Shakey's Pizza

JD – SHakey's is with you on that one! A return to their heritage is exactly what CEO Tim Pulido ordered. It's all very contemporary feeling of course (gotta get with the times), but the new Shakey's features gorgeous new colors, a great menu with new gourmet flavors, upgraded micro-brewed beer, a better, beefier game room for the kids, and plenty of ent. for adults too (TVs and music).

And becareful Pathend, those "shakey's" in Wisconson are certainly imposters. After many years of struggle with their holding group, Shakey's is now strictly concentarting growth in the southwest region of the states. Withe the caveat of a fanciful museum-like SHakey's going up in Auburn Alabama this fall!!! (Think Hard Rock Cafe meets Family, fun and of course – Pizza!!!). Visit a Shakey's anywhere in Calif. for 100% mozzarella cheese and fresh hand-tossed pizza dough in original thin crust, or deep dish. And the new Shakey's menu even features gourmet pizzas like BBQ Chicken (mmmmm, my fave!) and the Margherita.

Happy dining!

Hi Shakeykniss,

Interesting that you talk about impostors. Back in 2001, I visited a Shakey's at 1705 Story Road in San Jose, CA. I see that they are not listed on the current directory of stores on the Shakey's web site. However, there are plenty of other refernces to them on the web and it looks like they are still in business. Having come up from Southern California on that trip, where I dined in several of the Jacmar-owned Shakey's, I found the pizza served at Story Road completely different (read: terrible).

I can remember plenty of cases where franchisees decided to bolt their franchisor, and play all sorts of games with renaming the restaurants, and being unable to provide the same quality because their supply line was cut off. Chicken Delight and Howard Johnson's come to mind as chains that were afflicted with this problem.

Is there any resource that we can use to find out if a restaurant calling itself "Shakey's" is actually still part of the fold, or an impostor? I realize suing these guys one at a time is expensive and time consuming. I just found a printed directory of Jacmar-owned restaurants I brought home from that trip. But, it doesn't help people outside of the Southern California area.

I visited the former Shekeys in Springfield a week ago. Now called Diamond s it was not quite what I expected. The place was still very proud of the fact that they once were a Shakeys, had a number of awards they had received up by the til. There was also a notice that I saw several times, saying that they liked the restuarnt the way it was and that Shakeys corporate had told them f they wanted to remain a Shakeys they would have to rid themselves of the buffet!

The atmosphere was not like I remebered. Much brighter lighing and all booths or isolated tables.. The long cafeteria style tables were also not present in Janesville, although the lightingwas much more subdued. Diamonds had drinks included in the cost of the buffet - they had Pepsi products. I recall the old ones always had drinks being extra and had a generic type called Shakeys Cola. The one in Janesville had Coke products. The Mojo potatos were now called J-Lo potatos, but other than that the food was more or less as I recalled from way back in the 20th century! One thing that was a bit of a diappointment was I recall Shakeys had two types of sausage for their pizza one good and one bad. I could not tell the difference by looking. All they had was the bad kind and I was told that was soemthing that was switched a few years back. My visit to the one in Janesville only had the bad sausage but I got there late and they wer not putting out new food so I just assumed it was my bad luck. I suspect I will go bakc to both places next tiem I am in the area around meal time.

Shakeykniss the shakeys.com website still does not work for me. You need to get a non flash version of it p. I have not checked out myspace. I signed up ther about a year ago, then never activated my account and when i tried it would not let me and when I tried resigning up it would not let me do it again. The few myspace pages I have seen are also poorly designed and on average take 5 minutes at least to load, and another 3 or 4 if you want to look at images.

Adm22,

Good to hear from you again. I'll take your notes back to our web programmer and see about making the Shakey's Web site viewable in html as well.

Regarding your Diamonds experience...Diamonds isn't Shakey's. Not even knowing what a Diamonds is, I cringe to see the two compared.

What makes a Shakey's a Shakey's is a strict adherence to the taste and experience that IS the family fast casual dining restaurant with your favorite thin crust pizza and Mojo potatos. If doesn't say Shakey's, and they don't serve Mojos, you're in the wrong spot.

