Long Gone Regional Chains

quote:

Originally posted by Al-The Mayor-Bowen

Jim3am and BT-
It is fun using the Cal-Tchrs Retirement check here in So Indiana..without paying the Cal St. Taxes they tried to shove on me when I first retired. The $$$ go a lot farther here than they would have there. One of my few regrets is that if we had held onto the house for another couple of year the selling price would have doubled. But why be greedy??

My retirement check comes from the US Navy and a lot of old sailors would storm Sacramento if they tried to get a piece of it just because a bit of it was earned somewhere in CA (San Diego?). But I continue to send them a bit because I ran the numbers and found I wouldn't save that much by calling Arizona (where I spend about half the year) my "primary residence" but I would lose the $250,000 capital gains deduction on my CA condo were I to sell it (to get that deduction you have to live in the home you're selling for 2 of the last 5 years AS YOUR PRIMARY RESIDENCE). Meanwhile, at least for now, that capital gain does seem to be growing. It means I can get desert with my roadfood.

quote:

Originally posted by jsharrett

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<div style="border: 1px #999999 solid; background-color: #DCDCDC; padding: 4px;">Originally posted by Sundancer7

There use to be a Lum's in Gatlinburg, TN.
Paul E. Smith
Knoxville, TN

Tom Sexon owned the Gatlinburg Lums as well as one in Bristol, TN. He kept his airplane at my place when in Bristol. Used to drink Hinekins and eat lumburgers all evening



The Gatlinburg Lum's may have been the only one I ever ate at, but it holds a special place in my memory: A friend and I were backpacking in the Great Smokies National Park for several days back on the mid-'70s and needed a touch of civilization. So we got to our car and drove into town--which is quite jarring when you've been on the Appalachian Trail for the most part of a week.

We came to the Lum's and the thought of beer steamed hot dogs and an actual beer or two was too much to resist. I can still remember how good both tasted.

There definitely is still a Griff's in Irving and one in Mesquite, Texas, and the burgers are still pretty good.

Anyone remember the BBQ joint in Kansas City in the late 50's or early 60's owned by a black family. They wrapped it in old newspapers, and man it was good. I have never had any other BBQ ribs that came even close, man it was good. Also in Springfield, MO there was a place called old Cappy's---fantastic BBQ ham & bologna sandwiches--also great cole slaw and beans! OMG I having BBQ withdrawal! LOL

Was it Boyd's on Prospect? Or Oscar's on Blue Parkway?They both used newspaper.

How about Poco Taco in Memphis? Seemed like the start of Taco Bell- same set-up, food. My Mom always took me there, i hated it.

quote:

Originally posted by zataar

Was it Boyd's on Prospect? Or Oscar's on Blue Parkway?They both used newspaper.

That was 40 years ago--just cany remember! But the food was excellent!

quote:

Originally posted by jeepguy

How about Poco Taco in Memphis? Seemed like the start of Taco Bell- same set-up, food. My Mom always took me there, i hated it.

Jeepguy,

When was Poco Taco in Memphis? I don't remember them. Must have been before my time. Also, where were they located?

Thanks,

T.J.

quote:

Originally posted by Danmel

When I lived in Boston in the early 80s there was a chain of coffee shop tpe restuants called Pewter Pot. They had, natch, a colonial theme and good muffins and coffee. Are they still around???


For a time, there was a restaurant on 6th Ave in Manhattan, nesxt door to my office bldg. called "Olga's Kitchen", which I understand was a chain. They had sandwiches in thick pita type flatbread. I used to get a breakfast Olga once in awhile, and they also had greek sandwiches- souvlaki, gyros, greek salad. Are they still around anywhere?

I used to go to a Pewter Pot in Lexington, MA when I was unfortunate enough to have lived in the area from 1973-1978. Fair place...overpriced.

Shoney's old location in Dothan, AL, had the "Big Boy" statue
in front of the restaurant.

Detroit's were under the "Elias Brothers" name. [|)]

quote:

Originally posted by chicagostyledog

My first real job in the food industry was in 1962 at Henry's Drive-In in Lincolnwood. Henry's Drive-In was a burger chain similar to McDonalds with locations in the Chicagoland area. Henry's also had stores outside Illinois. I ate at one in Michigan. Some time in the 70's Henry's began to fade away with the last known store closing in Wheeling, Illinois sometime in the 80's. Henry's was also known for their pies.

