[HN Gopher] The last Howard Johnson's restaurant closes in Lake ...
___________________________________________________________________
The last Howard Johnson's restaurant closes in Lake George, N.Y.
Author : NaOH
Score : 57 points
Date : 2022-06-03 19:38 UTC (3 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.washingtonpost.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.washingtonpost.com)
| jpm_sd wrote:
| I really enjoyed Jacques Pepin's autobiography and was surprised
| to discover that working at Howard Johnson's was a major,
| formative experience in his life.
|
| https://www.nyjournalofbooks.com/book-review/apprentice-my
|
| https://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/28/opinion/howard-johnsons-a...
| CharleFKane wrote:
| And to kind of tie several things together at once:
|
| The podcaster Simon Majumdar recently did an interview with
| Jacques Pepin.
|
| https://www.eatmyglobe.com/season-8/jacquespepin
|
| During that interview, he mentioned that, as a special event,
| with Paul Freedman (author of "10 Restaurants that Changed
| America", they cooked one dish from each of the 10 restaurants
| for about 100 people.
|
| Some of these dishes were from really high-end restaurants like
| Le Pavillon (where Pepin also worked).
|
| "But the dish that everybody loved was the fried clams from
| Howard Johnson's."
| dharmon wrote:
| I just read this and also really enjoyed it.
|
| Pepin heaps praise on Howard Johnson (the person), and has no
| kind words for his son, whom he blames for the restaurant's
| decline. Mainly lack of adaptability as fast food hit the
| country, but then also drastically cutting quality in
| ingredients.
|
| Pepin claims that he would take home frozen restaurant food (as
| it was shipped to the restaurants), reheat it, and serve it to
| his NYC "foodie" friends, including renowned French chefs,
| without them being able to tell. I actually believe this since
| most of the pre-prepared food were stocks and sauce bases which
| freeze just fine, and also take the most time to prepare.
| [deleted]
| ars wrote:
| Sears and K-Mart are working on it:
| https://brostocks.com/2021/11/20/how-many-sears-stores-are-l...
| and https://brostocks.com/2022/04/28/how-many-kmarts-are-left-
| in...
| lapetitejort wrote:
| Somewhat related, I know of a Woolworth's that has been
| untouched since its closing in the 90s in a tourist city
| somewhere on the East Coast. I toured it by myself after a
| store owner friend gave me a key to the basement. I wanted to
| enjoy it more, but the constant dread of getting caught
| overwhelmed the fascination of this thirty year old time
| capsule.
| LeoPanthera wrote:
| I guess they will not be able to open the "Howard Johnson's
| Earthlight Room" on an orbiting space station as predicted by
| 2001: A Space Odyssey, after all.
|
| https://georgehahn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/2001-space...
|
| (The "Bell System Picturephone" is also looking pretty unlikely.)
| [deleted]
| mooreds wrote:
| Here's a website devoted to Howard Johnsons:
| http://www.hojoland.com/
| Doctor_Fegg wrote:
| > In his book "Ten Restaurants That Changed America," historian
| Paul Freedman credited the company with pioneering "several key
| concepts in the American way of dining out: roadside locations, a
| family-friendly ambience, franchising, predictability and serving
| comfort food long before that term was invented."
|
| This, incidentally, is a superb book. I greatly enjoyed it and
| I'm not even American.
| anyfoo wrote:
| That honestly sounds like exactly the things that annoy me,
| those chain restaurants and franchises with always the same
| audience and food. Visiting is equivalent to going to a FedEx:
| You know what to expect, but you don't go there for pleasure.
|
| That's good and expected for fast food (i.e. McDonald's), but
| fast food is something you do on the go: Using drive through or
| picking up, or when I was younger sitting in only
| transitionally with my friends to gulp down the fast food in
| the middle of our night out.
|
| Luckily at least in the cities there are still a wide variety
| of individual restaurants, often better than where I'm from,
| especially (but not exclusively) if it comes to non-local
| cuisine. The chains take up space but they are still easy
| enough to ignore.
| kube-system wrote:
| The popular situation in which someone would go to one of
| these restaurants is this:
|
| It's 1975 in America. You're on a family road trip. It's hot,
| you've been driving all day, and you've got two whiny kids in
| the back seat. Everyone is getting hangry, and you need
| somewhere comfortable to pause. You want somewhere where you
| can sit, get something that the kids will eat without fuss,
| and maybe an ice cream would be nice. The obvious answer is
| Howard Johnson.
