I rest my case. That place was the bomb.

I've never heard of that place. If it's closed oh well. I'm not into tourist trap food as it's usually high priced and average. One place I won't eat at anymore for years now is Denny's, damn shame they don't fold as it's like would you like a side of food with your grease.

Locke-Ober, Boston.

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I was always a big fan of the Ohio House Coffee Shop. It was the kind of old-school greasy spoon that instantly transported you back in time as soon as you walked in the door ...

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In the Detroit area...Stag and Hound and also Mountain Jacks. Both were higher end restaurants. Mostly known for seafood and prime rib. Another was more medium range, Black Angus steak house. I miss all 3 of these restaurants!!!

My Dad & I stayed there on our 2nd overnight trip to Chicago in 1977 or so. Our first stay was at the long-gone Avenue Motel on South Michigan & Roosevelt (1200 S). My memory of the Ohio House was that not long after we checked in, a hooker knocked on our door. She propositioned my dad. I kid you not. Anyway, we had breakfast in the coffee shop the next morning.

Nice to see the "hipstered out" the rooms there.

Monsterland in Mesa, AZ. That place was all sorts of awesome. Great food and atmosphere, local beers on tap, and a badass monster theme (complete with huge animatronic monsters).

R.I.P.

Wow, that sounds great!

I am 52 and grew up with chef around Detroit. It was the best and blew McDonald's to shame. The buns and burgers were fresh....best thing though was the make it bar. Every burger was handed out plain and the customer turned 180 degrees around and there it was, you could put as much lettuce, pickles, onions and tomatoes as you desired. You could make a quarter pound burger instantly weigh 1 pound lol. Great shakes too! Broke my heart when they closed them all in Michigan.

You just can't get that kind of service any more these days.

That sounds a lot like Fuddruckers.

Some of the full service Hilton and Marriott's still have this. Along with the major Las Vegas strip resorts.

Yes just like them except no warm cheese wiz. Also funds meat quality is way better...better than almost any burger I ever ate anywhere. But compared to Mickey 's the quality was better. I really am stumped why they went under. Maybe back then the Ronald clown nd happy meal promo was the way to win. Burger chef lacked in this area. I think they had a kids meal but it was not marketed like the golden arch version.

Burger Chef started the toy gimmick with their "Fun Burger" which was a regular hamburger in a box with a toy prize inside. This was prior to any of the fast food "meals". You ordered the drink and fries separately.

IIRC, Burger Chef called the "Make it bar" the "Works Bar".

I remember one of the original closed burger chefs in Detroit that had the orange polygon sign and building trim motif. Also saw one less than 15 years ago abandoned near *Kent, Ohio. They then went modern and "Burger Kinged" the look of their buildings. Then they folded up.

* Do not throw rocks at men with guns.

27 long years later, I finally got to enjoy my Naugles combo burrito with green sauce, doused with red sauce again...

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No Ortega burger or the almighty "Macho Nacho" just yet but, at least the tomato topped taco looked the part.
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The crafted sodas were the surprise highlight of the visit and with FREE refills I went back multiple times to try all of the flavors. (Even though I was completely stuffed...)
Agave Vanilla Cream was the champion of the day but, the Kola had some good flavor as well.
Almost like a higher end Fentimans.

The new owner said that they have been scouting over a dozen locations in the last month to get Naugles back in the proverbial drive-thru saddle so, hopefully we'll all get to enjoy our old SoCal favorites very soon!

Speaking of favorites,
These babies are FINALLY back on the shelves after a long hiatus, which taste just as good as they did 25+ years ago!
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Yeah buddy! We went last Tuesday but the sign said closed until further notice. But that Nimblepin is persistant and delivered a Naugles combo burito right to my garage yesterday with three containers of hot sauce. He said you might want to warm it back up but I dug right in. And man was it GOOD! Now I know why we missed this place. Thank you NP!

Ooooh Naugles looking good there. I can't remember the last time I tasted let alone seen the Original New York Seltzer in those little bottles. I thought they didn't even exist anymore. My favorite was always the root beer.

