Abandoned - Shoney's
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- čas přidán 24. 08. 2023
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In the 1950's a small franchisee of the Big Boy Burger chain was slowly rising from their very humble beginnings. It was called Shoney's and through the 1970's, 80's and 90's, the restaurant company grew to become a powerful corporation, building multiple brands like Captain D's Seafood and built out a network of over 1,800 restaurants across North America. However their empire would crash down in a spectacular way through the 2000's, leaving behind a trail of abandoned restaurants and a brand name that is largely forgotten.
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Nothing says “We’re making a comeback” like opening your first ever mall location in the 2010s.
Oouf! That is a dictionary definition "swing and a miss".
They probably got the space for like $25 bucks a few entrée coupons
I think Dan Bell and other pioneers of the dead mall scene were already posting on CZcams by 2010. They may as well have opened their first all-pork restaurant in Mecca.
😂😂😂
Idk the Middle East has it going on
As someone from central europe, I have never ever heard of Shoney's until it was referenced in one Rick & Morty episode, at which point I thought it was a made up restaurant...imagine my surprise when I suddenly saw one while visiting Orlando, Florida in 2017. After spending the day at Universal we went in there, paid for the all you can eat buffet and brutally stuffed ourselves...good times.
I live in the North East USA and thought the same thing. It isn't a thing up here and I thought Rick & Morty made up a restaurant chain.
@@Spindash54I'm from Australia and assumed the same thing. One of my favourite episodes too...
Went to one In Wisconsin after a wrestling tournament, we ate bud brownies before hand. We tore that buffet up, it was good, the munchies were hitting us hard.😂
Hahahah I live 15 minutes away from the 192 location in this video and probably the same one you went to; I thought it was still open tbh 🤣
I grew up in NYC and it wasn’t a thing there, but my dad was from Missouri and we’d drive out every summer to visit relatives there. We’d break up the drive over 2 days, and there was usually a Shoney’s adjacent to the motel we stayed at, so I ate there a fair amount over the years. It was good food, perfect for hungry travelers!
Shoney's breakfast buffet was legendary. I grew up eating there on occasion. The french toast sticks were out of this world.
Used to be the ultimate breakfast stop from Shreveport La when my parent used to gamble out there.
Thank you and you’re welcome
I loved the breakfast buffet because of the cheesy grits. So yummy.
And those potatoes were so damn good
We use to always have the breakfast Buffett when ever we went into the city. I remember being sad when they closed
Sometimes my family would stop at Shoney's back in the 1980s on the way to visit Disneyworld. What I remember most isn't the food, but the how amused my dad was by the enthusiastic way the hostess would greet customer's when entering the restaurant. Every time we'd pass another Shoney's he'd repeat the line "Welcome to Shoney's!" I can't say I miss eating at Shoney's but I sure do miss my dad.
Aw. Sounds like my dad and a joke he would make as well. We had many good times driving down to Disney World. I miss him, too.
Your dad sounds like a nice guy, glad you have such lovely memories with him. 💜
Thank you for sharing this story about your Dad!
I have a Shoney Bear that was my Childhood Stuffed Bear. It's unbelievably precious to me, and I'll always remember Shoney's fondly for that alone.
How ghey 🌈😂
I gave my ex a shoneys bear when I worked for them
I was just about to comment the same! I'm from a very small town and it was always such a treat to eat at Shoney's when we went on vacation. My dad liked them cause the food was reliable and they were close to the road lol. I still have my little Shoney's bear, from sometime in the late 80s.
Awesome!
And if you’re a person of color, and you pull its left arm, it makes a Nazi salute and hurls Nazi epithets at you.
When I was a kid my family would always do the Shoney's breakfast all you can eat every vacation. I hadn't thought about them since then, so this is a weirdly bittersweet episode.
Same for me
We have family in North Carolina. Used to go visit every summer. Now not as much. We were hoping to do the "traditional" breakfast buffet when we went down in June.
Our Shoney's was gone 😮💨
Ditto
When visiting family in North Carolina, we always stopped at a Shoney's in South Carolina on our drive up from Florida. Great breakfast buffet.
I started as a busboy and left as a relief manager. I worked from 1986-1998 and I can tell you that the upkeep of the stores and lots were horrible at the end. The stores had tired looks and the food needed to be improved. The company had no direction.
I was a waitress there for 12 years. I loved Shoneys❤️❤️❤️❤️
you were in management, that's on you!
@@allenbateman3518doesn’t mean he has any say in the direction of the company
I was 3 when you started working there. Then again, I've worked at k-mart and blockbuster. I've also didn't know this place was real until today
Always interesting how restaurants can go from popular to dead in such a short time. Even a change of management can be disastrous.
I am 23 years old. For most of my life my grandfather would go to Shoney’s for the breakfast bar and also the cooks their would make his eggs how he likes it. It was soft scrambled.Often we would meet him for breakfast and we would celebrate birthdays and certain holidays by eating at Shoney’s. The one near us closed down in 2019 and is now a high end brandy bar. It barely changed over the years and that location was on it’s last legs. It was also a place we would stop to eat during road trips. Shoney’s will always be special to me. I will always look back fondly. Especially since my cousin and grandma have died in the past 4 years.
My grandfather used to take me to lunch at ours in the late 70's and early 80's. Great memories.
I would give $100 for a big boy burger right now.
D
@@Lemmon714_ we will have Big Boy's here in Michigan
Jake, those plants aren’t wilted. They are dead. Lol
😅😅
Shhhh
@@BrightSunFilms r u a Jewish person?
