Fine Dining - Shoney's History feat. Dad [Part One]

Episode Date: July 10, 2024

Traveled across the country for this! Coming to you from the mountains of North Carolina, I bring you the Eat Deets for Shoney's with my very own Dad Shoney's has undergone a few name changes, including being a part of the Big Boy franchise A brand that once grew to over 1,800 restaurants is dwindling in the post-pandemic restaurant landscape, now down to 81 (as of 2024) Racist hiring practices landed Shoney's on the receiving end of the largest discrimination settlement ever (at the time) A Yelper literally dumps all over the whole town in this week's Yelp from Strangers "Fine" Dining is now on video! Head on over to my YouTube to watch this episode! Music by: James McEnelly (@Ramshackle_Music) Theme Song by: Kyle Schieffer (@JazzyJellyfish) Segment Transitions Voiced by: Sandy Rose "Fine" Dining is on Patreon! Get an extra episode every month (The Freddy's Frozen Custard & Steakburgers episode is available now, and covers the no. 3 seed in this year's Septemburger tournament! I'm joined by my friend Herbert, who's gone to a lot of these places with me), extended Yelp from Strangers segments every other week, merch discounts, download access to our music including the 7 singles from our Olive Garden musical, and more! Patreon Producers: Sean Spademan, Joyce Van, & Sue Ornelas   Get the 5 Survival Tips for Casual Dining at www.finediningpodcast.com!   Send in your American Girl stories at [e-mail].   Follow the show on TikTok and Instagram @finediningpodcast   Let me know where I should go next by leaving us a review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, PodcastAddict, Overcast, or wherever you get your podcasts. I read every one!   Next week on "Fine" Dining: Shoney's Review [Part Two]! Shoney's makes the worst steak I've ever had in my life and my Dad, who's back, hates everything about it. Ever work at Shoney's? Send your stories to [e-mail].

On this unprecedented episode of the Fine Dining Podcast, I'm like a snail. Everywhere you go, just a residue behind you. A little slime. That's terrible and creative. Let's not give it props for their out-of-the-box racism. Hello and welcome to a very special North Carolina edition of the fine dining podcast, the search for the most mediocre restaurant in America.

And I'm living up to the name. I'm a country wide search for mediocrity because people say things are good or bad, but you have to define where that switch over point from good to bad is. And I'm traveling the country looking at chain restaurants specifically because that's where I think I'm going gonna find mediocrity. I'm not here to go to mom-and-pop shops that have charm to them. Why would I want to like you're not gonna get mediocrity with charm. Grace, you'll get grace. But you know charm there's a little bit of heart in it. I want soulless corporations. So I'm here in

Silva, which is outside of Waynesville, North Carolina, to try out some of the chains that I don't have available to me in Southern California or in Austin where my parents live and I also frequent. But my dad is here with me. Hello, dad. Hello. Welcome back to the podcast.

This is your first time on the main show, but you've been on a Patreon episode. I have been on Patreon, but I have not been on the big screen. And today, we had the privilege. That's not the word that was coming to mind. We had the absolute honor of eating at Shoney's. This is a place that I first saw

in an episode of Rick and Morty, and I knew it existed just in the zeitgeist, but I had never been there. This is a place that I first saw in an episode of Rick and Morty. And I knew it existed just in the zeitgeist, but I had never been there. And we went there, but we're going to talk about that next week. If this is your first time watching the show, I do two part episodes with part one covering franchise history and select Yelp reviews of the restaurant that we went to, and then next week we will talk all about our fateful meal at Shoney's. So, yeah. I'm not sure we had the honor of going.

I had the obligation to go. You had the obligation of going. You're just like, well, he's my son. What am I going to do? What am I going to do? So we're going to jump into it. We're going to head into the So we're gonna jump into it. We're gonna head into the history. Let's jump into it.

Your table is ready. Follow me. Have you tried our chicken breast? Serving pancakes and ribs. I recommend the spaghetti. We're here to satisfy, not to impress. Your table is ready. Complementary butter and bread.

These walls have growth signs. Knick-knack cowboy hat. Good luck at autographed guitar. Some grab from your seat. I'm a good boy. I'm a good boy. I'm a good boy. I'm a good boy.

I'm a good boy. I'm a good boy. I'm a good boy. I'm a good boy. I'm a good bread. These walls have growth signs. Knit-knack cowboy hat, good luck cat, autographed guitar, some crap from your city. Behold the tchotchke of mediocrity. Fine dining. It's just fine dining, fine dining. Two letters on the sign are shining. Neon flickering, irregular timing. Identify the perfect fine. Okay, Dad. Shonies, I think we'll forever live in a part of our history. It will now.

It certainly makes a mark. We will take it to the grave and it will send us there. Yes. Well, before we talk about our meal, do you want to hear the history of Shonies? I would be honored. You would be honored. Yes.

There we go. Now we have a thing you're honored about. All right, we're going to jump into this week's Eat Deets. Eat Deets. Eat Deets. Eatery details. In 1947, Alex Schoenbaum opened the Parkette Drive-In next to his father's bowling alley

in Charleston, West Virginia. After meeting with big boy founder, Bob Wyan in 1951, Shonbombe became a big boy franchisee on February 7th, 1952, renaming his multiple locations, the parkette big boy shops. Oh, and it's interesting. And it's shops PPS at the end to be old timey. In May 1954, a public Name the Parkette Big Boy contest was held, leading to the rebranding of Schoenbaum's Five

Parkette Drive-Ins as Shonies in June 1954. Initially, Shonies, the Parkette, served as the big boy franchisee for West Virginia. Was it Shonies Big boy or just Shoney's? So it ultimately was Shoney's big boy, along with Bob's big boy, Frish's big boy, but in this region there were actually a bunch that were kind of competing. Shonebomb rapidly expanded the chain through sub-franchising, growing his big boy territory throughout the southeastern United States,

except for Florida, which was already under the control of another big boy franchisee, Frish's. Yeah, I seem to remember big boys in Phoenix, Arizona, but Shonis... Do you remember what owner... Were they Bob's? Were they Frish's? It was Bob's. They were Bob's?

