partial to the ice box cream pie so if you get pumpkin we can both have half of each.

What year is this from OP? That's a hell of a deal.

"What exactly is a combination salad?"

Combination lettuce; combination tomato; combination cucumber; combination radish; combination onion; combination crouton.

R33 That wasn't Shoney's, it was Bob's Big Boy.

Shoney's had a kickass breakfast buffet.

R39, Big Boy was a franchise chain. Shoney's was one of the franchisees. So R33 was likely correct.

R40, you're correct about the breakfast buffet. And sometimes they'd serve it in the evenings as well, I believe on the weekends at certain franchises. We'd go then if my mum knew they were doing breakfast at night.

We used to sometimes go for regular dinner and get the salad/soup bar, but the last time we went for that the "soup du jour" (huge quotes) was something called "Pizza Soup"...essentially tomato soup with pepperoni in it, with cheese and bread crumbs on the side to top it off. That's when Shoney's was going downhill in the mid-90s and kind of stopped caring.

I remember in my 20s going to the Stoney’s Breakfast bar after late night drinking. There is nothing better. I haven’t been to the Shoney’s breakfast bar in years, but I remember it fondly and it was good.

Shoney's started in West Virginniny. From Wikipedia:

In 1947, Alex Schoenbaum opened the Parkette Drive-In next to his father's bowling alley in Charleston, West Virginia.[1] After meeting with Big Boy founder Bob Wian in 1951, Schoenbaum became a Big Boy franchisee on February 7, 1952, now calling his several locations the Parkette Big Boy Shoppes.[2][3] In May 1954, a public "Name the Parkette Big Boy Contest" was announced, and in June 1954 Schoenbaum's five Parkette Drive-Ins were rebranded as Shoney's.[4][5]

Shoney's (the Parkette) was originally the Big Boy franchisee for West Virginia;[6] however, Schoenbaum rapidly grew the chain through subfranchising, expanding his Big Boy territory through the southeastern United States, excluding Florida where the rights already belonged to fellow Big Boy franchisee Frisch's.

Schoenbaum's earliest subfranchisees operated under their own names. In 1955, Leonard Goldstein became a subfranchisee in Roanoke, Virginia. Originally operating as Shoney's, he eventually changed to Lendy's Big Boy after another Shoney's subfranchisee called Yoda's Big Boy opened across town. In 1956 a subfranchise was sold to the Boury brothers in northern West Virginia, who operated as Elby's.[7] Elby's, Lendy's, and Yoda's units were originally listed with Shoney's units on the back of the Shoney's menu.[8] Also in 1956, Schoenbaum sold a subfranchise to Abe Becker in Rochester, New York, for Becker's Big Boy. Two Philadelphia area subfranchises, Tunes and Arnold's, were opened during this period as well. In 1959 subfranchisee Abe Adler opened Adler's Big Boy in Lynchburg, Virginia, which was later sold to Lendy's.[9][10] Also in 1959 Shap's Big Boy was subfranchised in Chattanooga, Tennessee, later assuming the Shoney's name.[11] After this, all subfranchises went by the name Shoney's.

We lived in New Orleans in the early 70s and would sometimes go to Shoney's Big Boy. My family was from Ohio so we would go to Frisch's when we visited there. Both Shoney's and Frisch's had the delicious hot fudge cake we always begged for.

Haven't thought about "Grecian Bread" in 40 years. Wasn't it just garlic French bread?

They mean "hearts of celery." See what happens when you hire the illiterate.

r46 Or elect it.

Honey, that Shoney’s breakfast buffet was the real deal. Everything was great, including biscuits and (sausage) gravy.

In the NorthEast, the Big Boy franchise was Elby's.

[quote]What year is this from OP? That's a hell of a deal.

1974

Adjusted for inflation, $11.25.

I don't really eat at these types of restaurants. Is that considered a good deal these days? I know it's insanely cheap for a more upmarket place.

[quote]Adjusted for inflation, $11.25.

That's about right for a place like Shoney's for a holiday meal. Somewhere like Cracker Barrell would run $10-15.

What was the name of the Boston-area chain in the 70s and around then? It was similar to Friendly's. Colonial wallpaper, etc. Lime rickeys. I want to say "Bennigans" but that isn't the name.

Deplorables rutting at the trough.

[quote]What was the name of the Boston-area chain in the 70s and around then? It was similar to Friendly's. Colonial wallpaper, etc.

The Ground Round? Ninety-Nine Restaurant & Pub?

OMG! Reading this thread made me miss my favorite all YouCan eat buffet.

R53 Remember this bad boy?

The AYCE buffets in my town weren't Shoney's. They were Ryan's and Golden Corral. I think the Western Sizzlin switched over to buffet too. These places were big with the after church on Sundays crowd. I don't think any are left in business though.

The first Monte Cristo sandwich I ever had was at the Blue Bayou restaurant in Disneyland at least 40 years ago. It's been my favorite sandwich ever since.

[quote]What was the name of the Boston-area chain in the 70s and around then? It was similar to Friendly's. Colonial wallpaper, etc.

Brigham's? Pewter Pot?

Pewter Pot was before my time, but were they related to Hearth and Kettle in some way? I’ve seen pictures of a Pewter Pot interior and they seemed interchangeable.

Brigham's, r59. I think I remember one near Boston Common, on Tremont.

Shoney's gave up the Big Boy franchise after they entered Frisch's territory but they basically kept the Big Boy menu. For awhile they used "Town & Country" for their restaurants in the Big Boy territories of other chains. By the time I lived in their territory (post-Big Boy), they were pretty awful and they were retreating from a major expansion that had taken them beyond the Southeast. I can't imagine having Thnakgiving dinner at one of their places.

Freshtastic

BRIGHAM'S! Thank you, R60!

Shoney's hot fudge cake was delicious.

Note to self: google "grecian bread". I'm pretty sure I know though. Love all this talking about food.

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In Dallas the Big Boy franchise was called Kip’s.

And yeah, the food and ice cream was great.

Thanksgiving is shit without fairy toast.

Shoney's Breakfast Bar was always delicious. I loved the French Toast slivers, hashbrowns, muffins, scrambled eggs, and more.

Damnit you bitches...its 9pm in California, and I have the munchies and this thread is making me insanely hungry.

[quote]Damnit you bitches...its 9pm in California, and I have the munchies and this thread is making me insanely hungry.

Eat some parts of celery.

I LOL'd, R73.

R65 You're welcome. Brigham's still has ice cream in the supermarkets, but yeah it's gone otherwise.

[quote]Pewter Pot was before my time, but were they related to Hearth and Kettle in some way? I’ve seen pictures of a Pewter Pot interior and they seemed interchangeable.

R61 Sorry, I've never heard of Hearth and Kettle.

I don't know when Pewter Pot went out of business but my friends and I used to go there in high school. Kids called it puker pot but we liked it and the food was good. There's no way I can picture kids going to any place like this now. It was kind of like a tea room atmosphere. It was also a place women went together. There were a lot of restaurants like this then, that were inexpensive but still had menus and waitresses in nice uniforms, but unlike restaurants now - it was quiet! And I never remember seeing any little kids there.

From this menu, it looks like they were affiliated with Putnam Pantry - probably owned by the, Putnam Pantry is still around - it's known mainly for ice cream and candy but also has food.

Thanks, r76/r77. I just found it; one came after the other.

[quote]Founder VJ Catania transformed a Pewter Pot Muffin House (his previous restaurant concept) into the first Hearth ‘n Kettle. Five more Hearth ’n Kettles followed

r66=Erna