Wait-
@@BrightSunFilms Will you make a Christmas Tree Shops Abandoned Video? Just Wondering!
To anyone wondering why Marriott owned a restaurant, it was just one of many they owned. They started as a restaurant company in the 1920’s and didn’t even open a hotel until the 60’s. They stayed mainly in the restaurant business until the mid to late 80’s before either closing or selling everything besides the hotel. Why? Hotels have a higher profit margin than restaurants due to the fluctuating price of ingredients and other often uncontrollable factors and Reagan’s tax reforms suddenly dramatically increased taxation on restaurants. McDonald's and Burger King lobbied and got the reforms repealed (one of the very few times those two companies have ever worked together) but Mariott noped out and chose to go with the safer bet.
FJB
I’m learning so much in these comments (I think I know more about America as a Transylvanian British person than many Americans 🙈) I certainly don’t know as much about my place of origin, just cause there’s not as much to know 😃 As a curious person, it’s great 💗 One day I hope to visit!
@@BravoSeven Because a hotel chain owning a major restaurant chain is a bit odd; especially when they've never had that restaurant inside said hotels. Some companies do diversify into weird industries (for instance Nabisco was once owned by the cigarette company RJ Reynolds) but it can still seem really, really random. Weirded me out when I discovered it a while ago at least.
This made me tear up. Not because of shoneys but how it like so many other things from my childhood (the 90s) has came to an end and all we left with is the nostalgia. 😣
Two more points. 1) there was also a lawsuit following the discrimination lawsuit for labor violations regarding unpaid overtime, working employees off the clock, etc., which was also over $100 million iirc. 2) Lonestar sold off Shoney's prime locations to recoup their investment, then dumped the remaining locations, which were unprofitable, with Doudapour as the buyer.
Thank you for adding this! As a kid in the 80s and 90s, my family and I ate breakfast there on road trips,and I thought the eggs and omlettes were really good, and buffets were great sellers at that time. They often had a big map at the front entrance that showed each location, and there was a totally empty and blank state of Californian...likeCalifornia was noticeably blank (maybe that changed later idk) . I saw they had hotels, and asked a server "why is there no Shoneys in California?" She was blunt and told my parents that they refused to pay OT, and since you get both daily and weekly OT in CA, depending on your schedule. So they definitely were trying to avoid it. My father was disgusted and said "well if they don't pay their people, we don't want them there either" or something similar. It was obvious they didn't care much for their employees. He asked if she got a minimum wage and she said, no just tips. He told her it was legal in a "right to work" state, she just looked angry and sad. This all makes much more sense now!!
@@amberm.2361 reminds me of my grandfather getting aggressive with restaurant managers over mistreating their employees. It was fun watching soft boys half his age go from strutting to almost pissing themselves. He was always the kindest person in the room until someone started acting like a bully then we got to see why all the other old men treated him like he was someone to be feared as well as loved. Never saw him beat up a Shoney's manager, though he did make a Dennys manager get on his knees and apologize to the server who had tears in her eyes. Miss that old rougarou, trying to be like him.
As a 58 year old, I’ve eaten at Shoneys ( as well as BigBoys) all over the United States. There problems all boil down to corporate bean counters. They used to be really family feeling places where most things were made from scratch and very fresh to everything feeling canned and generic.
everytime a hedge fund type business buys a business, it's basically in hospice mode.
that is correct, these corporate chains are squeezing every penny, when you own thousands of restaurants that adds up to millions of dollars in compensation for the Executives/Senior Managers.
Yes. It definitely became a place that if the can opener broke, they'd have to close the doors.
Guess it broke.
Loved the breakfast buffet, tho!!
It's the American way. Make a good product, then cut costs and coast by on brand name to maximize profits until the only ones making quality products are foreign companies.
I started by career in the restaurant industry with them, eventually becoming a chef in a Las Vegas hotel. I learned so much from out prep cook there. We prepped everything in house, all the way from deveining fresh shrimp and breading all the seafood and onion rings right there in the store every day. About the only thing we did not make in house was the strawberry sauce for the strawberry pies. Yeah we bought frozen patties for the Big Boy and regular hamburgers and frozen fries but we pressed the meat for the Half Pounder and All American burger from fresh ground beef. The food was good and we had a whole bunch of loyal customers.
In 1977, when I was 17, I worked at the Shoney's in Marietta, GA. We had a big fiberglass Big Boy that the local high schools would occasionally kidnap to put on the roof of their school building or some similar prank. We never worried about it, as the schools were pretty good about bringing him back after the homecoming event or prom or whatever it was. Shortly after that, though, we did get the Bear branding and said goodbye to the Big Boy statue. My friends and I would work closing, which included dishes and cleaning the place which often took until 5AM, then we would go bowling. Those were the days!
My grandpa LOVED Shoney's biscuits and gravy. Said it was the best he'd had that wasn't homemade. I have fond memories of going there during trips to the Ozarks to visit my grandparents.
Branson location?
I'm 42. In the 80s, my parents used to take me to Shoney's every Saturday when I was a little kid. They had a great salad bar, good fish n chips and hot fudge cake! Today, there aren't any in Montgomery, AL, but there are a couple 40 miles to the north and south of me I think. Thanks for the nostalgia! PS- Fifth Quarter and Lee's were also amazing. Miss them, too!
All the obese americans havent died! So are they at home in their trailers eating bulk buckets of mayonnaise as too expensive to eat out due to prices rises?
There’s still one in Fultondale, AL right off of Interstate 65!
@@danquaylesitsspeltpotatoe8307no need to be a butthole. Shoney’s (and their 99 cent salad bar) was actually the cheapest way to get fresh fruits and vegetables when I was growing up.