Henry's is still around. I ate at one just last weekend in Benton Harbor Michigan. (the food wasn't very good)

Here is a picture of a Henry's sign

http://www.ames.lib.ia.us/farwell/publication/Pub7114.htm

Adjudicator, in the appropriate words, I think Mrs. Boomer
retired; what I think replaced her is more of a sports bar/
nightclub place.
But the next time you get to Dothan, there is a cafe downtown
which has just started ads on channel 4: I think on most days
it's open from 10-2, maybe later on Sundays; and they cater mainly
to the lunch/meat and three crowd - from their ads, looks good....

[|)]

At first, I was going to say that you were incorrect about the Pondersosa in Jackson. There were three Bonanzas in the area that opened in the late 1960s: Highway 80-West (where you mentioned), Interstate 55-North, and possibly one on Highway 80-East in Rankin County (Pearl).

The one on I-55 North had a fire. I think that maybe there was a church that used the building for a time, but I think that it is now a school-supply company. (Supplies to sell to the schools such as class rings, yearbooks, trophies, etc.)

I am not sure what is in the one in Rankin County.

But the Bonanza on Highway 80-West was later turned into a Ponderosa and it featured a buffet. It is now closed.


Interestingly (at least to me) is that in New Orleans East, there is an old Bonaza building (I can tell) that is now a funeral home!





There is still and Ponderosa in Jackson MS (at least there was 4 years ago when I was working there). Oddly enough, the buffet line was straight up (and pretty well made) classic soul food. We used to eat lunch there all the time and it was really good. I guess it's still there. It was about thirty seconds off I-20 on old Hwy 80 in west Jackson.

I had been reading all of the pages before I was going to post about the Mr. Swiss.


There were two in Jackson, Mississippi, as I recall. One was near the Colonial County Club and Colonial Baptist Church, and the other one was on Highway 51 South at (or near) the Greenbriar Shopping Center (near McDowell Road).

This was around 1966-1968 or 1969.

I remember most that there were about 40 or 60 different flavors of milkshakes there. I ordered a "marshmellow milkshake" and I heard one of the two girls who were working there making fun of the marshmellow milkshake, and the other girl said, "Oh, that's just a vanilla 'shake."

I only went to the one near McDowell Road. They may have been more than just two, but those were the only ones that I knew about. They closed around 1969 or maybe 1970.

Here are some comments on both Burger Chef and Po' Folks.



My niece, who is eighteen months older than I am, worked in Jackson, Mississippi at the Burger Chef. The building was one of those that was designed later in the company's history. The one where she worked was at Ellis Isle Shopping Center on Ellis Avenue. The shopping center was more active than it is today. There was a Food Center Warehouse (later called called Sack and Save Warehouse and now known as Save Rite Warehouse), a Woolco Department Store, a Super D drugstore, an optical store, a liquor store, the Ellis Isle Twin Cinema, and possibly some more stores (maybe a wig shop). The Burger Chef stood alone out closer to the street - and it was between two other restaurants: a Pizza Hut and an International House of Pancakes. (Both of which are no longer there but the two buildings are still standing.)

Also, I remember that my second niece, who was two years younger than my oldest niece, and my oldest niece's boyfriend also worked there - although not as long as my oldest niece.

She began working there around 1972 and worked there while she was still attending college. It must have closed around 1978 or 1979.


I forget what the concept was called, but they had a system of preparing the hamburgers (the Big Chef, the Super Chef, the Top Chef - I beleive) plain and the customer could apply the condiments himself or herself.


I also remember that, at one point (1975 or 1976 or so) they sold something that they called the "ice burger." That was simply those popsicle things that can be bought at the grocery stores, put into a freezer, and then eaten from the plastic tubes as popsicles.


My niece went away to an out-of-town college during her senior year, so that is when she probably quit working for them. Her sister probably got another job somewhere else before the Burger Chef closed.

There were probably other Burger Chef restaurants elsewhere in the Jackson area, but that is the only one that I remember. There may have been one on Interstate-55, but I cannot recall.


Later (I guess in the early 1980s), Po' Folks came to town. There were two of them. One was in the old Burger Chef building. I am positive that the Po' Folks was at the same spot as the Burger Chef, although I am not quite certain if they tore down the old building and built a new one or not. My thinking is that the old building was remodeled.

