The first Waffle House opened on Labor Day 1955 with one long counter built for fourteen stools facing the grill. At a Mississippi Waffle House, the counter and the booths might as well be two different restaurants, and the regulars can tell which one you belong at. These are the Waffle House counter seating habits…
York Steak House opened its first cafeteria-style counter in a Columbus shopping center in 1966 and grew to nearly 200 restaurants in 27 states by 1982. One is left. It’s in Columbus. These are the restaurant chains Ohio used to take for granted that are vanishing. 1. Ponderosa Steakhouse Ponderosa Steakhouse turned Dayton into a…
Sticky Fingers Smokehouse served its last plate of ribs in North Charleston on September 5, 2025, The Post and Courier reported. That closed a 33-year run. South Carolina has been losing places like it for two decades. The ones still standing are down to a handful of locations each. These are the restaurant chains South…
Maine’s first tidal lobster pound opened on Vinalhaven in 1875, a dammed-off cove where dealers held live lobsters until prices rose. The places that came after kept the shape of it. More than 14 million people visited Maine last year, and a good share of them walked into one expecting a restaurant. These are the…
California made chain restaurants post calorie counts on their menu boards in 2008, years before the federal government did. But calories aren’t the only number consumers need to watch. One salad on those boards carries 2,030 milligrams of sodium, 88% of a full day’s limit, and it reads like the light option. These are the…
Harrodsburg went up in 1774 as Kentucky’s first permanent settlement. Nobody wrote down what those families cooked. The recipes traveled anyway, carried in by German and West African hands among others, and a few of them are still on the table. These are the Kentucky foods that tell the story of the people who settled…
Wilber Hardee sold hamburgers for 15 cents off a charcoal broiler at a Greenville drive-in in 1960. There were no tables. North Carolina’s burger and hot dog chains never lost that streak, and plenty of them still run the counter however they always have. These are the ordering mistakes tourists make at North Carolina’s burger…
Bob Evans runs 412 restaurants, and 179 are in Ohio. Thirty-two states have never had one. These are the restaurant chains Ohioans assume are everywhere, but they barely leave the Midwest. 1. White Castle White Castle’s name travels far past its restaurants, and packaged sliders now reach retailers in all 50 states, according to the…
A folding table sits by the fellowship hall door at homecoming, spiral-bound cookbooks stacked next to a cash box. The University of South Carolina’s Caroliniana Library holds 357 of them. These are the recipes and drinks that turn up in nearly every old South Carolina cookbook. 1. Chicken Bog Chicken bog fills a single pot…
Texas restaurants racked up more closures than any other state in the first half of 2026, according to the restaurant-tracking firm RestaurantData. These are the restaurant chains that shut their Texas doors for good in 2026. 1. On the Border’s Closure On The Border opened its first restaurant in Irving back in 1982, and by…
