Yes No Are you burned out by them? I mean are they a little too tacky with the automobile memorabilia and oldies being played on the radio with the waitresses wearing the poodle skirts.
Well you can always go to the gentlemans club for a cheeseburger & a beer....no automobile memorabilia & no skirts either....
I could live without them. Ever. They always seem to be the vision of "external speculators", or in other words people that know nothing about cars but think this would be a great popularity wave to catch.
Most places are kinda tacky however I'd like to check this place in Tucson out sometime. http://hotrodsoldvail.com/
A local garage here was converted to a restaurant. I don't get the feel you described. Vinsetta Garage is in Berkley MI is now a restaurant. But what you described doesn't bother me. I am into rockabilly and old rocknroll. I dig the fiftey. Not old enough to have lived then, but it takes me to a place in time when our country was not so greedy and lost. Personal opinion mind you. Yeah there were faults then too. It also reminds me of my mom (who has passed). She would sing to us an tell us about when she was a kid. My uncles all had hotrods that I would drool over. I know it seems kinda korny.
I'll take them over an "Applebee's/Ruby Tuesday/ Chili's" look-alike chain any day. Many of them are privately owned and offer a home-town type menu. (Kinda like eatin' at Poverty Flat's place. )
Stumbled onto the "Hot Rod Diner" outside Knoxville a few months ago when I visited Rick Toombs' FE shop in the area. Great food, good music, and very nice staff.
Let's see, we all like old cars (or cars in general), most of us like rock n roll, we surround ourselves with automotive memorabilia in our garages... I don't see the problem. I'd go out on a limb and say that most of the folks that are into old cars are because they are trying to remember a simpler time, or fond memories of their youth, or when you worked all week to scrape enough money to buy that part you just had to have for your ride... Nostalgia, right?
Some are good, some - not so much. I've been to both. A few can be a bit too kitschy with Lucy-land stuff everywhere, too unrealistically Happy-Dazee or cluelessly overdone, while others seem to have been done by those that lived back in the days and know what it was really like. It's doubtful that many of us who grew up in the 40s, 50s and/or early 60s will ever again find a real maltshop or restaurant that has real record-playing jukeboxes, hand-tossed pizza-pies, or soda jerks & fountains that actually have Coke, root beer or other flavored syrups that are used with fizz-water to make sodas like we remember, etc. (How many remember pizza parlors with viewing windows so we could watch the chef twirl out the crusts, and with real, endlessly stringy cheese on em? MMMMMmmmmm!) Credit certainly goes to some business-folk that work to do the retro theme without overdoing it though.
I have yet to go to one where I feel like the hot rod "vibe" is real. Most of them feel like the owners aren't really into cars, but want to jump on the trend because it's fashionable. Lame pictures, black and white checkered tile floors, and oldies music playing 24/7 doesn't cut it for me. I enjoy going to a place that has an old-time vibe, like a Johnny Rockets. The decor is like stepping back into the '50s, and the food is outstanding. Excellent burgers, onion rings, real malts, and vanilla Cokes. Now, I've been into some blues-themed BBQ restaurants that absolutely kicked ass. Blues guitar, southern BBQ, real sweet tea, and cornbread that could pass for cake. Culinary perfection. To me, that's my definition of hot rod food.
I certainly didn't mean to insult anybody that owns one of these places that has built it like anything else from the heart and soul. What I wrote above is just my experiences locally around here. There have been several that have opened and closed around the Phoenix metro area where they just weren't quite sure how to reach us in the car community, so they just keep throwing tacky memerobilia and annachronisms such at us 'till something sticks. Just flat not my style for the little bit that I eat out these days.
As an Old Fart who grew up in the 'Golden Era' of Hot Rodding, I can tell you that most of the owners of Drive-Ins & Restaurants during that time weren't necessarily "into cars". At best, many of them 'tolerated' the hoodlums and Bobby-soxers that frequented their respected establishments.
as a younger guy (38) not being around when the real 50's diners were around, and loving old cars i guess they are a way to kind of live in that era. so i guess i gotta like them because i have no way to compare the old and new.
The one down here stayed open for a couple years before its demise. Owner didnt know a damn thing about the food industry or management. Also the attendees who parked their rides in his parking lot would either come in after they had dinner at home or would walk across the street to another burger shack because it was cheaper and could get their food quicker than the hour it would take in the resturant.