There was also a Po' Folks out on I-55. That is why I stated that perhaps there had been a Burger Chef there too.


People LOVED Po' Folks. It seemed to have a lot of African-American customers, but the European-Americans who were fans of the Grand Ole Opry were also there in droves.

I knew one family (the husband was from Tennessee) who went there every Sunday after church for lunch. They also ate there a lot during the week.

Both of the locations were pretty full all of the time. I went in there one time with a niece to eat, but it was so crowded that we decided to leave. (so I never ate there)

I don't know what happened to the restaurants, but they both went out of business after around three years of very good business. (That was probably due to corporate bankruptcy, which has been mentioned.)

Then, in the 1990s, there was a crazed gunman who broke into the old Po' Folks one Friday afternoon and started on a shooting rampage. He had enough ammunition there to supply an army, it was said. He shot people on the other side of Interstate-20 and also people in the parking lot of the other businesses. (By this time, the businesses were being frequented by a lot more African-Americans, it was suspected that he went nuts over the racial issues.) The police finally stormed the place and shot the man, but he had already set fire to the building. So, the place burned.

The other Po' Folks may still be there. I think that it is some type of telephone store now.

Question: do any J. C. Penney stores still have restaurants.

I never remember going to the J. C. Penney's store downtown very much. But, they later opened in the Jackson Mall, and there was a restaurant. I never knew it was there all the time that I was in high school. I accidentally discovered it while I was in college.

I loved to eat at lunch counters such as Woolworth's, K-Mart, and Roses, so I had to eat there.

It was a little more upscale with booths - sort of like a Shoney's today. (Of course, back then, Shoney's also had drive-in service with carhops!).

The restaurant there closed not too long after I first started eating there. J. C. Penney later moved to a new mall and there was no restaurant.

quote:

Originally posted by danfling

Question: do any J. C. Penney stores still have restaurants.

I never remember going to the J. C. Penney's store downtown very much. But, they later opened in the Jackson Mall, and there was a restaurant. I never knew it was there all the time that I was in high school. I accidentally discovered it while I was in college.

I loved to eat at lunch counters such as Woolworth's, K-Mart, and Roses, so I had to eat there.

I never knew a Penney's with a restaurant. Or a lunch counter.

But it got me to thinking about the heyday of the great Eastwood Mall in Birmingham, AL that is now on the verge of closing and soon, probable demolition.

In its prime in the 1960s, it had lunch counters/soda fountains in the Liggett Rexall drug store, the Newberry's directly across from Liggett's, and yet another soda fountain down at the S.S. Kresge's, who had the best Cherry Cokes ever. And that's not counting the snack bar at KiddieLand--the pinball/skeeball-game hangout.

Plus the full service restaurant called The Holland House. Was never sure about why a restuarant would presumably showcase Dutch food in Birmingham, in the early '60s, but I can still remember their sign with the windmill on it.

Then, in 1966 the Mall expanded to add a Pizitz department store and it had a lady's lunch type restaurant on the second floor. More of a tea room, definitely not the sort of place teenage boys would likely be found.

But somehow, I came into the possesion of a free lunch card there. And, not being one to pass up a free lunch, a friend and myself walked, somewhat self consciously, into the place and actually had lunch. And, yes, we were the only guys in there.

Finally, no mention of the Mall's hey day would be complete without mentioning Pasquales Pizza place down at the Mall Theatre end, next to Winn Dixie. I'm sure I kept that place in business until I left Birmingham for grad school the week Elvis died in 1977.

And I should mention the two cafeterias at opposite ends of the Mall--Barber's and Pioneer that for years, competed successfully for the after-church crowd.

This was not a huge modern-day mega mall, yet looking back at the diversity of its offerings food-wise and shopping wise, I'm amazed.

And sad to know it's all vanished.

First, Danfling, I completely hung on to every word of your '60s Jackson, Miss. restaurant postings! I've long been curious about Jackson in that time period.

I fondly remember Shakey's - last one I ever ate at was in downtown Cape Girardeau, Mo. (where we lived at the time). That would've been 1980. For whatever go-figure reason, there is ONE Shakey's location still in this part of this country: Warner Robins, Ga., south of Macon.