|
| Drive throughs didn't exist at this time, and even if they
| did, you wanted to get out of the damn car anyway.
| rcurry wrote:
| I was one of those whiny kids, lol. Always the high point
| of our cross country trips in the old '72 Impala when my
| dad would get tired of driving and say "What do you kids
| think about hitting a HoJo's?"
| anyfoo wrote:
| Thanks. As mentioned elsewhere, I did not know that aspect
| of "roadside restaurants". It makes sense as a "pit stop"
| kind of thing with families, and seems to fill a similar
| role to the big gas station+restaurant combinations you
| find along the Autobahn for example.
|
| Another aspect is that if in Europe you've been driving for
| 8 hours, you may well have crossed a country border (or
| multiple), and everything is very different anyway.
| McDonald's again being your best bet if you want anything
| really predictable in that case (and you can even order
| without speaking the language usually).
| kube-system wrote:
| The road-trip culture in the US has spawned all kinds of
| interesting business models that make little sense out of
| context.
|
| My favorite example is Breezewood Pennsylvania:
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breezewood,_Pennsylvania
|
| It's a "town" that almost nobody lives in. It exists
| solely because of a poorly-conceived connection between
| two major highways. Millions of people stop to get gas,
| use the restroom, or stop at a hotel there just because
| they have to stop anyway at two stop lights.
| Tostino wrote:
| What you are looking for in a restaurant is not the same as
| everyone else. There are plenty of people who are more than
| happy to have their same comfortable meal over and over,
| these places are catering to those folk. Repeat business is
| better for profitability than always having to acquire new
| customers, and this model encourages that repeat business for
| the customers that it fits well with.
| anyfoo wrote:
| I guess I don't understand why that needs chains. In the
| parts of Europe that I am originally from, there are far
| less chain restaurants than here. And as I hinted, it's
| still pretty common for folks to have "their" restaurant in
| the neighborhood and to eat there all the time, same food
| or not. Maybe mixing it up some time with another
| restaurant, maybe not.
| throw7 wrote:
| You're right... it doesn't need "chains". "Chinese"
| restaurants fill the same needs. I think maybe even
| "Mexican" restaurants do to some degree also.
|
| I'm not familiar with Europe, but in my limited travels,
| "doner kebab" shops kind of seem to fill the same niche.
| oh_sigh wrote:
| HoJos were catering to travelers, not to locals(which is
| why they are on the side of highways generally). So the
| idea is you're in some new territory on a road trip, and
| you see a name you know and trust and know you can go in
| there and get a meal that you'll enjoy. Yes, sometimes
| exploring unique local food options is what you want to
| do. Other times, it isn't. Maybe you just spent 8 hours
| driving in the car with 3 kids, and you need to get food
| into them that you know they won't reject. Or you're a
| business traveler and aren't interested in sightseeing,
| and just want to get a quick meal near your hotel.
|
| I'm sure it happened, but I'd imagine very few customers
| lived within a couple miles of a HoJo and would eat there
| regularly.
| anyfoo wrote:
| That's a good explanation, thanks. So it's basically
| McDonald's but with more "substantial" food suited to sit
| in with families.
|
| That makes sense to me. Almost no matter where I traveled
| in the world, I sometimes wanted to just get some food in
| me and move on, say because I was transitioning through a
| place or simply did not have the energy for more. As a
| then single guy, McDonald's was always a good option for
| that: You know what you get and it's quick and easy.
| Tostino wrote:
| I don't honestly think it's necessary by any means, and
| don't personally like them. But they do eek our their
| existence through appealing to the "familiar" for their
| customers, because no matter where you're at, you know X
| will taste like home.
|
| I don't personally subscribe to that, i'd much rather see
| what a new place has to offer, but i'm not everyone.
| anyfoo wrote:
| Ah, I think I can understand that aspect (even though it
| also does not fit me personally).
| surge wrote:
| Cracker Barrel essentially fills this niche now.
| kube-system wrote:
| I'd throw Denny's, IHOP, and Applebees into the same
| category.
| rmason wrote:
| When I was growing up Howard Johnson's were everywhere. Their
| hotels were in every mid-size town as well. In the mid
| seventies there were over 500 hotels and 1000 restaurants. Just
| like Sears Roebuck it was classic Americana and you could
| easily make the assumption that it would be there forever, but
| by the year 2000 it had mostly disappeared. I admit to not
| knowing why.
