You probably didn’t notice the last time you heard the clink of real glassware at a fast food joint, saw a cigarette machine near the restroom, or got a matchbook with your check. But now that they’re gone, it’s hard not to miss them.
This Reddit thread had people reminiscing about the little things that quietly disappeared from restaurants over the years. Here are some of the most memorable ones.
#1
Matches with the restaurant's name embossed on them, by the register, next to the mints.
Image credits: Cracks-inthesidewalk
#2
I miss when Pizza Hut had dining rooms. Dark, plastic Tiffany hanging lamps over each table, and those plastic red cups.
SaintOlgasSunflowers replied:
Pizza Hut is permanently etched into my brain. It was such a treat to go there. The smell of pizza when you walked in the door, the tablecloths, and the plastic red cups.
Image credits: DareWright
#3
Cafeterias in discount stores. K-Mart had a delicious orange drink that I absolutely loved. And going to Woolworth's for a burger, fries, and a chocolate shake.
Image credits: GraceStrangerThanYou
#4
You used to get a few sprigs of parsley on your plate.
You weren't supposed to eat it. It was for decoration.
lordofedging81 replied:
I almost never see that anymore, but it was everywhere. And it had a horrible texture and was so hard to chew! But like you said, it wasn't supposed to be eaten.
Image credits: nolotusnote
#5
Pancho's Mexican restaurants with the flag on the table you raised when you needed more food!! Loved that flag especially when it was my turn to raise it. Ahhh memories!
wallybeavis replied:
Raise the flag! Raise the flag! You're ready for a little more Pancho's! I can still hear the jingle in my head all these years later.
Image credits: Proud-Butterfly6622
#6
Small jukebox at your table to choose songs and insert your quarter (for 3 songs).
zereldalee replied:
One of my favorite memories! When I was a kid, we'd go to a diner on Sundays with the little jukebox at the table, and I'd play "Heartbreak Hotel" every time. Whenever I hear that song, I'm right back in that booth.
Image credits: smaartypants
#7
Salad bars, lots of restaurants had salad bars in the 1980s. Now, i can't think of one locally. Ruby Tuesday's, but I think they are all closed.
MKEJOE52 replied:
I think COVID helped kill salad bars and buffets.
Image credits: reesesbigcup
#8
I was a manager at one of the last Steak n Ale's in the country. I remember the ambiance, the engagements, the graduations, the celebrations . . . I remember the prime rib, the Hawaiian Chicken, the stained glass, the queen's anne chairs, the kitch, the people. 25 years later I still see people in town and know their order is a 10oz prime rib, mid, with a baker, butter/sour/chive. I don't know their names, but i know their order forever. : ).
Image credits: RosesSpins
#9
Shakey’s Pizza where you could watch them throw the crusts and watch old time movies while you ate. Later, they had buffets that were great.
remberzz replied:
My siblings and I are all in the 55–60 range, and we still wax poetic about our memories of Shakey's and Farrell's (mentioned elsewhere in this list).
Image credits: WAFLcurious
#10
You could call a restaurant to speak with someone you knew was there.
Image credits: bloatedkat
#11
I remember a lot more locally owned restaurants, and fewer chains. When you were on vacation, there would be all these different local restaurants and you would have to ask around to find the good ones. And you would get food that was different than what you would have at home. Now every town seems to have the same chains and the restaurants and the food are all the same.
Image credits: Ok_Huckleberry6820
#12
Arcade games in the pizza joints.
ThaneRob replied:
Arcade games in general! When was the last time you saw a Street Fighter or other game at any local store?! I've been to some laundromats with old, grubby, and often broken machines, but outside of deals like that, it's like they just completely disappeared!
Image credits: mzjjobe
#13
A&W had drive in service, they’d bring a tray out that attached to your window. I remember white castle in Vancouver (late 80s) had trays that stretched window to window across the car.
Image credits: Adventurous_Mix4878
#14
When McDonald’s deep fried their pies. (Pro tip: McDonald’s in Hawaii still do).
Image credits: DeeLeetid
#15
First thing came to my mind was Little Tavern, hamburgers for .25 cents, you could get a bag full for $2-$3 after a night of drinking. We called them deathballs LOL.
Image credits: Successful_Ride6920
#16
A basket with all different varieties of crackers and breadsticks to go with your cup or bowl of soup.
normalnonnie27 replied:
I loved that, especially the rye crackers. The local place we went to also had salad dressing in a little metal thing with three bowls. I thought it was so swanky.
Image credits: lldurado
#17
Howard Johnson’s fried clams. Where did they get them? Why can’t anyone imitate them? It’s been decades and I’m still grieving.
#18
Ponderosa! You’d grab your tray and silverware and work your way through the line to order your food and pay then fill up on the food bar as they cooked your food to bring to your table.