So instead of insulting people, how about you get out there and figure out a way to make it cheaper and easier to eat healthy instead of making processed and fast food the cheapest option.
Hey i’m from Montgomery originally, there are still ones open in Greenville and one is Clanton if it hasn’t changed since I moved half a year ago. I remember going to the one in Wetumpka the most as a kid. Great breakfast
The buffet had great bacon 🥓
As a kid in the late 70’s/early 80’s, Shoney’s was known as a Breakfast place. Then they introduced the Breakfast Bar, which meant all you can eat bacon, which was just awesome. At the time, their competition were greasy spoon diners which felt non-family friendly and suffered from the typical trait of single location restaurants being of unknown expectations if you’d never been there before. This was important, because the main customer base were travelers, since at the time, households almost exclusively ate breakfast at home. At the time, mainstream Fast Food places were still being retrofitted to add drive-thrus and were just trying to figure out how to cook breakfast, since their workers were basically food preppers, not short order cooks.
Shoney’s started to die when Fast Food places became ubiquitous in the mid-90’s and enough had figured out the breakfast market to capture the on-the-go breakfast market. They got hit hard when their traveller market started to evaporate almost overnight once motels started offering Free Breakfast. Finally, Starbucks came in and delivered the Coup de Grace.
Since they were known as a breakfast place, I’m not sure if they even had a chance, since their lunch and dinner market wasn’t developed during their heyday. They were just riding the breakfast market gravy train.
Have you not tried it recently? They're still a breakfast place. I hadn't tried it in probably twenty years, but my wife and I had the breakfast buffet there on a trip last year. I thought maybe it was just nostalgia making me remember it fondly, but the breakfast food was legitimately great - well-made, fresh, and delicious (except the nacho cheese), and I'm a food snob.
My first server job.
They had the best breakfast bar. Always a ton of food and it was fresh. Can't really find anything like that anymore. I haven't been to any that are still open lately so I don't even know if they still have a breakfast bar.
@@CiscoWes They do, and I was surprised at how good it still is.
In fairness, I worked at one in the mid 90s and we had just as many customers for lunch and dinner as at breakfast. People loved the stir fry. And they came in droves for the seafood bar on weekends.
I am 54 years old, and I remember Shoney's well. Shoney's was huge in the 70s and 80s. There was one in pretty much every decent sized town in the south, and they were always busy! A Big Boy Burger with fries, and a hot fudge cake for dessert! Simple, pleasant childhood memories!
I hated Shoney’s here in Atlanta
Y'know, I still think it's such a shame how restaurants like Shoney's and Ryan's have fallen to the wayside but absolutely mid tier restaurants like Golden Corral who's pique was in the mid 2000's are still going... I really miss Ryan's, would love to see you do a video on them
Golden Corral has dropped way off as well. They used to be everywhere and I'm not even sure where there is one in Tennessee anymore. Last one I went to was outside Macon, GA I think and it wasn't that great. Ryan's had the same issue a lot of places like that have had over the years, individual stores make a pretty decent profit when they are new, but the places get beat up and need to be refreshed. They never seem to update them, people stop going because it looks and just feels gross, and then they go out of business.
@@thearmourboy3254 odd, any time I go out of my home town in Georgia usually we can find a Golden Corral with minimal exception. Tho like you said they've all dropped off, most of the places I've been have been relatively well kept but the food has been more and more mid since I was a kid. The worst one I've been to has to have been the one in Cordele, GA. They had a catfish that was just dry and rubber, all the food was below mediocre, even the rolls. My dad and I said we'd never stop there again lmao
There is only one Golden Corral left in Iowa and we had a Ryan's Steakhouse that was my favorite place to eat when we were kids course it's long gone
You can thank the pandemic and the development of third party delivery for that.
The town next to me had a Ryan’s that closed right after I moved here. They knocked it down and built something else, but the sign is still there, soaring high against the skyline like an abandoned relic straddling both the past and future. ❤
If you never had Shoney's breakfast bar you missed out. In my hometown when breakfast bar was mentioned everyone knew where it meant. The old Shoney's building here still stands occupied by an Asian restaurant.
Our shoney’s building is now a Mexican restaurant
I loved the breakfast bar. Man I miss it..
@@CD3WD-Project me to
Mine was a both a Chinese restaurant then a Mexican restaurant
Ours is a Hoss's.
The Shoney's bear and the little lollipop tree they used to have is a powerful childhood memory of mine.
I still have my bear from the 80s. Such a wonderful, yet bittersweet thing 😞
@@FigmentForeverI got to eat Shoney’s a few times during 1988-1994. It was like HoJo’s but Non Racist and tastier. I’m Black BTW.
After some serious binging, I have made it through all of Abandoned. Happy to have found Jake's channel. Looking forward to more Abandoned episodes.
Thank you!!
I'm mid binge lol These are fantastic videos.
@@benjessup5564 Yes they are. Jake does a fantastic job.
I'm 47 yrs old (dear God it hurt to say that) & I remember Shoney's well. They had a fantastic breakfast buffet & the dinner buffet wasn't too shabby either. Wish they were still around. Btw, 1st time viewer. Enjoyed the video so much I subscribed. 😊
Can't believe the Abandoned series is almost 100 episodes in. It's amazing what Jake has built and the history and information he's provided for years. Nearly a generation, it feels like. That might sound extra but it's true when you consider the entirety of the Bright Sun Films video catalog, and the hours of content and research provided by it. great stuff!!
Thank you so much! Gotta find something special to do for episode 100!
