Food is more than food. They are memories. Eating the foods you loved as a child can bring you back to the time and place you first ate them. (Eating the foods you hated as a child may help you realize how dumb you were, which is also valuable. Brussels sprouts are delicious!)
Unfortunately, not all of the foods you loved as a child are available today. Some of the biggest restaurant chains from the 1970s, 80s and 90s no longer exist. The best thing you can do is try to recreate the recipes in your own home. But this only works if you know how to cook. If you don’t know how to cook (I’m talking about myself here, I don’t know how to cook), you’re totally out of luck.
It’s when you find yourself looking at your phone, watching old commercials on YouTube or replaying the stories of the many restaurants you loved that no longer exist. When did Chi-Chi’s close? What happened to Showbiz Pizza Place? How come Kenny Rogers Roasters doesn’t exist anymore? He did nobody watch this Seinfeld episode?
That’s what this list is about. It has more than a dozen famous restaurants from the past. You’ve probably eaten most of them—and you’ve almost certainly heard of them all. But if you want to visit them now, it will probably be as close as possible.
Popular restaurants that have disappeared
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