Naugles was good! The burrito was smaller than I remember but it tasted as good or better. Spot on.

Which burrito did you have? The normal red/green burrito's, and even the combo burrito, were not very big from what I remember. Very happy to hear all the positive reviews about the food tasting the same as it was back in the day.

Hope that they get some real restaurants up and running asap!

I'm not really a restaurant person but there was an awesome kebab shop near my place that closed down a few years back. They used home made bread for them that really soaked up the flavours and no where else seems to come close. Their location was terrible though, out in the suburbs but on a little striped right before a major intersection that made it hard to get to unless you were specifically going there and knew about the parking behind down a side street.

Saw this sign today:

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I got him a combo burrito with green sauce Rob.
Portions of food seemed on par with that of their past offerings to me, although the taco was a bit light in the lettuce/cheese department.
Knowing me, I'll probably go back another dozen or so times until they have one down the street.
I didn't go with the hombre burrito right off the bat because I wanted the classic stuff first; actually, the bean and cheese cup was bigger than I remember so at least that was a plus. I also couldn't remember for the life of me if the tortilla chips were round or not?
My wife swears they were Tostino's round chips they were serving us but, the shell of the taco tasted exactly the same so, who knows?
They were delicious either way.

Sorry Gir,
I totally forgot to mention that they were only going to be open on the weekends now from 10-5.
My wife and I showed up at 11AM on Sunday and there were about 25 people in line ahead of us.
Since they only have one line running all the orders through, the wait to order took about an hour.
Luckily with that slow of service, the small-ish indoor dining area was never crowded.

Yep!
ONYS is back! Tastes just as good as I remember them tasting too!
Our local distributor said that we should be getting them in some of the major grocery stores soon, as well as some of the specialty stores like Cost Plus and even a Costco or two.
Pricing ranged from $.99-$1.39 for a bottle depending on who was selling it.
I made up my own case (pictured above) and got a 10% price break from my local liquor store.

I'm just hoping they'll open up a few stores soon. Maybe they can take over the Starbucks on Rosecrans in Norwalk that started off as a Naugles. It's not as if there's to many Starschmucks in my area already. They already took over an Arby's that had been here since 1969.

I guess they have been very particular with their location requirements/needs but, at least they are only choosing established buildings with the drive-thru already in place so, technically they can hit the ground running once they seal the deal.
Goals for each location are supposed to have decent dining areas both inside and out, ample parking, kitchen big enough to handle FOUR lines of food prep (sweeeet!) and of course that "Naugles" feel.

He (Christian) was pretty adamant about not building "new" locations from the ground up, which is kinda cool if he can pull it off.
Heck, the poor guy still has a normal 9-to-5 job right now, hence why he's only opening the test kitchen on the weekends!
Hopefully once Naugles gains more permanence in the marketplace, he can kiss his old job goodbye!

At one time I think they called it a macho burrito

Actually there are a number of restaurants that still do this. Texas Corral and I think Logan's Roadhouse.

Thank you thank you. I'll have to keep an eye open for that and at Costco no less -- EXCELLENT, buy by the crate. When I discovered years ago I could get Mexican coke at grocery stores and some mexican hole in the wall places out west when I returned to live there for 3 years (almost back here now 3 years) it was like liquid crack having the old taste back. When Costco started selling them by the 24 bottle crate I was there getting a box every month and I rationed it out to one a day(or almost every day.) This was my other vice, loved the stuff, now I may just have to get a crate of these again. I had no idea it was back and back that well apparently. I'm cool at a dollar a bottle or whatever, costco should inch it closer to that mark since they do bulk.

...now if someone would just franchise out Naugles to Louisville, all would be good as far as this thread goes.

here in Ohio there is a place called texas roadhouse u can still throw peanut shells all over the floor.

and here are some old ones.

moms restaurant and

OLD COUNTRY BUFFET

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and corn dog on a stick at the local mall.
used to have the best lemonade

In the Chicago area:

-John's Garage in the Woodfield Mall
-Toot's Drive Thru on Montrose and Central
-Lockwood Castle on Devon
-Russell's BBQ in Rolling Meadows
-The Come Back Inn in Melrose Park
-Tast-E Hast-E on Milwaukee
-Ground Round

Anywhere:

-Showbiz Pizza (having nothing to do with the pizza and everything to do with the Rock A Fire Explosion!