You’re right, that does sound extra.
@@BrightSunFilmsperhaps do something simple like a live q and a either on here or in person at a Disney location or any other new location not yet featured
And we never left the Shoney's.
@@BrightSunFilms An update on Six Flags New Orleans if you hadn't already done so?
What really killed the company was the quality of the food went way down hill. They used to have some pretty solid food for what they charged. They were generally always full and the breakfast bar was insane. By the time it hit the mid 90's it became a struggle to find something that was good on the menu, and the bars were getting smaller and lower quality.
With their spread they had an opportunity to really be the back bone restaurants in smaller towns, but those are the ones they closed first, which didn't make a ton of sense tbh. In our town they were the only family style restaurant, they had no competition, so it just seemed like they made some relatively poor decisions all around.
Ya. I lived 2 blocks from one most of my childhood. Jacksonville Arkansas. It was always busy until it wasn't. Just kinda evaporated.
Never really thought about it, but I don't ever remember seeing a black worker there. My neighborhood was borderline ghetto. That's odd. Never realized it until this video.
@@thequixoticangler3364 that's been so long ago it's hard for me to remember but lots of chains in that time period came under the same scrutiny, Denny's and Cracker Barrel are the two I remember most but I know there were others as well.
Oddly enough with ours, and several in the area, it was kind of a shock when it closed up. Even as much as the quality had dropped off they still stayed pretty busy, and during event time you could hardly get in. Like I said I think part of their problem was when they started closing stores they didn't really look at anything other than the size of the town or location, which is why they continued to nose dive. They probably closed a lot of locations that were actually making a profit.
Agreed. There are still two Shoney's near me. They have a Seafood buffet on the weekend--$25 a person and the quality is terrible. They still have decent burgers, or they did several years ago. It's been a long while since I ate there.
We had plenty of black workers in the Louisville area ones in the 90s.
Well yeah they got more diverse, duh
I didn't discover Shoney's until the mid-late 90s. I worked nights and slept days, and found the breakfast bar made a good supper. Sometimes I ate there on Saturday evenings. Then came the Saturday after Thanksgiving. The food bar had some leftover thanksgiving items. They were old but still good to eat. On Sunday, I had a major case of the runs - food poisoning. I should have known better than eat three-day-old buffet food. But that which does not kill you makes you stronger, and I was back after a couple of months. This time, Shoney's was a ghost town. It was never that busy, but there were hardly any customers. I guess I wasn't the only one to have a bad Sunday. The restaurant closed not long after that.
Shoney's was my grandparents favorite place to take us after church when we were little. I miss it dearly 😞
by the time the remaining location in my former hometown closed down, the chain had a reputation as the place that retired people went for breakfast and... nothing else. The parking lot was packed until 8 AM, then it looked like a ghost town for the rest of the day. From what I understand from friends around the country, that reputation was consistent across each location.
Sounds a lot like Golden Corral!
Canadian here. My family road tripped through America frequently throughout the 80s and I have fond memories of eating at Shoneys. Always wondered what happened the chain. What a fall from grace.
Yeah it definitely isn’t what it used to be say 20 plus years ago.
I went to the Morgantown location on a Sunday morn and it was packed. That was like ‘89 or ‘90. I was so impressed. Couldn’t believe the options and quality of the buffet bar.
Part of the problem for Shoney's, at least in the south where I lived, was that they built a lot of their restaurants in the 70s and 80s and as the 90s passed, these locations where often in the parts of town that were no longer growing business wise. Unlike many other businesses who would build new locations and either setup a new store or just move, Shoney's kept their locations. I suspect they wanted to stick to their roots being close to interstates and hotels, but as suburban America grew, the economic hot spots pushed further and further away from these areas. No people around means far less business and far less people knowing about you.
The fact that Scott Steiner (former WCW/WWW wrestler ) was an franchise owner always blew my mind. He's in this video at the mall location.
Imagine him calculating a tip! "So Samoa Joe, you take your 33 1/3 chance, minus my 25% chance and you got an 8 1/3 chance of winning at Sacrifice. But then you take my 75% chance of winning, if we was to go one on one, and then add 66 2/3 per cents, I got 141 2/3 chance of winning at Sacrifice. See Joe, the numbers don't lie, and they spell disaster for you at Sacrifice."
In the early days of Tony Schiavone's podcast their nickname for him was Ham Cubes as in the cubes in the salad bar XD
@@WalterDiamond at that point just give him your wallet 😆
😂😂😂😂
My very first job was shoneys when I was a teenager. They expanded to Kansas in the 90s and opened up in my town. I was hired immediately as a dishwasher. The restaurant opened and to be honest it wasn’t ready. There were wires still hanging out of the ceiling in the private dining room. The manager didn’t give a crap about anything. She sat in her office on the computer or watching tv. Once someone ordered chicken fried steak with brown gravy instead of cream. The cook took the steak and washed it off in the sink put it in the microwave back on the plate and added brown gravy 🤮. We were always running out of food. Manager would tell a cook. Here is 50.00. Run to Kroger and get what you need. Buy the cheapest stuff. The restaurant abruptly closed 2-1/2 years after opening! There was a note on the door that read. We don’t have your check so stop asking. Call corporate. I quit way before they closed up!
Fascinating insight there regarding behind the scenes! Thanks for sharing. Based on what you said there if those kind of things were going on no wonder so many shut down.
@@FintanMoloneyYeah it kind of sounds less like a case of "What killed Shoney's?" and more a case of "How the hell did Shoney's last as long as it did?" Especially after it left the auspices of Big Boy/Marriott things seem like they just went to Hell fast.
