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Ethel: “Howard Johnson’s, Howard Johnson’s”
Billy: “There’s a Howard Johnson’s, wanna eat some clams?”
Driving up to New England from New York City, the Howard Johnson’s restaurant was a little way past the entrance to the Mass Pike after Union, Connecticut, and my family used to cheer when it came into view. No more fried clams, alas.
Could’a sworn it was some sort of electrode or Super Zap-Ray Gun.
I think HoJo’s had to be the only time my family ever ate at a motel restaurant when we weren’t actually staying at the motel. If memory serves, the Friday night BIG FISH FRY was the usual attraction.
My dad’s absolute favorite restaurant, and staple of Pennsylvania Turnpike trips. I always cracked up at the pretentiously named hotdogs — “Frankfort on buttered roll”. Perhaps they were from KY. Anyway, I always had the clams. Yum! And then late nights in one across from my Seminary dorm in Philly, poring over Greek and Hebrew while pouring coffee and eating pecan pie. O, the memories!
About 20 years ago the franchise owners acquired the rights to the name Howard Johnson’s and tried to resurrect the brand. Their prototype restaurant was at the same location in my town where one had served as the prototype 50 years earlier:
Howard Johnson’s 1941
It closed in 2000, and after an attempt by an ownership group that included Donnie Wahlberg to operate a place called “Doodad’s”, it remained closed for several years before it was recently reopened as a locally-owned restaurant, The Suffolk Grille.
My brother and I built an HO scale model of a HoJo’s when we were kids. Same space needle on top of the distinctive orange roof.
We always stopped there on the way to Maine from NJ.
Brown bread, baked beans and a couple of hot dogs in the bun made from folded toast and served in a little cardboard trough.
That and Hebert Candy………
Always stopped at Holiday Inn or HoJo on the road to Florida or wherever I-95 took us on vacation. Both were blessedly reliable, but I think I preferred HoJo. It was like the Ernie to Holiday Inn’s Bert. It was your favorite uncle; Holiday Inn was your favorite teacher.
There used to be one about ten miles from where I live (never ate there, though). I remember when they were tearing it down, and I kept admiring the windvane, featuring the boy and his dog waiting for a treat from the baker. I wanted to go there and ask the workers if I could take it–but alas, I was too young and insecure to think they’d grant such a bold request. Sadly, it probably got tossed in a dumpster along with everything else.
Another missed opportunity.
As a New Englander, the popularity of the Howard Johnson’s fried clams always mystified me, given that they were just clam necks and not the whole fried clams that true New Englanders prefer. But then I guess HoJo’s was a precursor to the McDonad’s and Burger Kings that, back in in the 1950s, still lay in the future: People liked the conistency. They could be in Anytown, U.S.A., see that orange roof, and know exactly what they were going to get.
I find it interesting that Jacques Pepin went to work for Hojo after being Charles De Gaulle’s personal chef.
The hey day of Howard Johnson’s must have been before my time. I recall staying at one on some trip somewhere, but there was no restaurant. I do have a vague recollection that my parents did not want to eat at Howard Johnson’s; it was lousy or something negative. Somehow, HoJo’s still is a positive icon of Americana in my being, despite that.
And the wonderful ice cream! My favorite was Burgundy Cherry, my wife says hers was Black Raspberry. I also liked their chicken croquettes. All gone now, alas.
I seem to recall that one HoJo north of Hillsboro (TX) had a functioning beehive INSIDE the building, enclosed in glass, of course. The hive was connected to the outside by a large pipe through the roof. Of the MANY HoJos that I have visited, I don’t think I ever saw this in another one. Was this unique to that store?
I’ll bet you every birthday I had from 4 to 10 was spent eating fried clams at the Tallahassee HoJo.
There is still a HoJo now here in Birmingham, but I think its just a hotel, and they did away with the roof that made it great.
I’ll bet Joe Ohio stayed in HoJos. When will we see Joe again?