Penney's (as it was known in the '60s - remember the script logo with the blue hump in the P?) = I don't recall seeing any with lunch counters. Of course we didn't venture in many (JC)Penney stores; my Dad spent his entire working life for Sears -- they DID have them, although most were pulled up by the late '70s. They were called "The Coffee House" and had some funky-looking mod logo with a rooftop-like thing over the words. And Sears also had that wonderful candy kiosk. Best candy corn this side of Brach's - and served in little teal-and-white bags.

Krystal = much worse today than it used to be. Worker attitudes have gone south, even by already-low customer service standards in fast food.
The food isn't as up to par, either.

"Get the happy Krystal habit ... enjoy good food the easy way ..."

I could go on. And probably will, eventually...

Russell in Savannah

Wow this thread seems to be alive and well after a year. I scanned all eighteen pages and think these Chicago area chains weren't mentioned
Prince Castle Hamburgers - one was on North Avenue in River Forest
Franksville hot dogs - Remember one in Villa Park on St. Charles Rd (down the street and across from Lums) and another on Rush st in Chicago

quote:

Originally posted by goreygirl

Does anyone remember the name of a midwest chain who's logo was a scottish looking girl in a beret?

That would be Sandy's, home of the Big Scott and my personal favorite
the High Low (double cheeseburger) We had them in Elmhurst and Hillside Illinois.

Here's one more lost chain I saw on a weekend trip in Mississippi: SHOCKLEY'S PANCAKE HOUSE. I know it was a chain, but I remember seeing only two: Decatur, Ala. and Tupelo, Miss.

Shockley's in Tupelo is located on what was then US-45 south (Gloster St. - now Miss. 145), right next to the Town House Motel. It was going strong when we lived there in the '70s.

In September 2004, it's still there; although the original signage out front had been replaced with something generic, the vintage round backlit "ring of pancakes" sign on the front lives on! Open for breakfast and lunch only -- they close at 130 PM.

Russell in Savannah

Have to throw in a plug for Montgomery Ward because the old mall
location in Dothan, AL did have a snack bar/cafe setup that lasted
until I believe the late 70's (mall opened in 1971) - And their
cheeseburgers weren't the best, but enough to fill you up.... [|)]

I had wondered about Pasquale's.


There were two in Jackson at one time.

One was on Ellis Avenue - I think in a strip mall.

The other was in the Northview Shopping Center (near Meadowbrook). There was a Mexican restaurant next door, and I am nearly sure that the two restaurants had the same ownership. The Pasquale's went out of business a number of years before the Mexican restaurant did. After the Mexican restaurant went out of business (I cannot recall the name of the restaurant, but it was the first place that I ever had tacos.), a shoe store opened. There is still something located there now: it may be another show store, but I am not sure.


As I stated before, Jackson was never a big McDonald's town. There was only one (on Highway 80 West) before 1970 or so. The second one probably was the one across the street from the Jackson Mall (Livingston Road). An interesting story about that is one that I have heard told by "Uncle Walt," who was a disc jockey on WRBC (1300 AM). He was hired to take the records out to the new McDonald's for a live remote broadcast. He was playing the records until he noticed that they were all melting in the sun.

(WRBC was the AM rock station. Its sister station at the time was WJMI-FM - 99.7. WJMI was probably the first station around here to employ female disc-jockeys, and it is where Bob Pittman got his radio start. Later, he began MTV and was chairperson of the board for Time-Warner.)

The original McDonald's on Highway 80 later burned. (That was about 12 years ago, I'd say.) A Rally's is located there now.


We also never had a Denny's until maybe ten years ago. The old Green Derby restaurant on the corner of Ellis Avenue and Highway 80 was torn down in order to build the Denny's. I never went there, although I wanted to, for many years. A newspaper reporter wrote an article about how crowded it would be each day for lunch and that there were regulars who loved it. So, about two years ago, after I had taught a voting training session for polling managers in Hinds County, a group of us went there to eat. Several months later, we were shocked to see that the Denny's had gone out of business.


There was a Jack's Hamburgers on Ellis Avenue back in the middle 1960s. (I believe that it was where there is presently a Church's Chicken, but it may have been down the street.) Later, in the 1980s, Jack's returned and had a restaurant on Woodrow Wilson Boulevard - near Jackson Mall.

That went out of business, and, for a time, Sonic opened there. However, this was not the traditional Sonic drive-in. The menu was exactly the same, but customers came inside the building for table service. Just as some other restaurants which have been previously mentioned did (and the Pig Stand Restaurant did when it was in the Medical Arts Building on North State Street), there were telephones at each table for the orders to be given. I can't remember how the customers knew that the order was ready. I guess that maybe they brought the food to the tables just as they would to a car.