Shakey's uses only 100% mozarella cheese, and delicious Italian sausage.

Accept no imitations!

Could you also let the "powers that be" know the we had one on SW 13th St back in the 70's here in Gainesville, Fl and would like for it to return!

While I have close ties with "the powers that be," really, its up to franchisees in the Gainsville area to reach out to Shakey's and make a proposal. It's not likely Shakey's will establish a corporate store in this area anytime soon as their concentration is primarily southwest focused right now. But I will certainly be the birdie in their ear for you.

Let them know how baad you want it down there by posting a comment or emailing them at their offiial myspace page. They pay close attention to those comments and requests.

Cheers,
shakeykniss

i too have many fond memories of SHakey's. I grew up in St. LOuis with one that served as a gathering spot for after highschool sport events. we used to take over the dining area around 9:00pm after most ofthe families left. I remember they had a dough machine in the front window that you could watch as you entered or ordered your pie.By the time high school came gone were the stooges, banjo player and rool piano. They were one of the first fast food spots that served pitchers of sodas as i recall.....alosha. bbk

Diamonds is the former Shakey's in Springfield IL. The owners arenamed Diamond, so I suspect that is where the name comes from. They changed the name when Shakey's coorporate told them they had to get rid of the buffet in order to remain a Shakeys. They have several notices up telling folks why they changedd their name. There are also a number of awards they got when they were a Shakeys franchisee up.

I think their feeling is that coorporate HQ abandonned them not that they wanted to split. It was fairly busy when I was there.

While I usually decline to lend comment on topics I know little about (and I know little about the Diamond's dispute with the franchise itself) I'm sure it had much more to do with than just abandoning the buffet which has since made it back to the floor after a couple of brand reinvisionments.

Being part of a franchise means offering consumers quality and consistency they can trust – whether you're enjoying the experience in Wisconson, California, or Florida.

Can you imagine if you drove across country, and seeing a MacRonalds*, stopped to order a Super Mac (a MacRonalds staple and my favorite) and they didn't have it? Or what if instead of apple pies, they only served blueberry pies? You might assume the entire franchise had stopped serving your favorite foods and decline to ever return. Little did you know the franchisee was non compliant on several other guidlines and MacRonads Corp. had filed suit to take their name back before this one franchise became responsible for tarnishing the entire brand name. And while surely it'd take more than just one non-compliant franchisee owner to bring down an entre franchise corporation, rules must be applied across the board.

If you see or hear about any other Shakey's imposters or "used-to-bes" I'd love to know!

I always get a kick out of the straight-forwardness of restaurant owners. Like with the current Health Department crackdown on dirty restaurants here in NYC. The restaurant owner tells the press he was closed down because a bald employee was not wearing a hat. But the health department website also reports finding foods stored at unsafe temperatures, and certain issues with "rodents".

Apparently, the lunch buffet will remain at Shakey's, at least in existing restaurants. This paragraph appeared in an article about Shakey's in Pizza Marketplace dated June 21st, 2007:

"The company also is revamping its menu, adding gourmet salads, sandwiches and pizzas, while retaining the tried-and-true favorites such as Mojo potatoes and the “Bunch of Lunch” buffet."

From: http://www.pizzamarketplace.com/article.php?id=7966

While I always go for their unique pizzas, I guess a lot of their revenue comes from people who like the "put on the feedbag" buffet. Perhaps Shakey's website should acknowledge that certain restaurants still offer the buffet. Like the Sears website which tells the specialized department their stores offer.

Good suggestion David. I will bring it to Shakey's.

I only happened upon the Diamonds in Springfield by chance. I did a search online for Shakeys and got a old phone listing for them. When I rang them they answered Diamonds. I told them that I was after Shakeys and was told they used to be shakeys but had changed their name. Everything else I was told was the same. I was unaware that they were there prior to the call and I wind up in Springfield on business at least 4 times each year. From my observations the owners were proud of the fact that they were a Shakeys and wanted to continue running the business like it had been.