When I was growing up, my family used to stop at the local HoJo’s occasionally. Usually it was for ice cream, but sometimes for lunch or dinner. As I recall, the food wasn’t bad. I guess the thing I miss most about HoJo is their salt water taffy, which came in ice cream and sherbet flavors. It ranked right up there among the best salt water taffy I’ve ever eaten.
The Howard Johnson’s we used to visit, in Utica, NY, is now the site of a used car lot. Phooey!
Ah, Howard Johnson’s fried clams–Hal was right, they only used the rubbery necks of the clams. I remember liking them. I also remember staying at the motel–Mom, Dad, and the 4 kids all in there together with a cot for the youngest. The air quality in our room after indulging at the HoJo’s restaurant (several clam dinners in the mix) was, to say the least…funky.
Anybody remember “The Clam Plate Orgy” by Wilson Bryan Key, king of the subliminal ad scare? He claimed that HoJo’s worked all sorts of naughty things into the pictures of clams on their placemats, and that was what made them (the clams) so popular.
One of my favorite spoofs, for some reason, based on a ‘dear abby’ type advice column:
Q: Should I buy a silver spoon for the baby I’m expecting?
A: Sure, although it’s much easier if you name the baby Howard Johnson and have quick hands.
I knew instantly what that tease was–in fact, we just passed through Old Forge, NY, and I recognized subconciously the on the roof of a former HoJo’s, despite the entire roof having been painted green.
Old Unkajoe: For what it’s worth, I believe the former French President Jacques Chirac also claimed to have worked in the kitchen of a HoJo’s as a visiting student and was quite fond of their cheeseburgers.
Finally, in high school, we went on the all-you-can-eat evenings, singing to the tune of The Doors “L.A. Woman”:
Well, I just got into town about an hour ago
Took a look around to find the nearest HoJos
Lookin’ for those orange and blue bungalows
Are you the lucky little waitress in the restaurant tonight
Or just another bored waiter, HoJo’s tonight yeah wooo
Then we’d do a lot of:
Mr. HoJo Fried Clams
Got to keep on fryin’
Fryin’, Fryin’
Fond memories of traveling from Pennsylvania to New England (Family in Connecticut, Rhode Island, New Hampshire and Maine). My father would always stop at a Ho Jo’s for lunch, and ice cream cones. I remember their big buger was the 3-D. I also remember indian pudding. My father told me it was made from old indians!
Once upon a time, in Lafayette, IN, there was a HoJo which served All You Can Eat fried clams on (I think) Friday. It was surpassing yummy, so was frequented, er, frequently. Until one day, after a particularly successful AYCE experience, a sequel involving All You Can Barf, lasting deep into the evening, cast a pall upon the whole concept. Somewhere there still exists an AYCE fried seafood opportunity (think ruddy crustacean) but All I Can Eat of such stuff these days approximates zero.
So I can look upon the demise of HoJo with something approximating equanamity.
Growing up on Long Island, HoJos was one restaurant we went to on a regular basis – on shopping trips with Mom, with the cousins after a movie, for the occasional give-Mom-a-break dinner. I remember the ice cream sodas were HUUUUGE (or I was small)with that giant conical scoop of ice cream perched perilously off to the side of the tall glass – and peppermint stick ice cream sounded better than it tasted. Everyone liked the clams but me. Mom always had the Fisherman’s Platter. I ate many a ‘frankfort’ but with vague suspicion, they were HOTDOGS and should have been in a BUN. What a pain in the ass kid I was.
I’d love to see one of their old menus.
What happened to HoJo? They had more restaraunts than company-owned comissaries to serve them and treated their franchisees poorly. In turn, the HoJo franchises would cut corners by buying from suppliers that didn’t have the same standards as HoJo, thus the brand faded away. (the hotel franchise is now one of the multiple Wyndham hotel brands) Ray Kroc saw what happened to HoJo, thus when McD’s expanded, they used smaller local suppliers that were willing to meet McD’s standards in turn for getting all of McD’s business.