Image credits: Equivalent-Status195
#19
Basic diners/family restaurants in the '60s were very similar to each other, even though they weren't chains.
They all reeked of coffee and cigarettes.
Water was served right after seating. It came in fairly small glasses with lots of ice chips, and it all tasted the same wherever you were. There must have been a standard water filtration and ice making system that everyone had.
Butter came in single pats that were on a little square of cardboard with a sheet of wax paper on top. They weren't fully wrapped, just covered top and bottom like a little butter filled sandwich.
Jelly came in the same little foil topped plastic tubs that are around today. Syrup came in little stainless steel pitchers.
Sugar was on the table along with the salt and pepper shakers, in a glass pourer with a stainless lid. When you ordered coffee they automatically asked if you wanted cream, and if so they would bring out a little pitcher with your coffee.
There was a napkin dispenser on the table as well.
Often there would be a bottle of ketchup on the table, but not mustard. Pourable mustard wasn't a thing until maybe 1980. Back then it came in a jar like mayonnaise and you spread it with a knife.
So many little differences over the years.
Image credits: anon
#20
There was a LOT less variety available. Italian, American ... that was it. I still remember my first taco, made from a box. Taco Bell showed up not long after.
And this was the suburbs of DC, not someplace in the middle of nowhere.
Image credits: JoeBourgeois
#21
Does anybody else remember getting the comic books from Big Boy? Or coloring in it before your food arrived?
#22
Whether it's nostalgia or real, I'd say the effort that went into building the atmosphere of a restaurant.
It used to be an experience. Restaurants, especially asian ones or buffets would go all out on the ambience and variety. I remember fish tanks, complimentary pots of green tea, fortune cookies, exotic fruits or dishes etc
Now as Elaine from Seinfeld puts it you feel like a hog about to fill up at the trough.
#23
I remember the taco bar at Wendy's.
DietPepsiCamel replied:
Ooh, I remember it fondly! Ours had a taco bar in the middle, with an Italian section on one side with different kinds of pasta and marinara and then a vast salad bar on the other. They also had a few desserts at the end of the salad bar, and my favorite was always the pudding. It tasted just like a frosty, but it was pudding — blew my mind as a little kid!
Image credits: ciscovet
#24
When I was a kid in the 70s, many restaurants had paper place mats that were cocktail menus. There’d be photos of each cocktail with fun names like Singapore sunset, grasshopper, pink lady, monkey’s kiss, etc. They looked so good and I couldn’t wait to grow up to order them all one day. But sadly, by the time I was old enough to drink, those menus had long gone :(.
Image credits: MHmemoi
#25
Farrell's Ice Cream. Every time someone ordered a Zoo -- a bowl with 20 scoops of ice cream, usually for parties -- they'd bring it out on a stretcher-like item, carried by two people. And they'd ring a bell and blow a siren and generally make a racket, and run around the restaurant with it before bringing it to the table.
And if one person ate a whole Zoo? An announcement, also accompanied by sirens, bells, etc. And I think for every birthday, also, which included the singing of Happy Birthday by the whole restaurant. Basically, every trip to Farrell's was sure to include multiple loud interruptions to the meal. It was a blast.
*Edit: It's been pointed out that it nay have been an item called the Trough where they made a fuss if someone ate the whole thing. I could well have that wrong, since it was the mid-70's and I was around 10 years old. I certainly was never permitted to get one! :) (Had a Zoo for a birthday party, though...).
#26
The cigarette machine in the lobby/ waiting area.
Comprehensive_Post96 replied:
And you could push a button for matches in the 1960s. That's how 8-year-olds like me got matches to play with.
#27
Restaurants in department stores. Hudson’s in Detroit when I was little, Rich’s in Atlanta as a young man. Got dressed up, fancy.
#28
Cafeterias are a dying breed. We have a few here in the Midwest, but not like from the 70s and 80s. My mom (73) likes to go to one still every other Sunday…with us and all her grandkids. It’s nice watching my kids “go through the line” and pick out a pie or cake from the plethora of desserts.
Image credits: Ingybalingy1127
#29
I remember the waitress bringing everyone at the table a glass of water right after we were given menus.
Now you have to ask for a glass of water.
Image credits: moviesandcats
#30
My first job at 15 was at Sambo's. I was a waitress, and it was much more difficult than I expected. I learned to stay organized, think ahead, manage multiple priorities, and do everything all at once and quickly. It was hard, but once I'd mastered it, I felt a competence that helped me manage college and everything after.
I most remember my first uniform was a short white nurse's dress with a uselessly small orange apron. And the syrup-y pancake smell of Sambo's.
Image credits: SuzQP
#31
A week ago, the last Pig Stand in existence closed, after 101 years for the chain.