The things I recall about Shakeys growing up were the buffet, the arcade, the old movies, the long tables where you and all your friends could sit at one table and the fact they had "Shakeys Cola" which was not as good as Pepsi or Coke. (Mcdonalds in the UK used to have their own soft drinks to) It is not missed.

At this point I do not think that Shakeys has a lot of brand recognition . When I took my girlfriend (who is younger than me) to the one in Janesville, she acted real surprised that I had been to another Shakeys. She had lived in Janesville for several years and had had a birthday party there. She thought it was just a one of a kind place.

The Shakeys I remember were in Peoria and East Peoria IL. The Peoria closed first becoming a Chinese buffet before getting torn donw to become a car park for a Wal Mart. The one in East Peoria is now a Monicals, a regional pizza chain.

I have also been to Shakeys in Joliet, Champaign and Bloomington, IL, Iron Mountain MI and Iowa City. I have no idea what is now in those buildings and only a vague recollection of where they were. The Iowa City one I found by chance in the mid 1990s and was surprised to see it as i was the one in Janesville in July.

My chances of finding another used to be are not real good.

The chances of finding more defrocked Shakey's are not good. However, I found a resource people can try. If you go to Wikipedia's entry for Shakey's Pizza and click on the 'discussion' tab, at the bottom someone posted a stores list as of 1992, with 169 locations. I performed a sanity check, and it looks pretty good. I thought some stores were still in Delaware at that time, but I could be wrong. Over the last few years, I sometimes did make a detour to see what happened to stores I remember between Delaware and Virginia. The standalones mostly became other restaurants. Those in strip malls saw other retail use, mostly. None was operating as a impostor. My interest in Shakey's was piqued because all the career guys in the Air Force unit I was in talked about how they missed Shakey's pizza. I do remember a lot of Shakey's being in towns with a military presence, such as Dover, Delaware and the Washington, DC area.

Outside of the west coast, I agree with adm22 that Shakey's does not have a lot of brand recognition in the rest of the country with younger people. I remember one of my last visits to the Shakey's in Newark, DE. Besides being a no sales tax restaurant, their pizza was pretty good. Then, a Pizza Hut opened a quarter mile away. One night, my girlfriend and I went in there and the honcho there (dunno if he was the owner or manager) was very eager. I told my girlfriend it looked like they were trying to sell the place and mistook us for potential buyers or restaurant consultants. The next time we passed through Newark, the place was boarded up.

I re-read this entire thread this morning and note that Howdy Doodat, on September 7th, 2006 posted that his unnamed Shakey's (it was Springfield) was dropping out because the buffet format was very successful for the owner. I did find a story in one of the online Illinois newspapers at that time, which quoted the owner as saying he could not convert his restaurant to a sit down format. With no name recognition, but unwilling to convert format, there is more to this story than meets the eye.

What was even more fun this morning was googling shakey's 1990, shakey's 1989, shakey's 1988, etc. Some of the restaurant trade paper articles from that era are now online. Interesting reading.

I also keep an eye on a thread about Shakey's sauce recipe running since August 2004 over at pizzamaking.com. I hope that eventually someone who mixed up the spice formula and/or flour additive formula will get likkered up one night and post the formula.

I did a bit of searching. Too much free time today.

Discovered a place called mytravelguide.com, that will search out restuarants. Some were Shakey's Pizaa other Shakeys Pizza. These are all that were found in the USA outside of People's Republic of California. Not listing those. Curiously the one in Janesville I went to 5 weeks ago is not listed.

I also found this about the company downsizing. So I have no idea how many are still around and which of these may be closed. This is from a site tracking which franchises are growing and whihc ones are shrinking.