Never knew Shoney's, Big Boy and Captain D's where all under the same umbrella/company. And I live in a town that has had all three at one point or another.
Shoney's had a HUGE presence here in the Midwest from the 80s-90s. There were dozens of locations in my homestate, Missouri. Miss eating there. Lots of memories.
8 years ago we still had a shoneys in my town , a small town , it was always full of people mostly the elderly population was a fan of this place. Grandpa said he liked the fried fish fridays buffet, I would take him there around 9 am and I would pick him up around 1 and the man didn’t want to leave , he said it was and I quote “really fun” he would drink coffee till noon while playing cards with his pals . It was sad when they closed out , they had to find a new place to gather, we didn’t have another place like it in town.
We still have one near me. It has been remolded and now include a bar with liquor options. Kind of like a CHili's.
@@TeddGCM that’s great 😁 my grandpa would have been so thrilled to see a shoneys again…
@@annearizona7329 I still enjoy the B-Fast bar from time to time. My mother worked for them for many years so it's kind of a nostalgic place for me.
We had a Shoney's for just a few years and overnight they were gone. Man I miss their breakfast bar. Everybody around here still talks about how awesome that breakfast bar was.
Your commentaries are exceptional and you have the perfect voice for delivery. 😌
This one was very interesting as my family ate at Frisch’s Big Boy many times growing up in the 60’s and 70’s. After moving to Colorado from Florida, I got to experience Azar’s Big Boy in the early 80’s and later on, Shoney’s with their great breakfast bar. Was very interesting listening to the history of the restaurant over the years. Thanks!!
Having worked for this Corporation in the mid-eighties, to hear this tale of woes, puts a smile on my face
Shoney's breakfast buffet in the early 90s was amazing. Went to my neighborhood Shoney's a few years ago and the quality wasn't half of what it was. That restaurant has since been torn down and replaced by a gas station. If someone offers to buy you out and you profit from it, please take the deal. All business is fleeting.
unless you have connections to the white house
I worked as a waiter at a Shoney’s in 1988. Their management structure was insane. Every restaurant had *seven* managers. Tips were mediocre. I didn’t stay long.
Too many chiefs, not enough Indians, eh?
'Corporatized'; imho....
"I've got 7 bosses Bob. That's my motivation, to just not be hassled. "
@@montanadunulf"yeeeeah, I'm gonna go ahead and need those TPS reports as quickly as possible, ok Peter?"
@@derekg7853 is that from Office Space? Great 90s movie.
I loved Shoney's buffet! They had a great food selection with something different each day. Sadly they started to be manager deprived and their corporate management turned to crap where they started being dangerous with employee safety so a LOT of employees started quitting left and right.
I used to love going to Shoney’s in Charlotte with my Dad as a kid. I always wondered what happened to the chain; thanks for making this episode!
I used to eat at a Shoney's in Northern Virginia as a kid. It was popular with the locals! But sadly, all corporations are susceptible to mismanagement and Shoney's is yet another example of that.
which part in NoVa?
I want to say there was one off Old Keene Mill (Franconia Rd) used to go there for classic car meet ups back in the late 90s early 00s on Sundays I believe
I used to go the one that was on Richmond Hwy. in Alexandria, VA. Good memories with my dad at that restaurant.
@@RockyC89I used to go to the one in Harrisonburg, VA
What corporations are more susceptible to is maximizing profits. In the case of restaurants, this means buying in bulk, from a distributor - the same distributor that every other restaurant uses. This is why the food at every restaurant tastes the same. Why go to restaurant A and pay X dollars when you can go to restaurant B and pay (X-20) dollars for food that's "just as good."
As a Gen-xer, I have very fond memories of Shoneys, pre and post Big Boy. In the late 90s, early 2000s, we saw a disappearance of the restaurants. Then, in 2019, it was announced our area of Western NC was getting a new build, Shoneys. A great deal of people were extremely excited. The restaurant opened in 2020. All restaurants, especially buffet style, struggled during this time. However, even with current staffing problems in the area, the food is good. 5 star Michelin, no. However, is it the same great taste from your youth, for example the strawberry preserves and biscuits? Yes. So, don't always go by reviews. Try it and see for yourself. I'm thankful for ours.
Literally everything there tastes like nothing, didn't use any salt or seasoning, It's literally for old people who can't taste anymore look around there's all the old people around you and that's because they can't taste
I'm in VA. We lost our 2 Shoneys, last one during c19. I miss that breakfast buffet like crazy.
Michelin stars only go up to 3
The Shoneys breakfast buffet was legendary in the 90s….but that’s all I can remember. As time passed it honestly felt like a KMart surrounded by way better options. Stuck in the past.
Wow!! Thanks for this!!! I grew up with shoneys big boy all my life!! I am originally from nashville, tn…..and that was the headquarters…. When i was in high school, i got my first job as a waitress there. I thought it was a neat job…..however, the restaurant was in Green Hills….i worked pretty hard and closed at night! I did receive racial comments from a few diners…..(at the time i think there were two black waitresses ). When summer came along, i noticed that my hours were being slowly cut……until one day, they just let me go……with no real explanation………but what i saw was that my job was given to a college girl who returned for the summer……. I never knew about this lawsuit…….this happened to me in 1976…. Nashville is also the home to Cracker Barrel (Lebanon,tn). I love my home town…. But its hard to forget that its 35 miles from where the KKK began (Pulaski,tn).
