So many of our memories are tied up with food. Maybe it's that first, brain-freezing hit of ice cream, or the first bite of a hamburger. Or perhaps it's the places associated with childhood memories: the Howard Johnson’s from your annual summer holiday, or a banana split at Farrell’s Ice Cream Parlour. When those places have closed, either because they couldn’t keep up with competition and changing tastes, or during the pandemic, it can be hard to swallow. Here, we take a nostalgic look back at the incredible chains we once loved that are now either gone forever or have few outposts left.
Click or scroll through to discover the fast food chains we've loved – and lost.
Back in the day, Burger Chef was McDonald’s biggest competitor. It opened in the 1950s (the same as its rival) in Indianapolis and had 1,200 stores at its peak in the 1970s. It pioneered selling a hamburger, fries and drink as a package deal, and the kids' meal with a toy. However, things went downhill following a series of lawsuits in the 1980s.
It hasn’t been open since the early 1990s, but at one point Valle’s Steak House had over 30 restaurants on the East Coast of the USA. Here you could get a variety of steaks and lobster in its huge dining rooms, which seated 1,000 customers. It was the choice spot for business meetings and celebrations.
You won’t have seen a sign for Arthur Treacher’s in a while unless you live in northeast Ohio, where there are a handful left. It was founded in Columbus in 1969 and grew to 826 locations thanks to the nation’s love of traditional British fish and chips. The next decade the Cod Wars and the sharp increase in cod prices caused its demise.
A stripy red-and-white awning signalled Lum’s beer-steamed hot dogs, fried seafood, hot roast beef sandwiches, subs, and international beer from places like Mexico and Japan. It started in Florida in 1956 and grew to 450 locations around the USA. It filed for bankruptcy in 1982, but one location in Bellevue, Nebraska, clung on until 2017.
This country-themed restaurant was known for its Big Barney (like a Big Mac), Barn Buster (similar to a Quarter Pounder), and TV jingle, 'When the hungries hit, hit the Red Barn', which made you want to get in your car and drive to the nearest outpost. It was founded in Ohio in 1961 and grew to 400 restaurants across 22 states, as well as Canada and Australia.
Do you remember this burger joint that looked just like White Castle? Opened in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, in 1926, it eventually grew to 230 nationwide locations. It sold five-cent hamburgers, 10-cent pie, jelly rolls, marble cake and fruit cocktail. The problem was they were all next to train and trolley lines and, by the 1960s, people preferred drive-ins.
“Aren’t you hungry for a Henry’s?” That was the slogan of Henry’s Hamburgers, a chain with 200 stores from coast to coast in the 1960s. Menu favourites included chilli dogs, fish sandwiches, deep-fried shrimp and crispy catfish. The chain went under in the late 1970s – but one franchise remains in Benton Harbor, Michigan.
The ice cream parlour with epic sundaes, singing waiters and kitschy decor, Farrell’s was established in Portland, Oregon, in 1963. Over the next 10 years it grew to 130 locations which lasted until the 1990s. Then it had a second wind, opening a number of branches around California in the 2000s – all of which are now closed.
Sorely missed in the New York area, Carrols was one of the most flourishing franchise groups around back in the 1960s. It had more than 150 outposts where you could get Club Burgers (double decker sandwiches), fries, shakes and Looney Tunes drinking glasses. However, in the late 1970s, the parent company converted most of its locations into Burger Kings.
There were once 95 green and red G.D. Ritzy's across the eastern states of the USA, but now there's just a handful in Columbus, Ohio; Evansville, Indiana; Owensboro, Kentucky; and Huntington, West Virginia, left. It was opened in the 1980s by a former Wendy’s executive and was focused on serving ice cream, burgers, hot dogs and chilli, but by the 1990s many of its stores had shuttered.
Nowadays you’ll have to travel to the UK or South Africa to see one of these. Wimpy began in Bloomington, Indiana, in 1934, named after J Wellington Wimpy from the Popeye cartoon. It expanded to 26 stores across six states (most of them were in Chicago), but they had mostly all closed by the late 1970s. Its most famous menu item was its hamburger.
Remembered more for the huge fibreglass statue of a dachshund wearing a bow tie and chef’s hat outside each of its restaurants than for its food, Doggie Diner was a California-based hot dog and burger chain that existed between 1948 and 1986. It was opened by amateur boxer Al Ross, who expanded it to 30 locations. The pressure of competing with larger chains such as McDonald’s eventually caused its descent.
Not the first restaurant to be inspired by White Castle, Little Tavern opened in Louisville, Kentucky in 1927 and had nearly 50 outposts by the 1940s. It was famous for its sliders and 'Buy ‘em by the bag' slogan. It was popular for many years but by the 1980s, it was losing market share to more modern fast food companies.
A California chain, The All-American Burger shot to fame when it featured in the 1980s coming of age film Fast Times at Ridgemont High as the place Brad Hamilton gets fired from. Here you could get a quarter pounder, chilli burger and hickory burger, but by the time the movie was released it was shutting stores due to bankruptcy. One survived on Sunset Boulevard, Los Angeles, until 2010 when it closed.
The home of rice, fries, gumbo, corn on the cob, collard greens, biscuits and spicy fried chicken 'better than mama's'. This Baltimore-based chain was founded in 1979 by Ted N. Holmes and in its early days was the nation’s largest Black-owned restaurant business. Unfortunately, the following decade it filed for bankruptcy and stores were sold off.
In the 1970s, this simple logo signified a VIP’s restaurant. Located around Oregon, it served sandwiches, burgers, steaks, chips, clam strips, and sundaes – but you didn't have to be VIP to eat there. It had 53 outposts at its height but, by the early 1980s, they were sold off, with most of the buildings turning into Denny’s.
If you wanted Tex-Mex in the 1970s, you went to Chi-Chi’s. It served chimichangas, nachos and salsa, and was owned by former American football star Max McGee and restaurateur Marno McDermit. A hepatitis A outbreak in the 2000s killed it in the US, but if you travel to Vienna, Austria you can still get your fix at the last remaining outpost.
The place to be in the 1990s, after an episode of Seinfeld featured Kenny Rogers Roasters, everyone wanted to go to the wood-fired rotisserie chicken chain. It was opened in Florida in 1991 by country singer Kenny Rogers and former KFC CEO John Y. Brown, and enjoyed success on US soil for the best part of a decade. After bankruptcy in 1998, the brand was sold to a Malaysian franchiser and has taken off overseas.
In the 1990s, themed restaurants were all the rage. The first All Star Cafe opened in Times Square, New York, a giant homage to professional sports. It served burgers, hot dogs, fried onion rings, crab dip, matzo ball soup and cheesecake, and was filled with sports memorabilia. By the end of the century, it was no longer trendy and started to close locations.
America’s first fast food chain, Horn & Hardart Automats, was revolutionary when it opened at the beginning of the 20th century. Between New York and Philadelphia there were more than 100 where you could get sandwiches, salads, pies, and cakes from coin-operated vending machines. It was particularly known for its fresh-drip brewed coffee. The last of its diners closed in the 1990s.
Incredible ice cream flavours, fried clams, and hot dogs is what you got from Howard Johnson’s. It started in Quincy, Massachusetts, and grew to more than 1,000 stores, making it one of the largest chains in the country at one point. Each one was uniform, like McDonald’s is today. Sadly, in the 1990s, they began to be sold off.
Now take a look at the fast food menu items we want to come back
Last updated by Natasha Lovell-Smith.