That particular location was central to my young car girl life, because they had weekly car meets and so that's where I spent most of my high school Friday nights. My favorite story is always gonna be the DARE (remember the anti-d**g classes?) rat rod...with a case of beer in the passenger seat. There was also the best sleeper ever--a Ford Pinto wagon with nitrous. He was there every week; the owner had a beautiful mid-90s mullet.
Every Pig Stand no matter where it was was loaded down with tchotchkes with the obvious theme. They all had the same giant poster of a '50s-era car hop in her short skirt, fat curls, and roller skates. Her name was Maggie, and by the time I was a child she was elderly but working at the Pig Stand (at a location that closed long ago and is now taken up by a 7-Eleven), half dotty, and known for f*****g up our orders in a variety of ways. But I adored her.
That place really shaped my appetites and opinions on what's the "correct" way for things to be. I've never had a patty melt anywhere else that came close--gotta have rye bread, Swiss cheese, and griddled onions. They claimed to have invented (among other things) onion rings, and no one makes 'em better. They also had fantastic, cooked to order (20 minute wait!) fried chicken.
A lot of the things mentioned elsewhere in this thread--the car hops, the drive-up service--were supposedly originated by the Pig Stand, which has been around since 1921, in Dallas. They used to be all over Texas.
Image credits: Grave_Girl
#32
I was a kid but I remember when Shakey's Pizza Parlor had actual live entertainment in the form of banjo players. They also showed old comedy short films. There was a non chain pizza place called Pipe and Pizza that had a giant Wurlizer concertina (like a giant one man band) and a blind organist (who played Led Zeppelin if you asked). I found some of her records ages ago:
https://youtu.be/QqiZZaxHdaY.
Image credits: Partigirl
#33
There was a restaurant in SE Michigan that had telephones on the tables. I think you could call the other tables but I don't remember how you knew the number--I guess they were displayed? Looking back I'm wondering if it was some low key pick up joint!
Image credits: TeacherPatti
#34
Beefsteak Charlie’s All You Can Eat Shrimp and All You Can Drink Beer.
Image credits: MxEverett
#35
Cafeteria style restaurants were common, and often served decent, healthy meals; including desserts. As far as I know, the soup, salad bowl and cheap steak diner chains are also mostly all gone.
#36
Arthur Treacher's Fish and Chips. Good stuff.
I remember people sitting down to talk and eat and no one looking into a device and ignoring each other.
#37
The fried clams, hot dog in a toasted bun and ice cream cones at Howard Johnson’s.
Pecan logs at Stuckey’s (are they still around?)
Anything at Shoney’s Big Boy.
#38
Restaurants had an air that management was on duty and that service and food was what made the restaurant run and make them money. They took pride in their menu and the wait staff that served it. If you asked the server about something on the menu, they actually KNEW what the food was and how it was prepared. They took pride in representing their establishment.
#39
Milk shake blenders that made the shake in a large metal cup. They would pour the milk shake into the glass and give you the rest of it in the metal cup. What a deal. Can you still get a malted shake anywhere? They were delicious.
Does Baskin Robins still exist? 31 flavors. There was a sign on the wall about how other ice cream makers could make theirs a little cheaper and their customers were their "natural prey."
There was this one diner in Fairlee Vermont with the best pies ever. They were made by one of the employees and we knew her personally. Sadly she has passed on and the pies are just regular pies now, if the diner even exists any more.
I was happily surprised last time I was at an A&W that they still had the Mama, Papa, Teen, and Baby burgers. They had those back in the mid 60s too.
#40
A smoking section.
tsapat replied:
My first job was as a hostess at a restaurant: 'Smoking or non-smoking?'
Image credits: anon
#41
Way back in the 70s they used to have sugar packets that had pictures on them with different fancy cars. I used to collect them.. Don't know what happened to him now.
#42
Ashtrays on tables.
#43
Fancy department stores had a fine dining tea room that was mostly geared towards the ladies, who would shop in the afternoon.
I tasted popovers for the first time in my life with an afternoon tea at Buffums department store in La Habra, California with my mom. I learned to make them for myself when I moved out into my own apartment, and I still make them from time to time when I'm really missing my mom.
Buffums department store also had a separate soda fountain, with a counter, where you could sit and a soda jerk that just stood there and made ice cream drinks and sodas for people.
My mom also stored her fur coats their over the summer. They had refrigerated storage in the building.
#44
Po’ Folks. Served all their drinks in mason jars. They had some of the best chicken livers I’ve ever had in my life.
Woolworth lunch counter. I worked next door at Rite Aid and would go there for lunch almost every day. The staff were always so nice. I’d walk in and they’d smile and say, “Hi, hon. Usual?” I was known as the “Liver with no onions and fries from next door” girl.
#45
Max & Irma’s near me each table had a number hanging over it and its own old fashioned phone. (The kind you talk in to the base while holding a separate earpiece to your ear) You could call other tables & generally make a nuisance of yourself. Used to call other tables and tell bad jokes.