I worked at Shoney's for a bit around 2000. You could tell the shine was off the franchise by that time. Some locations were busy, but the clientele were aging fast. Applebee's was expanding and management was grousing that similar chains that served alcohol were draining off guests. That might have been some of it, but their massive expansion in the decade prior didn't help their image as many locations were in small towns that just couldn't always present a busy and prosperous image. The older locations needed a lot of maintenance by that point. The company's entire image was just tired and old and outdated. Food quality was uneven. Fried items were hand breaded, burgers were still pattied by hand, but other beef came in low quality frozen cuts and frozen vegetables were warmed by microwave. It's just sad to see the company lean into being a generic and mediocre shall of what it was at one time. But then again much of the US's entire food culture has gone in that same direction. An Applebee's, TGIF, Chili's, et al could be absolutely interchangeable and no one would notice.
Many of these concepts are owned by a parent co.; Darden Restaurants for example. So everything is corporatized to maximize profit; while still trying to present the illusion of value through their marketing tactics. They do operate from a position of strength in numbers; which allows them to purchase in bulk, and ultimately save on food and other equipment costs, etc. Also; that 'sameness' has its own strengths; offering the dining guests a relative psychological and emotional security when dining at other remote locations....
The aging clientele is much bigger than people may realize.
80 million stronger....
I ate at the Shoneys in Henderson, KY a month or so ago, and I was the youngest person there eating breakfast after working the Night Shift. And I’m 37.
Chain restaurants do not represent the U.S. food culture. National chains are, by definition, places where people choose to go for prefabricated frozen food.
People seeking quality dining go to unique local restaurants that employ actual chefs, or to super-premium chains that likewise employ chefs.
I loved Shoney's. You could go to one anywhere, and get a good meal, at a reasonable price.
I literally thought Shoney's was a parody in Rick and Morty when I saw it. It's like Denny's I guess.
LOVE the Abandoned series! It's what brought me to Bright Sun Films. The videos are so informative and short enough to stay engaged.
Still love Shoney's. Airport Blvd in Columbia, SC and the many locations throughout TN. Always a great kitchen, friendly staff, and wonderful prices.
We had one in the town near us growing. I completely forgot about it until I saw this video. It was the restaurant nobody actually went to because everyone had a friend who told them how bad the food was.
Funny bit of movie history trivia related to the Big Boy franchise: in the original Terminator film, Sarah Connor worked as a waitress at the fictional Big Jeff’s diner, which was influenced by James Cameron's first wife Sharon, who worked as a waitress at the very same “Big Boy” burger restaurant chain founded by Bob Wian in the Glendale area of Los Angeles where the film took place. Sarah parks her Honda motor scooter next to a fictional "Big Jeff" mascot, a prop built for the movie as a cheeky homage to the old “Big Boy” mascot.
Its crazy that I just came across this video. Having worked at Shoney's cooperate office in Nashville in 2011. This video is pretty accurate and did a great job at being thorough. Awesome job!
We had 2 Shoneys in Sacramento California in the early to mid or late 90s. The food was absolutely delicious and affordable, even to this day my Mom raves and misses the all you can eat breakfast bar which I can attest that is was delicious. During this time frame we lost so many iconic places to eat such as Skippers Seafood and Chowder House, PoFolks, and even Shakeys Pizza and fried Chicken which actually started in Sacramento and now really only exist in southern California with only 1 left in Northern California. The people here LOVE those places because they were always packed with lines out the door at times. It smells like "Greed" ultimately took these places away because the demand for them was high and still is in 2023.
I was the hostess/cashier in the late 80s at our local Shoneys. I was 16. Good times. I used to take strawberry pie or chocolate cake home every night I worked.
My aunt was a waitress for shoney's in the 80s in Tuscaloosa, AL.
WE NEVER LEFT THE SHONEYS!!
Only reason why 1/3 of ppl know this place haha
was looking for this comment XD
@@ianzak87I only knew about it from a CZcamsPoop.
Cringe
We never left his shoneys!!
Holy crap, me and my buddies hung out at the mall where the first Shoneys in a mal was opened. We ate there once, got sick and never went back. It closed a few years ago and to be fair that mall has never been a bustling hub of people.
I was talking with my mom just yesterday and asked if the breakfast bar is still open in our old neighborhood Shoneys. I haven't been to that location in several years living abroad, but she says that location has been closed for years. I was speechless. Having Sunday breakfast at Shoneys was what you do! Now a memory unfortunately 😔
I have so many memories of Shoneys as a kid in the early to mid 2000s and I loved every one of them.
Me too except with my grandfather in the late 70's. I want a big boy burger
@@dannym5865 I remember they were good, I need go to a Shoney’s again soon.
I have an abandoned Shoneys right by my house. No one has taken over the building yet but that’s New Orleans for ya. They’re slow down here. There could be storm damage for all I know. Thanks for doing this episode, Jake! I grew up going to Shoneys with my parents a few times.
lol you should sneak in one day and see if you can snatch a few trinkets. See if they have any computer monitors or TV's leftover that were used for menu displays... furniture... hell even the lightbulbs are valuable never know when you might need one 😂
That is wild. I need to go I there lol
There is one open in Gretna and Boutte
I enjoy these videos because despite my having travelled extensively and pushing into my mid '50's, I've never heard of most of the places you talk about. It's just interesting to see what other people have or had that we never did in New England, and I wasn't "fortunate" enough to stumble across in my travels.
I remember the restaurant chain vividly as a child growing up in Western Pennsylvania in the 70s, especially the Big Boy character in front of the restaurant. I remember stopping at a Shoneys for a bite to eat with my wife and son in Clarks Summit, PA around 1995 while visiting my old childhood neighborhood in Eastern Pennsylvania. Seeing how different everything was after twenty years or so was amazing.
