Funny

My nostalgia for the brand is the nostalgia they showed when I was a kid; old tin ads on the wall for various sodas and candies and motor oil or whatnot. We used to stop there on road trips when I was a kid because the bathrooms would usually be pretty clean and wandering the store part would let us stretch our legs a bit. Sometimes we’d get some old-fashioned candy or gum or soda. Sometimes we’d actually eat at the restaurant side. Us kids would only ever get pancakes, no matter the time of day.

I can’t remember the last time I stopped at one now. Most of our road trips are heading north to see my wife’s parents in Canada. I’ve never noticed them existing north of southern Virginia and that comes up fairly early in our drive. My wife tried eating at one once before we got married but it sounds like what she got wasn’t good, especially the green beans. I’m not sure how much I’d trust the food that wasn’t on their all-day breakfast menu. It’s harder to mess up breakfast.

I’m not saying there’s not a potential market for a place that appeals to nostalgia of the ’70s–’90s, maybe the music, arcade games, pop culture references, Crystal Pepsi, but it would need to be a completely different brand even if it came from the same company.