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Don't forget The Frankfort with a little pot of Boston Baked Beans.
The HOJO in Bangor needs some spiffing up.
There was an episode of Mad Men that was filmed in a HOJO-that place looked so cool and sooooo orange!
The motels were a later addition, as the corporation tried to branch out from the restaurant. Clearly a failure.
I loved the clam strips as a kid. One of the few cooked foods I would eat, and my mother would by the frozen ones for me at the grocery store just to get me to eat cooked food.
Peppermint Ice Cream from Howard Johnson's is still the food of my dreams. Never had anything that compared.
I remember going for clam strips as a kid also, it wasn't until just a few years ago that I found out that Jacques Pepin was one of the Chef's hired back in the early '60's to develop their food.
The motels were a later addition, as the corporation tried to branch out from the restaurant. Clearly a failure.
I loved the clam strips as a kid. One of the few cooked foods I would eat, and my mother would by the frozen ones for me at the grocery store just to get me to eat cooked food.
Peppermint Ice Cream from Howard Johnson's is still the food of my dreams. Never had anything that compared.
Actually, the hotels did quite well from 1959-75 but suffered when domestic auto travel suffered as a result of the oil embargo.
At one point, Howard Johnson's was larger than Marriott - both in the number of restaurants and the number of hotels.
In 1979, Marriott purchased the Howard Johnson chain and eventually sold off the motor lodges in 1986 when Marriott was in financial difficulties.
Were they always part of the hotel, or were there stand alone ones without a hotel? I can't remember.
There were a lot more standalone restaurants than there were hotels. They were, in many ways, the predecessors of the fast-food chains like McDonalds, because they offered a standardized menu and decor which was easily recognized by travelers, with their trademarked orange roof and cupola and weathervane.
Matter of fact, at their peak 85% of their business came from travelers, especially on the Interstate Highway System, so when the oil embargo of 1974 hit they were deeply hurt by the drop in highway travel, and started a long slow decline from which they never recovered. Once they were perceived by the public as old fashioned and out of style, it was all over, and even the nostalgia they evoke for earlier, simpler times has not been enough to revive them.
Around here there are a few former HoJo's with the orange roofs but with different tenants. But I still recognize the buildings. There is still one hotel around here but it doesn't have the iconic orange roof.
Actually, HoJo's was in some ways a victim of its own success. They ruled the nation's highways from the 50's through the early 70's. But McDonald's and the like was able to take HoJo's formula of standardized food (and catering to children) to a whole new level. At the same time, sit-down places like Red Lobster were able to create a more upscale feel than HoJo's was able to offer. Simply put, HoJo's restaurants got segmented to death.
There was talk of a HoJo's revival back in '06-'07, when a New York-based group called La Mancha, LLC bought some of the trademarks and recipes from Wyndham. Rumors were that HJ ice cream and frozen foods would be hitting the grocery stores again, and that a new prototype restaurant was to open. But the economic downturn scuttled those plans, and I haven't heard anything else about them since.
Location: By the sea, by the sea, by the beautiful sea
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I had a Professor in college named Howard Johnson, I always thought of it as going to 'clam class'.
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