My dad used to manage a Shoney's in the mid 90's. I remember him dealing with corporate misprinting coupons constantly and calling desperately for him to pull them. They also never had boxes because of the take home buffet. People would bring their families and clear the place out every weekend. Even at 10 I could tell the place was a circus.
EDITED: There’s a twist to the Morgantown Shoney’s story…. While yes, “my” favorite Shoney’s location in Morgantown is the one featured here and indeed closed in 2013. HOWEVER, just one year later in 2014 a brand new location opened in a more commercial area of Morgantown, and to this day operates on a very particular schedule - Wednesday through Sunday, 8 am - 4 pm. That’s right folks - brunch goes to 11 am, “dinner” is only between the hours of 2 pm to 4 pm, with no service at all Mondays and Tuesdays. They figured out which lane is theirs and they’re staying in it.
ORIGINAL: Oh no! My first thought was “I hope they didn’t close “my” Shoney’s in Morgantown, WV….. crap. My friends and I ate there constantly back in the day. I never equated Shoney’s with its competitors or that it was too downscale. Maybe I’m being nostalgic but I always thought very highly of the chain in general.
Shoneys was literally my family’s highlight of our vacations down south! We’re from NY and went to nc or fl every year. Shoneys was a a spot we stopped for breakfast almost every day
My family went to the Orlando Shoney's our first meal off the plane in 1992. We liked it so much we did it again in 1995. We didn't have Shoney's in NYS so it stood out to us.
As a proud members of the Shoneys Kids Club lol I will pour one out for this brand.
Anyone remember the cheese you’d pour over the eggs!??
Ah Shoney’s had some great memories. Dad used to be a manager for Captain Ds when they were still owned by the same owners. Had birthdays with that company. All the ones we used to visit are relics now and have been knocked down or just husks. At least Captian D’s is still kicking. Glad you did a video on this. Amazing Work!
Connecticut here. Went to Florida bring sister to college and in South Carolina we stopped at shoneys. Had the buffet. Super good!!!
Great Video, Thank You for sharing the history of Shoney's. I grew-up in southeast New Mexico, there were no Shoney's in the area. During the heyday of the restaurant, sounds like it was a great place to eat..
There used to be a Shoney's in my hometown when I was little, back in the early to mid 90s. I honestly didn't even know they were still around at all!
Shoney's had a HUGE presence in North Carolina. So to say the least, I am very, VERY familiar with Shoney's.
They still in NC? We still have them up here in VA.
@@theiranianputin2770 Not anymore, but I did stop and ate at a Shoney's in Lumberton back in 2019.
i've heard of Stuckey's but not Shoney's, are the two similar?
@@jacksonteller3973no. Stuckeys is a gas station / travel plaza. Typically with a generic diner or a dairy queen.
@@trevonpernell0814 That's sad. Use to be all over the place growing up. Probably take the wife and go for breakfast this weekend to Shoneys. Might be the last time 😢
We had one near my grandparents house in SC and that breakfast buffet was EVERYTHING to me as a kid. I LOVED Shoneys and I’m only 26!
Jake, if you had a fan club I would be the president 😊 I love your topics. But my favorite part of your videos is when you are exploring the actual location and something wows you. You are so animated and descriptive! I feel like I am there with you
I swear every episode of this channel has got something to do with my life. I think the only one I've not been to was Ames. I'm so happy for your well earned success Jake!
The Shoneys when I lived in Columbia TN was the center of town. Heck, my first girlfriend worked at Shoneys. She told me the secret to the sweet tea was one pitcher of tea and one pitcher of liquid sugar mixed together, a 50/50 blend! Thanks for the memories !
Scott Steiner cameo at 14:08!!!!!!!
But yeah when I was a kid in the early 90’s, we didn’t have a local Shoney’s but it was a favorite of my family when traveling. Finally we got one in the later 90’s but it was never particularly great and closed in the early 00’s.
Very interesting video. Never heard of Shoney's out here in Los Angeles so this was all new but extremely fascinating to hear about.
Im from the Midwest and was born in 93, but we went to Shoney’s all the god damn time. The only things I remember are the bear mascot, the free suckers, and the salad bar.
I think most people know of it from Rick & Morty.
Breakfast or Sunday Dinner at Shoney was truly apart of my childhood.
They were still very popular here in Louisiana in the late 90's/Early 2000's
You should also cover Pickadilliy's and Ryan's
There's a Ryan's Open in Charleston WV Surprisingly. Where I Live We Used to Have 4 Shoneys 2 Tour Down 2 Still Stand Empty. 😔 In Huntington WV & Ashland KY .
I have 2 shoneys in my town and they are thriving. The one I go to is always packed and the food is amazing there is also a captain Ds right down the road from one of the shoneys and is popular as well
I was excited to see you used several of my commercials in this. Keep up the good work!
Hey I remember Shoney’s when I was a kid in the 90s and early 2000s. I almost completely forgotten about them since I came across some other restaurants that were too similar.
Shoneys classic American family restaurant vibes seem like it would do well in Japan where they love family restaurants and Americana.
Basically any previously successful US brand gets dumped in Asia though. Just look at Shakey's, Mister Donut, Kenny Rogers Roasters and Payless Shoes. 😂
@@lipstickzombie4981as a parent I actually miss Payless Shoes.
@@lipstickzombie4981for real tho, Mister Donut in Japan is legit
@@denniswoycheshenI had no idea Payless was having a tough time. I got some great deals there as a kid. You had to look, but you could find some quality shoes at a huge discount there!
Don't they serve anything remotely Japanese?