I'm not in one enough to get "burned out". There's one about 1/2 hour away that I frequent about once a year. It's pretty neat with a lot of memorabilia that's from the community. I think if you wanted one that would survive, that's the way you need to be - not just "hot rod" or "I Love Lucy" themed - not enough clientele to substantaite that all the time. I think you're talking about an era of restaraunts which to me were more of the local "greasy spoons/diners" that most small towns had awhich were good places to eat and had their own character. If you want to make it a hit, make it famliy oriented, with an era ambiance, with good food and good prices. JMHO
I like the "Johnny Rockets" theme for a diner a lot better than the "Applebee's" sort of theme where you can clearly tell that the owner has NO idea what any of the stuff on the walls is, he just knows that it is old and might have something to do with hot rods. Even if Johnny Rockets doesn't have a single car-related thing on the walls, it's still cool. There's a place in downtown Chicago called "Ed Debevic's" that is a fun diner similar to the way that I remember them, and they don't take any of it very seriously and serve pretty darn good food while having fun. Lots of Motown music playing in the background too, which makes it cool in my book! It's been gone for about twenty or thirty years, but there was a place near Pittsburgh PA called "Plug N Piston" that was WAY cool and you KNEW that the owners were "car guys". They had a little Fiat or something like that out on a telephone pole with their logo/sign painted on the doors, a cutaway Chrysler Torqueflite sitting on top of the cigarette machine in the lobby, and the place was wall-to-wall with all sorts of auto racing and auto parts related stuff. Not necessarily a "hot rod" cafe, but way cool nonetheless. What I AM tired of is the same thing that everyone else is... the restaurant owner who is nostalgic for his younger days and he goes out & buys a stack of the "I love Lucy" and RT 66 reproduction signs & buys hubcaps from random cars, Coca Cola signs, and does the black & white floor tile and has "Mustang Sally" playing over & over on the jukebox... Give the place some real character and ask the local hot rodders for some memorabilia for the walls, and get some things that MEAN something to the locals...
There's a "Princes Hamburger's" here, actually maybe a couple, they are decked out in 50's garb. The foods not bad, but you can tell whoever owns it isn't a hotrod or fifties person. One day, I asked a counter person who was singing the song that was playing and they didn't know Patsy Cline was singing! The horror! Sad thing is, the original "Princes" used to be in downtown Houston and WAS a hangout during the 50's-70's. I think these new owners are just trying to capture something they don't really care or know about.
I always will stop at one of the places because I recognize that someone is trying to build a business around the theme of a time I loved. I seems there is always detractors that can never be pleased because it isn't cool enough for them. The older I get, the more I cut others some slack. If you enjoy it, more power to you, good attitude. For the others, there is always McDonalds. Get the happy meal.
No, for others the search continues for a place that's not stuffed full of shit. When I go to eat, I want a relaxed atmosphere. Not some bimbo dressed like Marlyn Monroe asking me if I want cheese on my burger. Or so much crap tacked to the walls, you can't see the wallpaper. I don't want to pay $10 for a damn hamburger because there's an Elvis manican standing inside the front doorway. A place with light touches of automobilia/50's and good food would do very well.
Yeah to each his own where this is concerned. Im not a big fan of the 50s themed establishments primarily based on whats been said here. They usually arent very good. Of course there is always exceptions to the rule. As far as the hot rod theme goes, I prefer the restuarant to focus on the product and service, and if they want to cater to the hot rod crowd then devise a way for that element to be defined by the customers. Nothing draws a crowd of hot rodders better than a parking lot full of hot rods. A local establishment here in the D/FW area has it nailed. The place is called Fat Daddy's. They have a tight afiliation with a local shop (House of Hot Rods) and they maintain a roped off area in the entry of the place to showcase different cars provided by the shop. They have a large parking lot and sponsor frequent car shows and concerts to attract enthusiasts. But the dining area is pretty much theme-less (except for the top fuel dragster hanging from the ceiling). Best of all the food and service is excellent. Fill up on good food and great service then head to the parking lot to treat yourself on the eye candy and conversation.
I agree with most of the remarks. Not much into 'themed' anything. I would love to go into a diner that looked like the one in Back To The Future where the atmosphere is 'as it was'. Restaurants didn't have records and movie posteres on the walls in the 40s or 50s, why does every 'themed' 50s joint bury you in goofiness? How about a counter with glass pie enclosures and little boxes of cereal on a rack against the wall. Or food that's fast and reasonable like a 'diner' should be. A jukebox that plays something other than the American Graffiti soundtrack (admittedly great but like too much candy... it's gets old). Good, cheap coffee. So to your question, I tired of the theme diners pretty quick, but I still love the era.
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