"SHAKEY'S PIZZA of Alhambra, CA (founded 1954) has decreased by 3 units in he period from 04/14/07 to 08/14/07. Their total now stands at 52 down from 55. (5% downsizing). We last wrote about the chain in our 3/6/07 newsletter (11% downsizing). These are fast casual restaurants with seating for about 200. Beer and wine are served and banquets are offered. Locations are in AZ, CA, GA, WA and WI"

The previous mention of 11% downsizing indicates that a year ago they had 9 more units. Note that MD and PA are not mentioned as states with venues. Where as the mytravelguide.com lists that they do. I know for a fact that it is not 100% accurate since I looked up a defunct local place and it was on there despite being closed for 3 years now plus it did not find the one in Janesville.

Shakeys Pizza
2081 N Grand Ave , Nogales, AZ
Tel: (520) 281-0043

Shakeys Pizza
785 N Houston Rd, Warner Robins, GA
Tel: (478) 923-5381

Shakeys Pizza
5711 Silver Hill Rd, District Heights, MD
Tel: (301) 735-5565

Shakeys Pizza
312 Mill St, Hershey, PA
Tel: (717) 533-9824

Shakeys Pizza
Rr 2, Mount Pleasant Mills, PA
Tel: (570) 539-2363

Shakeys Pizza
31246 Pacific Hwy S , Federal Way, WA
Tel: (253) 941-0880

Shakeys Pizza
14300 Se Petrovitsky Rd, Renton, WA
Tel: (425) 277-0227

Shakey's Pizza
2295 W College Ave, Appleton, WI
Tel: (920) 739-3533

Shakey's Pizza
573 W Rolling Meadows Dr, Fond du Lac, WI
Tel: (920) 923-1740

Shakey's Pizza
9638 W National Ave, Milwaukee, WI
Tel: (414) 541-9260

Shakey's Pizza
W226n767 Eastmound Dr, Waukesha, WI
Tel: (262) 513-9237

Would be nice to know which of these are still around if anyone has updated info.

Found this on at least a couple of used to bes that appear to be in business in Oregon:

"Izzy's Pizza Restaurants were established in 1979 by Fred Jansen and his mother, Isabel (Izzy) Covalt. Prior to 79', Izzy and her late husband, Jim, had owned and operated Shakey's Pizza Parlors for twenty years in Albany and Corvallis, Oregon. They were, in fact, the first Shakey's franchisees.

"Although the Shakey's operations were successful, it became obvious to Izzy and Fred in the late 1970's that there was a greater potential for pizza parlors if they were upgraded to pizza restaurants and if the menu could be broadened to appeal to a larger consumer segment. After many months of thoughtful planning, the Albany and Corvallis operations were converted from Shakey's to Izzy's, and a new, expanded menu, featuring a buffet and salad bar as well as chicken and various pizzas, was introduced. In 1982 Fred bought Izzy out of her 50% and subsequently developed the pan pizza dough recipe, which was introduced in 1984 and has proven to be one of the company's most important products."

Hi ADM,

1. District Heights, MD now has 4 businesses listed by the Verizon phone company at that address, including a listing for a carpenter's union office. Most of these listings are bogus. The restaurant fixtures were auctioned off:
http://www.rasmus.com/?start=90&
2. Hershey, PA is a sports bar. I passed it about a year ago. Has nothing to do with the pizza chain.
3. Waukesha, WI is a pizza crust manufacturer:
http://www.bakersquality.com/comp.htm
4. Warner Robins, GA is still a franchised restaurant.
Plug in the street addresses into the advanced search function at Verizon's superpages.com and see what comes up. A lot of listings were never removed from the phone company records.

oooo, careful where you get your info from Adm22, Shakey's isn't downsizing whatsoever. In fact, CEO Tim Pulido, has a fantastic 5-year plan for the expansion of the brand. They've only been opening new restaurants for the last 1.5 years. If any Shakey's have "closed" it's because they were restaurants operating outside of the franchise – those who didn't want to stay up to date according to the franchise guidelines.

David mentioned in a recent post that he had visited Diamonds (a former Shakey's) and that "Everything else I was told was the same."