Waiter: Don't ask me, I don't know anything! I am product of American education system! I also build poor quality cars and inferior style electronics!
My local shoneys was the one you ran across, on 192. My family went there after church on Sundays growing up. I have since moved away from there so I had no clue it was abandoned. Such memories!
Shoney's breakfast buffet was a MUST when we went on vacation to either Florida, or to Gatlinburg. I always loved those mushrooms mixed with sausage gravy and biscuits. If we were going to Gatlinburg, we always ate at the Shoney's in Statesville, NC, which was their best restaurant ever IMO.
I ate at the Shoneys near Disney a couple years ago. The breakfast buffet was solid and a decent value for the touristy area.
There was nothing like Shoneys breakfast bar on late Friday/Saturday nights, after my parents bowled on their teams at our local bowling alley, across the street from Shoneys. Their biscuits and gravy were phenomenal. We also had a Shoneys Inn behind the restaurant. Both still stand, but the building has been a local beloved Italian restaurant for about ten years and the hotel was bought out by a large chain. I miss it so much.
Oh my I’m almost in tears finding this video, I use to take my Daughter to have Lunch every Fridays, even went to it on my last days in Florida and I remember they gave my Daughter a stuff Bear that she still has in these days 2023. What beautiful memories came to mind when I came across this video. ❤
Our family vacationed from PA to Florida through the 90’s-2005 so we have been to a few. Defiantly remember them down south they had a great buffet!
Family style restaurants in general seem to have had a hard time over the last few decades
Not in the south. We prefer those
Meat and Potatoes kind of went out of style in most of the country. Millennials wanted bolder and more international flavors not bland home cooking. It is hard to fight cultural trends like that.
Could be because of the single parent epidemic. Not many traditional families remaining.
@@Novusod Meat and Potatoes will always be popular, and I would kill for a breakfast buffet in my area. If your theory was correct, there wouldn't be any burger chains. It comes down to price, quality, and quantity. I'm an older Millennial from the South and people around my neck of the woods love home cooking.
@@jtstacey83ours closed down last year. It was always full of seniors on Sundays and Saturdays rest the day it wasn't very busy. The food didn't really taste like anything it didn't have any salt or any seasonings. It was bought up by a stake place that's so good.
Thanks so much for making this. I’m 37 and our town had a Shoney’s for years. Now it’s an IHOP, but I have good memories of eating there with family. They used to sell these stuffed Shoney’s Bears and I always begged for one when we went. To my recollection, my Dad finally caved once and bought me one, but no idea what happened to it. Man this took me back! Thanks again! 💙
This restaurant was a jewel in my little North Carolina town 😢 the town was sad to see it go.
I loved eating at Shoney’s! It was one of my favorite restaurants growing up. My standards may not have been super high at that age, but I do remember asking my parents frequently if we could eat there.
We still have a nice Shoneys here but there are 2 dead literal abandon ones too. I love it. Paul Reid the serial killer that killed my friend was a cook at the one here thats opened. They used to have one with a car drive in back in the 50s here. The building is still there but it’s a different restaurant.
This comment was a roller coaster ride from start to finish. O-O
@@kattrielladoesstuff😆
Ah, Donelson. I grew up across the river from you in Inglewood.
Now this is something new to the series, I’ve never seen an abandoned episode on a restaurant chain before, especially one that’s never discussed as much as Shoney’s. It is pretty unfortunate that they didn’t make it through the 2000s, and it is sad that they’re not discussed a lot nowadays. Thanks for another great episode of Abandoned, Jake. Can’t wait to see what’s next.
I grew up just north of tampa,fl. There was a shoneys in wesley chapel when i was a kid in the 90's and was one of my favorite breakfast places!!
I was born in Cincinnati, so Shoney's was a new concept to me when I moved to Florida in the early 80s. For the most part I had great memories except for one Thanksgiving Fiasco. The family decided to forgo a traditional day in the kitchen cooking as our Largo, FL Shoney's was advertising a Thanksgiving Dinner with all the fixin's. Mom called to make reservations and they said they were not taking any. She even asked how they'd know how much they'd need to feed everyone for Thanksgiving. They said they had a refer truck parked in back stocked which would avoid something like that from happening. Assured after asking all the questions we went. And would you believe our table of six were the first family they had to go back and ask to order something else because they ran out of Turkey and fixin's. LOL first time we had hamburgers for dinner. But this was LONG before the troubles, and an isolated incident.
I was surprised when you felt no one knew of the chain or had any stories about it from the 80s to the 2010s. It was a common go-to on our weekly Friday night out as a family. When I was an adult I know my parents went there often. They had an amazing breakfast bar and their dinners were tasty and surprisingly not expensive. I mean literally T-Bone steaks that tasted better and juicier than Ponderosa down the street. Their buffet was also the stuff of legend as they always had great options from salad to vegetable, fruit, and protein! One thing I never put together but could thanks to this video was their Captain D's connection. I always thought it was cool that they had the same breadsticks. Now we know!
I did not know about the racial issues, and I feel badly that I supported them for years during that time. I knew Denny's was racist and homophobic for years and our family steered away from them unless we were desperate and on the highway looking for a place to eat. I was surprised when you mentioned that they tried to become a bed/food destination along the interstate highways. The only one I remember was on the highway was the Morehead, KY location which had a Shoney's Inn. The buildings are still there, but now owned by Best Western (I think, someone correct me if I'm wrong), and a Mexican restaurant.
The loss of this company is sad given how cheap but tasty it was in the late 90s and early part of the millennia. I love a lot of your content so thank you for another job well done.