|
| Their hotels weren't anything remarkable but the restaurants
| were special. Perhaps tastes changed and once the restaurants
| retreated the hotels followed.
| [deleted]
| jhap wrote:
| I second the book rec, I thought it would be fairly predictable
| and lame, but it turned out to be completely awesome.
| AlbertCory wrote:
| I can't get too nostalgic on this one, sorry.
|
| But speaking of upstate New York: the fact that you can stay in
| Big Pink [1], where Dylan and The Band stayed and / or recorded
| -- that would be something.
|
| [1] https://www.vrbo.com/3970069ha
| mbreese wrote:
| https://archive.ph/jELUf
| chasil wrote:
| Howard Johnson's had fried clams, did not know that.
|
| While I find fried clams repulsive, my secretary loves them,
| especially in her home state of New Hampshire.
|
| I found them at Red Lobster a few years ago, and insisted that
| she try them because she complained so much. She admitted they
| were quite good, but there were no "bellies" (a particularly
| repellent portion of the dish).
|
| I hope she liked HoJo's while it lasted.
| jmclnx wrote:
| >Howard Johnson's had fried clam
|
| They were clam strips from what I remember, and I am with your
| secretary. Clam Strips are a waste of calories :)
|
| But I was rather surprised when friends from Atlanta GA visited
| and I took them to a place in New Hampshire, which I am sure
| your secretary has bee at many times. They thought Fried Clams
| were repellent, which was a big surprise to me.
|
| The ended up getting scallops, but they did not believe were
| real because they were so large.
| ghaff wrote:
| There are clam strips and fried whole belly clams. The latter
| are definitely better but you apparently don't like clams in
| general.
|
| That said, as I get older I find most deep fried things are
| better not deep fried so I'll pretty much take steamers
| (steamed clams) by preference these days.
| Tostino wrote:
| Yup, will go for steamed over fried seafood any day of the
| week...unless there are good fish and chips around.
| nsajko wrote:
| > Howard Johnson's had fried clams, did not know that.
|
| Funnily, I suppose there's many people who know about Howard
| Johnson's serving clams, _even though we know almost nothing
| else about the chain_.
|
| This is thanks to Zappa's song/musical story Billy the
| Mountain, prominently featuring Mark Volman and Howard Kaylan
| (the force behind The Turtles) on most memorable performances.
|
| Excerpt: They left that night, crunchin'
| across the mojave desert Their voices echoing through
| the canyons of your minds "Ethel, want to get a cuppa
| cawfee?" "there's a Howard Johnsons! want to
| eat some clams?" The first noteworthy piece of real
| estate they destroyed was Edwards Air Force Base And to
| this very day, 'wing nuts' and data reduction clerks alike
| Speak in reverent whispers about that fateful night when
| Test stand number one and the rocket sled itself got LUNCHED!
| By a famous mountain-in and his small, wooden wife
| fredcy wrote:
| Going to the Howard Johnson's (in Oshkosh, Wisconsin) in the late
| 60's was a big treat for my family. Their fried clams were exotic
| fare.
| O__________O wrote:
| Property is now listed for the unlikely price of $10... :)
|
| https://exitrealtyempireassociates.com/listing/nyenyrmls2021...
| iod wrote:
| Per the article, it's $10 per foot2 of space leased. So I am
| guessing that to lease the whole place it would therefore be
| 7500ft2 * $10-per-ft2-per-year / 12 months-per-year =
| $6250/month .
| WorldPeas wrote:
| I guess that location they opened in space back in 2001 really
| bankrupted them
| js2 wrote:
| My dad used to take me to one in Miami. For their fried clams and
| Butter Crunch ice cream.
|
| https://losttables.com/hojos/hojos.htm
|
| The last one closed in 2017 though. Even though a restaurant
| remained in the Lake George location, it wasn't operating as
| Howard Johnson's, per the article. It's sorta like how Voyager
| keeps leaving the solar system, I guess?
| tuckerpo wrote:
| I visited Lake George at the end of 2021 and the Howard Johnson
| restaurant was a tourist attraction, for some reason. Bummer to
| see it die.
| dpedu wrote:
| That's too bad. I have fond memories of my 5th grade math teacher
| taking me there many times for ice cream because she used that as
| a reward for whoever had the best grades that week, or something
| like that. Oh well.
| giantg2 wrote:
| I imagine that sort of reward would not take place today.
___________________________________________________________________
(page generated 2022-06-03 23:00 UTC)