After the Sonic closed, the building became a pawn shop (which it still is!).


There was a Chuck Wagon stand on Highway 51 south where the Bumpers is today. I think that there may have also been a Chuck Wagon stand on Highway 49 South too, but I seldom went that way.


It was around 1976 or 1977 when this area first got its first Sonics. The first one was probably the one on Highway 51 South. They had many of them, and many of them were in the small towns such as Hazlehurst and Crystal Springs. But, around 1986 or so, many of them changed their names to Bumpers. The one on Highway 51 and the ones in Hazlehurst and Clinton both did, but the one in Crystal Springs remains a Sonic - and there have been a lot of new Sonics built since that time.

I think that most of the Bumpers are owned by Southern Asians.


All of the Dog'n'Suds here had closed except for about two. Mr. Fred Hudgins bought them (He was already operating them) and changed the names to Hudgey's. There were two or three in Jackson, one in Clinton, one in Brookhaven, and one in McComb. Mr. Hudgins died about four weeks ago - with only the one in Jackson remaining open. The ones in Brookhaven and McComb have been operated by his brother for many years; they are still open, but I am not sure who owns or operates them.

There was a great Frosty Rootbeer stand and restaurant on Ellis Avenue, but it closed when I was around six years old or so.


We have had a What-a-Burger on High Street for about a year-and-a-half. They taste like Sonic hamburgers to me, but the onion rings were not nearly as good as the Sonic's! (Sonic and Bumpers have mostly the same recipes and dishes.)


Shoney's had two restaurants here. Both had traditional dining rooms and drive-in speaker windows. The drive-in aspect of it ended around 1975. The two locations were at Westland Plaze (on Ellis Avenue) and at Highland Village (on the Interstate 55 Frontage Road East). Both locations have since closed.


There were also a Taylor Burgers near where the Pasquales and the Mexican restaurant were.

Roy Rogers was in that neighborhood for a very brief period (too brief because we liked the Roy Rogers food). A Chinese restaurant opened in the location after Roy Rogers left, and it remained in that location for MANY years. I think, though, that it has moved elsewhere now.

Jimmy Dean's restaurant was on Highway 51 near the Redwood Inn and Angelo's restaurants were located. Smiley's Barbecue was most recently in the building, but it has now moved to McDowell Road.

Here are where the Krystal restaurants were when I was growing up:

Highway 51 - across from Mart 51
North State Street - just north of the Meadowbrook Road intersection
Downtown on the corner of Capitol and Congress Streets

The ones on Highway 51 and on Meadowbrook are still in business, but the one downtown closed in the 1980s. The building is still there, and it has been a cafe and a bakery.

Around 1967, a new Krystal was built on Ellis Avenue south of Westland Plaza shopping center. It too remains open.

When the MetroCenter mall opened around 1978, there was a new Krystal. One had also been built around Deville Shopping Center several years earlier.

People from South Mississippi seemed unfamiliar with Krystals when I was growing up. I think that they started building them there around 1974 or so.

We also had the Seal-Lily Ice Cream Shop, and it had curb service, I beleive. There was also one in Hattiesburg located at a shopping center.

The ice cream parlor that I remember going to in the 1960s is the Dipper Dan's. It was on West Capitol Street near the zoo.

In the early 1970s, there were two new ones called Medley's Old-Fashioned Ice Cream. I think that there was a dairy called Mosley's or Mosby's that owned them. One was at Maywood Mart Shopping Center, and the other one was on Lynch Street behind the Cotton Bowl Bowling Alley. The funny looking building on Lynch Street (It was supposed to look like an ice cream churn) is still standing - a furniture store, perhaps.


I do not recall that Sears here (on North State Street - where the Eudora Welty Memorial Library is today - same building) had an snack shop or restaurant. It may have, though. I do know that they did sell the candies.

There is an old building downtown that was once Kennington's Department Store. Later, Kennington's was bought by McRae's. The mezzanine of the building housed Otis's Barbeque for a while. Otis's started over on Pearl Street near the railroad tracks.

When McRae's opened stores at the MetroCenter mall and the Northpark Mall in Madison County, there were two restaurants called Widow Watson's. Both have since closed.

