Howard Johnson's Restaurants down to three
From Earthtimes.org
Howard Johnson's restaurants down to three
Posted on : 2007-01-22 Author : Business News Editor News Category : Business
WATERBURY, Conn., Jan. 22 (UPI) The owner of ailing Howard Johnson's restaurants plans to revive the chain next year even as it has cut the iconic U.S. chain's size to three restaurants.
The company plans to introduce a new Howard Johnson's ice cream in New York and Puerto Rico in April, then start selling it elsewhere, La Mancha Group in New York, which owns the Howard Johnson's restaurant and food brand, told The Republican-American of Waterbury, Conn.
Once the ice cream is established, the company will open restaurants again, probably in mid-2008, La Mancha President David Kushner said.
La Mancha, which bought the brand from the Wyndham Hotel Group last year, told the Waterbury HoJo restaurant owners to stop using the brand within 30 days after franchise-renewal talks failed, Kushner told the Republican-American.
[The owners of the last Howard Johnson's restaurant in Connecticut plan to remain open under another name and say it was their decision to end their affiliation with the brand, not the company's. (from another uncredited article)]
This leaves three HoJo restaurants -- in Bangor, Maine; and Lake Placid and Lake George, N.Y.
Howard Johnson motor lodges and hotels are separate from the restaurants.
Howard Johnson's was founded in 1925 and grew to more than 1,000 restaurants by the late 1970s.
Copyright 2007 by United Press International
The Connecticut building is an original Nims-style restaurant, and despite garnishing the name, will always be a Howard Johnson's. :-)
posted by Brian Florence at
1:54 PM
4 Comments:
I'm from Wisconsin, and remember when the "oasises" in Illinois used to be HJ restaurants (they're McDonald's now)
I suppose I should feel honored that NY has two of the remaining HoJoses...
L. in Albany
I'm Mike and I'm from Long Island. I've been vacationing in Lake George since I was a child. One of the places that we would stay at there was the Howard Johnson Hotel on Aviation Rd in Glens Falls that had a HJ restaurant next door on the property.I loved this place. However, just like all good things, this place came to an end. The restaurant went first, being occupied by a steak house and then an extreme sports store while the hotel went on for awhile and continued to flourish. Then, suddenly, it was closed, having been sold to Pyramid the company who owns Aviation Mall. Instead of keeping the always busy hotel open, they closed it and let it sit for years till it became sadly decrepit. As I'd go up there every year I'd see it fall into even worse states of disrepair. I wasn't able to come up there this year due to money issues but I was wondering if anyone knows if it's been torn down yet. Also, I was wondering if perhaps anyone did any urban exploring of the vacant buildings and maybe taken some pics. Does anyone know what will become of the property? I'd be very interested to know. It's so sad these places are disappearing.
BTW-If anyone has any info on this at all, please write me. My email is MisterRain837@aol.com. Thanks a lot.
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