Well there you go, that's your first clue that it is NOT a Shakey's any longer. Shakey's has NOT remained the same, which is the impotant point I want to draw your attention to. They have significatly improved operations, taste, quality, atmosphere. Take everything you loved about Shakey's and imagine it 10x better (that's the way I look at it. Having grown up with them as a kid, I couldn't have ever imagined ever actually eating at one again, for me they were on par with Chucke Cheese, a perception that was quickly dispelled when Shakey's became a client of mine and I had a chance to revisit the past. What a surprisingly wonderful experience. I am a true fan once again.). That's what new Jacmar administration has done.

In previos posts I had drawn your attention to their official myspace page and official web page. But apparantly posting links is against the rules in here. So, I'll try and work around that and direct you to double u, double u, double u dot Shakeys dot com for a complete list of ALL official Shakey's restaurants in the U.S. On their web site you can also read news releases, newspaper and trade magazine clips. You can check out their new menu too! And to stay ahead of the news, or to connect with other Shakey's fans, visit their myspace page. double u, double u, double u dot myspace dot com forward slash shakeyspizza.

Cheers,
Shakeykniss

quote:

Originally posted by berndog Back in the early 70's, there was a Shakey's near RIT on West Henrietta Road. Used to be quite the hangout on some evenings. Good pizza, cheap beer (as I remember). Too bad they went away.

Big Beautiful Mich's first name is Henrietta. I'm guessing RIT is the Rochester Institute of Technology in New York State. If I'm righte, I smell a road trip, Shakey's or not.

quote:

Originally posted by Ashphalt I remember the jingle:

"We serve fun at Shakey's, also Pizza. Shakeys!"

I thought (honestly) that it went, "We serve FUN at Shakey's, awful pizza."

quote:

Originally posted by annpeeples Shakeys has been in Milwaukee for years-still is.Average to bad pizza.Not the Shakeys of old.....

Not to mention no singalongs or old black and white comedies.

I had my first ever pizza at Shakeys when I was about 13 or 14. It was
pepperoni and it was delicious, I can almost still taste it if I think hard enough.

quote:

Originally posted by Ort. Carlton. My thinking is that Pizza Hut is a Southern chain. I've eaten at one as far west as Bunkie, Louisiana (it was the ONLY place open in a town of 5,000 people on a Sunday evening! Go figure!!) and in scattered(, smothered, and covered) locations across the South.

We got 'em in Southeastern Wisconsin, which is a fair piece north. When in the absolute direst of straights, I'll go to the Taco Bell~Pizza Hut in Lake County, Ill (that's the one north of Chicago that borders Wisconsin) order my burrito, and swipe a bag of kinda sorta Parmesan from the Pizza Hut stash to make it interesting.

I loved the mid-'70s Shakey's in Memphis, TN. As a little kid, I thought they had the best pizza around, plus I played my very first game of Pong there on one of the original full-size arcade machines. I've since visited the Shakey's on Reseda in Northridge, CA and wasn't impressed enough with the food to return, though it still has that old-timey parlor feel to it. I did appreciate their hanging on to the lunch buffet, though.

Noce to learn that a couple of those I found online are no longer with us. Wish I could edit the list to remove them so no one heads to them by mistake. I wander around the country a fair bit and have been known to go out of my way for for stupid things.

Mayeb Shakeykniss could post a list of all the locations that are still open. Although I would call going from 55 to 52 venues downsizing. I found this ad for the opening of their 500 place back in 1974 http://epguides.com/comics/shakeys.jpg so today they have barely 10% of what they once had, assuming no more were opened after that one.

A list was published here, but the board does not allow blatant advertising. I checked the list at the time, and it was taken verbatim from the Shakey's web site. Just go to the homepage and click on Locations. Bottom line, outside of California:
Arizona: 1
Georgia: 1
Washington State: 2
Wisconsin: 2
There are supposed to be three opening up in Alabama.

We know there were some defrocked in the last year or so. I am pragmatic; I consider Shakey's to be roadfood places in California.

I was on the phone with a friend of mine in Virginia the other night, and we got to talking about what happened to the buildings in the Mid-Atlantic states. He rattled off some locations; one is a Chinese buffet, one is a seafood restaurant/bar combo, one is a casual restaurant with a band on the weekends, one is a real estate office, one is an Arby's, one got bulldozed, one is a branch of the 3 Brothers Italian Food restaurant chain, one is a deli.

