Howard Johnson's, once a mighty empire, had more than 500 restaurants in the 1970's. The theater district alone had three. Sales exceeded those of McDonald's, Burger King and Kentucky Fried Chicken combined. Today there are 11 left in the entire United States, and the last continental Howard Johnson's ice cream store, on Cape Cod, closed last year (one remains, however, in Puerto Rico).

HoJo's future now seemed shaky to me. I had walked past the place hundreds of times in the last quarter-century without ever eating there. True, I was never entirely convinced that the restaurant actually existed. It was more like a hallucination than a fact, but not crossing the threshold was a little like living in Washington and never visiting the Jefferson Memorial. For a food critic, it seemed like gross dereliction of duty. I decided to take action. I would eat at HoJo's. (William Grimes, New York Times, 2/19/03, article discussing possibility of HoJo's closing)

See also:

• Diners
• Drinkers