#46
Relish trays. They always had carrots, olives, radishes, celery and cherry peppers. Usually in a metal tray with ice.
#47
Unlimited popcorn at The Ground Round.
#48
They’re still in business, they just suck now, but Red Lobster used to have a langostino dish on the menu that was superb. Lots of garlic, swimming in butter… it was my go-to. Now the Slobster is my never-go-to.
Image credits: OriginalIronDan
#49
When I was a kid in the ‘50s there was a Chinese restaurant uptown near the theaters with saggy tin ceilings, slow squeaky ceiling fans and walls covered with old time movie posters; Marx Brothers, WC Fields, Three Stooges, Laurel and Hardy and Abbot and Costello. They would take $1.00 off your meal with ID showing it was your birthday.
#50
Mr. Gatti's pizza. The decor was all natural wood and plants, they had a projection screen TV, and table arcade games of Pac Man and Galaga. Good pizza too.
Burger Chef. You picked up a plain burger or cheeseburger at the counter, then went to a bar like a salad bar to add your own toppings and condiments.
#51
The Scandinavian chain buffet my grandparents frequented had a lingonberry sauce you could plop all over your soft serve.
#52
Brown Derby. We could never afford to eat there when I was a kid. I had a friend whose parents were much better off than we were. I spent the night at his house and his mom got me all gussied up and took us there. Greatest restaurant experience of my youth.
#53
The cafeteria at the mall, always got chocolate pudding. Throwing peanut shells on the floor at the Ground Round. Lunch served in a little cardboard oven at the downtown department store restaurant. Woolworth’s (or was it Kresge’s?) lunch counter was such a treat!
#54
There was a place called Belisle's near Disneyland. The food was great and the portions were huge. The plates were the size of hubcaps. You could get an eclair the size of a football. And the price was right. I miss that place.
#55
Mazzio' s pizza on Fairburn rd. in Douglasville, GA. They opened another store on hwy 5. They had the best food I think I've ever had. There's a lot of nostalgia surrounding that restaurant for me. My dad would check me out of school just to go to lunch together.
#56
KFC used to have the “Chicken Little”. Was basically raised on them as a child. They were super cheap mini chicken patty sandwiches with only mayo. Discontinued a long time ago, but to this day I still love me a chicken patty sandwich with mayo just like the Chicken Little.
#57
I remember you used to have to phone the restaurant for a reservation, you couldn’t do it online like you do now.
Also if the person on the phone didn’t like you then you were not getting a table 🤣
Also the check used to be a carbon copy and the payment would be either cash or credit card using one of those chunky machines that used to imprint your card on carbon paper.
#58
When I was a kid my mother loved to go to this place called The Penny Burger that had car hops. I'd get a burger, fries and a shake or coke. It was on the river just a couple of blocks from where I live now. It became The Loop, then was torn down and apartments were built. I still think about it sometimes when I walk or ride by.
#59
* Spinnakers and their flowerpot bread
* Steak and Ale and their Hawaiian chicken with a pineapple ring on it
* Taco Viva and their six levels of hot sauce
* Kenny Rogers Roasters and their big display case oven with chickens turning on spits
* Howard Johnson's and their open faced sandwiches (why does nobody do open faced sandwiches any more?)
* Bennigan's Monte Cristo sandwich with raspberry jam
* Pizza Inn's "pizzert" (chocolate pudding on a pizza crust)
* My particular concoction that I used to get at Steve's Ice Cream
* Cinnamon rolls from TJ Cinnamon - more cinnamon and less sugar than Cinnabon.
#60
Three course Chinese dinner meals for $13.50 a couple, endless tea. Granted I only made $1.65 an hour at the time, but my girlfriend thought we were ‘On top of the world’ !
#61
The neighborhood pizzeria. It was dark inside, the whole place smelled like beer and garlic, you sat on long wooden benches. Plates and utensils? Those are for fancy places. The pizza was legendary.
The one like this that I remember most is Me-n-Eds in Anaheim, California. The old-school local pizza place is an extinct institution. Starting in the 80s, everyone just wanted delivery, or a more upscale atmosphere.
#62
I remember ordering Steak Diane at our favourite local restaurant in the '80s. The chef cooked the steak on a flaming brazier at our table. I've never seen or heard of this happening anywhere else.
#63
Also I remember eating at a Thai restaurant c. 1975. There were a few of them in strip malls in the Valley. They still served Thai style, a lot of small dishes. But Americans were used to Chinese food where you order one dish per person. So they would complain about small portions. The Thai restaurants had to change to the Chinese model, which they’ve used ever since.
One of the first dishes I tried was Ka Pok Pla, fish stomachs. Very rasty, but I haven’t seen it since.