If you study the history of the chain, you will come across some interesting owners such as Hunt International Resources Corp., whose executives lived it up for a few years over at the Greybar Hotel.

Shakey's is the one thing my dad asked for after his last surgery. The hospital didn't feed him all day & he asked me to run to the State Fair to bring him back some Shakey's; is it really that good?

"Shakey's Pizza
W226n767 Eastmound Dr, Waukesha, WI
Tel: (262) 513-9237"

That location is a Culvers now, or a car dealership.

Hi Detective,

Yes, if done properly, Shakey's is very good pizza. Objectively, I think a lot of people associate it with a happy time in their life. It also depends when and where they remember from it from, and how pizza was made at that location at that point in time. Former Shakey's kitchen help have posted over at pizzamaking.com how they made the pizzas. It seems that as time passed, more ingredients were shipped pre-mixed to the restuarants.

About Waukesha, adm22 got his list from one of those online directories. As we all know, those directories have errors in them. I did run some of those addresses through the Verizon phone company's web site. While Culver's store locator does not show a Culver's at that address, I did find a pizza crust manufacturer listed for that address and posted details in my second post of September 3rd.

What I find fascinating is how many people still have a craving for this pizza, even if all the stores in their area closed down.

quote:

Originally posted by David_NYC

A list was published here, but the board does not allow blatant advertising. I checked the list at the time, and it was taken verbatim from the Shakey's web site. Just go to the homepage and click on Locations. Bottom line, outside of California:
Arizona: 1
Georgia: 1
Washington State: 2
Wisconsin: 2
There are supposed to be three opening up in Alabama.

We know there were some defrocked in the last year or so. I am pragmatic; I consider Shakey's to be roadfood places in California.

I still come up with a blank at the Shakey's home page. It was designed too fancy and or poorly. I have a mac running OS9. Ever so often find a website that needs a newer version of flash than I can get to work or else has some poor code in it that is not html standard and relies on quirks introduced by microsoft for IE to work. The best webpages are the simpliest ones that can convey the needed message.

I know the Janesille WI one is good ( and I could not find references to it online) so any idea which of the other 4 I had listings for in WI is still around. I know a number of years ago I was at an event in Milwaukee. A friend from the Chicago area decided to come up and do diner with me when I was done. He had something he had wanted to do in the area and was looking for an excuse to make the drive. He had mentioned seeing a Shakey's while driving around tonw but could not find it and I wanted to take him to the Safe House anyways. So forgot about same until now.

This will be a show of ignorance on my part, but wondering exactly what road food is?

According to their website - They have stores in the following states:

Wisconsin
Washington
Georgia
Arizona
California

I used to like their AYCE buffet when going with the kids and hubby. Fried chicken was great!

Hi adm22,

If you go to the home page of this website, (just clck on "home") there is a great explanation of what roadfood is on the upper right hand side of the page.

The other Shakey's in Wisconsin is the one you have listed as Milwaukee, but which they list as West Allis, WI at 9638 W. National Ave.

The one in Milwaukee I suspect is the one a friend of mine saw a few years ago when we both had business in town and were going to do dinner. he saw it but could not remember where since he becale a bit geographically challenged in trying to find the place we were to meet.

Last night on one of the Rockford radio stations I heard something about a bus trip being planend by the station for people who missed their mojo potatoes for a road trip to the Shakey's in Janesville. Will not be partaking since I do not live in Rockford and if I am going to drive there then might as well go all the way to Wisconsin. Just kind of weird seeing as how 4 months ago I was not even aware Shakeys still existed. from what I have learned there was one in Rockford a long time ago.

Yes, there was one in Rockford many years ago; I remember the ads for it but I think I was only there once or twice.

If memory serves I think there also used to be one on East Washington Ave. here in Madison, too.

Brad

adm22,

Do you recall what Rockford radio station you were listening to? I'd love to get ahold of them.

Cheers,
shakeykniss