O'Connell's in Woodfield Mall was pretty good for breakfast. Took a GF there when we spent a weekend in Chicago. Dinner on Saturday night was at The 95th. This was prior to it being renamed "The Signature Room at the 95th®"

In the Detroit area 35-40 years (tears) ago. Stroh's Ice Cream shops...yep, not beer but ice cream. Sorta like Baskin Robbins today only 10x better imo. When you said, "extra chocalate syrup please" on your sundae, the worker pumped the handle for what seemed like forevever.

You're in luck; The one in Bloomfield Hills, on W. Maple & Lahser is still open.

Ha, yes! Remember when the indoor skating rink was right door too? Restaurant I miss the most was mars 2112 which didn't last long.

There was a similar place in the early 80's called "pit-n-pub" in arlington heights. I don't remember the food, but I do remember the floor peanuts, the video arcade, and the wall video games like fowl play by sunbird:
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For a restaurant chain associated with Pinball; Does anyone here remember Bally's Tom Foolery Restaurants from 1981-85? Bally bought out the Barnaby's chain in August, 1981 and remodeled the restaurants with lighter color schemes and added a non-smoking game room loaded with pins & video games. Smoking was allowed in the bar/restaurant area though. Pizza was still featured.

First Conversion was the Park City/Waukegan Illinois location followed by Milwaukee and Madison, Wisconsin. Then the rest of the Chicagoland locations. A few new from the ground up ones were built. I ate at the one in Oak Brook. As the disaster unfolded once video games revenues went down the toilet, the non-Barnaby's conversions were re-themed into a California Style upscale restaurant. IIRC they were called Malibu Beach or something. Pastel colors and palm trees were the theme.

Eventually, Bally sold them off. For a huge loss. Some to the Barnaby founders who made out like bandits as they got them back for less than 30% of what they sold them for. Plus they had a Bally paid vacation for four years.

The Woodfield Ice Arena. I remember it well.

There are a couple Nickerson Farms converted to porn shops in western Kansas, then I think of horny folks being chased by the resident bee hives.

They must not have converted all the Barnaby's. The one right down the street from where I grew up in Niles never changed. We ate there all the time when I was a kid. Now, I take my family to the one in Northbrook. I love that place!

Pharo's Drive-In.
(#2, that's me)

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Correct. The corporate ones were all sold. The franchised ones remained as-is.

So that really is you in your avatar.

Totally shocking that that place wouldn't last!!! It was too awesome! Then again, I love themed entertainment, which is a good part of why I moved to central FL!!!

Right? I mean it had the cool mars atmophere with the giant red rocks on the walls that looked like it was carved out, it had the waitresses dressed up in alien cosplay, they had laser animation on the wall, food was pretty good (at it looked like they were eventually going to setup an arcade). I even liked the cheesy space shuttle ride (that you could bypass) where they pretended that you flew to mars and arrived at their restaurant. I still have my shot glass souvenir from there.

Oh damn you Andrew! I haven't stopped thinking about Ponderosa. Thanks!!

We had a Sambos Red Barn and Ponderosa right next to each other.

I know the Sambos turned into Sam's but it is for a long time Monro muffler shop.

How about Aurthor treachers?? Sp??
Fish and chips joint.

No kabab joints in the States that I know of.
Seems to be a UK and Australia thing.

Oh and at the time pins and vids all over the place!

How about Mr. Steak?
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I remember them! There was one on Gratiot in Roseville, MI. Great steaks. I also remember Arthur Treachers(post above yours)! Yum yum.

There was a Rocky n Bullwinkels across the street from Broadway at The Beach, Myrtle Beach SC. Crazy food and format but real good. Place was gone after a few years. Ground Round another great one but we just Discovered an A & W near home! Yummy~SpOoKy