D. H. Holmes finally came into Jackson when the MetroCenter mall opened. It had the Potpouri Restaurant. Both Widow Watsons and the Potpouri were extremely popular and considered upscale in the late 1970s and the 1980s. When D. H. Holmes was purchased by Dillards, that company closed the Potpouri Resturant. They did run a small deli-type buisness at the Northpark location at one time, but that did not remain there for very long.

I am told that H. L. Green's was the great lunch counter on Capitol Street. My mother and my sister loved it, but I do not remember the store all that well - and my mother (who turned 90 on September 25) says that the store had gone down by the time that I was born.


The two Woolworths in Jackson (Capitol Street and Westland Plaza) did have lunch counters, and the ones in Hattiesburg and Brookhaven did also.

The one on Capital Street was torn down around 1978. The one at Westland Plaza was closed around 1990. The lunch counter had closed about two years before that.



The

Well, I probably go back further than most of you Roadfood junkies. In Denver when I was a kid we had Rockybilt, which had a small burger with onions (grilled) and pickles and mustard for $.10cents; great beef stew for .15cents; no fries and the only other way you could get the burger was with cheese for .15 cents. We have JB's here in NM, along with a HoJo's in Albuq. I worked for 5 years for Whataburger which at one time used fresh beef, not frozen, and was probably the best FF burger ever. Also worked for three years for a New Mexico chain still running; Lotaburger. They are still pretty good, although they now freeze the beef. There just isn't any comparison to a burger which has been made from frozen meat, and one from fresh. Luckily, we have a small chain here called Rex's. Delicious!
Orange Julius is still operating in both Malls here in Albuq., and we have some new A&W Root Beers which are in with Taco Bell, which being a New Mexican, I can't understand how they stay in business; it just ain't New Mexican. I also remember Burger Chef; when I was on my down time (practically broke) in the 50's was the cheapest place I could keep the tummy filled in. Good coffee in the a.m., burger and fries for lunch and the same for dinner, the whole day for under a dollar.

There are many Olga's Kitchen's around the Detroit-Metro area! Mainly in malls. They just opened a stand alone Olga's Kitchen right near where I live this past summer. Love their food!

quote:

Originally posted by Danmel

When I lived in Boston in the early 80s there was a chain of coffee shop tpe restuants called Pewter Pot. They had, natch, a colonial theme and good muffins and coffee. Are they still around???


For a time, there was a restaurant on 6th Ave in Manhattan, nesxt door to my office bldg. called "Olga's Kitchen", which I understand was a chain. They had sandwiches in thick pita type flatbread. I used to get a breakfast Olga once in awhile, and they also had greek sandwiches- souvlaki, gyros, greek salad. Are they still around anywhere?

quote:

Originally posted by mamiller35

anyone know if kewpie burger is still around? i ate at two about ten years ago - one in lima, ohio and the other in lansing michigan.

I remember Kewpie as a kid in Lima Ohio, and noiw am in Lansing Michigan every week or so, and it's still there! But now the sign says "Kewpie Restaurant and Hotels" or something to that effect. Their menu a few years ago indicated a whole string of them then, but today, I only really know of the two of them. Anybody else?

Who remembers that in the late 1960s, Walgreen's opened a chain of hamburger/fast food additions to some of their stores? It was called Big-E.


They used the special-sauce-type of condiment on the Big-E burgers. I think that hot dogs were also served. It seemed to be an attempt to compete with the McDonald's, Burger Chef, Burger King, Hardees, etc.

Are there any of these still around.

Walgreen's sold out to Eckerd's in the early 1970s, and Eckerd's kept the Big-E opened. (Now that I am thinking about it, Big-E may be the name that Eckerd used and there was another name that Walgreen's used.)

Are there any of these still in business?

I don't remember any of the "Big E" restaurants and I lived in Florida for many years which was the home base for Eckard Drugs. Maybe they only opened a few in your area. The chain that Walgreens started was called "Wag's" and was a Denny's type place. Wag's were all over the east coast of Florida in late 70's-mid 80's. I was working as a electrician at the time and worked on several Wag's. Walgreen shut down the entire chain sometime in the 80's.

Charlie

Back in the 70's, there used to be a chain called Jacobs Drugs
that had snack bar/cafeteria type operations - one was at the
Northside Mall back in Dothan, AL [|)]