Yeah. Because I think there's very few Bob's left. There's the one in Burbank, but I think when we did it, it was like maybe six left. Yeah. Yeah. So Bob's is not the. It's dwindling. It's dwindling.

And yet somehow Shoney's survives. It's like a cockroach. Oh, it is. So not to spoil next week's episode, but I don't think we have a lot of love for Shonies. Is that fair to say? There's no Valentine's Day card going to Shonies. Do you send Valentine's Day cards to restaurants that you enjoy?

Only to the restaurants I love. Which are? Well. Portillo's. Um, Portillo's is... I would write a Valentine's card to Portillo's. Yep. Yep. Early sub franchisees operated under different names.

For instance, Leonard Goldstein in Roanoke, Virginia, initially operated as Shoney's before changing to Lendy's Big Boy. Similarly, the Borey brothers in northern West Virginia operated as Elby's. These sub franchises, along with others like Becker's Big Boy in Rochester, New York, and Toon's and Arnold's in the Philadelphia area,

were listed on the back of Shoney's menu. Now, are you obligated to shorten your name if you got a big boy franchise? No, I don't think so, but I mean... Like you would be Ornie's Big Boy. Ornie's Big Boy? Yeah, something like that. I mean, Ornelis Orne's big boy or nice big boy yeah something like I mean or Nellis's big boy doesn't know but no Orne's sounds like a place

where like adult parties have after hours yeah feeling horny very dark black lights in the background I do not want a black light anywhere near Ashoni's I do not want to see what is alive on that table. I don't wanna, no thank you. By 1959, all sub franchises adopted the name Shoney's. A Shoney's franchisee bought the parent company in 1971, leading to rapid expansion, with Shoney's doubling in size every four years

and eventually operating or licensing over one-third of the big boy restaurants nationwide. I'm still trying to understand their target market. The depressed? I feel bad punching down on shownies but they do kind of deserve it. I feel like I'm punching back. Yeah directly. I feel like they hit me. Yes, it's a counter. Much like my childhood, right? Yeah, it's a counter punch. Ray Danner, inspired by the success of Frish's Big Boy and other drive-in restaurants,

ventured into the food business in the late 1950s. Initially selling vending machines, Danner saw an opportunity and, along with business partner James Craft purchased the show knees Nashville franchise from Alex Schoenbaum for $1,000. You took them to the cleaners. Are you happy with that for 1000 bucks? Yeah. I don't. Did you have a typo? Is there a debt?

If someone sold me a showoney's for $100, I'd still feel like I lost a part of me. In retrospect. Like, there's no price that makes this worth it. No. The price I'm gonna have to pay later... Yes. Cost at least... Is high.

It is exorbitant. Yeah, it is. In 1959, they opened their first Shoney's Big Boy in Madison, a suburb of Nashville, quickly expanding to four more locations by 1961. Eventually, Danner acquired craft's interest, leading

to a total of seven Shoney's Big Boys under their ownership. Initially known as Shoney's Big Boy of Middle Tennessee, the company grew to operate ten Big Boys by 1966. So basically it's like a parasite. It keeps growing, keeps expanding to different regions. It's like the blob.

It's like the blob. In 1969, Danner's company known as Shoney's Big Boy of Middle Tennessee went public and was renamed Danner Foods Incorporated with Danner as president. The company continued to expand, adding more big boy restaurants in Georgia and Alabama. Unable to acquire additional Shonys territory,

Danner opened a similar restaurant concept called Danner's Family Restaurant in Louisville. Which, did you buy a restaurant and they said, yeah, but you can't be Shonys? Why would that happen? I don't know, you know, it's a journey. Or was he trying to acquire existing big boys that weren't under the shownies banner

to make them shownies? I guess it's unclear, but I genuinely don't understand why you wouldn't be able to acquire more shownies territories. The Eats are truly a journey. What does that mean? It means I'm trying to follow the long and winding road here. Yeah, this is very in the weeds.

It's in the weeds. Like your golf game. Yes, always. He almost had a hole in one a few days ago. How far were you away? Like within a foot within a few inches. Yeah. That's gotta hurt.

It hurt. I'm rooting for you, dad. Feels worse to get a birdie. In 1971, Danner Foods purchased the Shoney's trademark and assets from Alex Schonbaum, leading to Danner becoming president and CEO of Shoney's Big Boy Enterprises, Incorporated. The company's headquarters and commissary were relocated to Nashville, signaling a shift in focus.

Despite these successes, Schonbaum was forced to close his personally owned Shoney's Number One, the original Parkette Drive-In by 1975. So Shoney himself was out of the game by 1975. And in that original restaurant, did he have a big boy? I think their menu that we had today is not what they opened with. I hope not. They would have never expanded. They would not have gotten to an extra location.

Shoney's founder, Alex Schonbaum, had a notable athletic career before venturing into business. He played tackle at Ohio State University, earning recognition such as being named to the AP All-Western Conference second team two years in a row and receiving two-time honorable mention in the Grantland Rice All-american list by the way

It's the Ohio State Just definitely why that's what they say, okay If you ever talked to anybody who went to Ohio State, they say the Ohio State. Okay, just anyone can be obnoxious It's a detail He played tackle at Ohio state. Okay. At an Ohio state. Okay.

Some college in Ohio. So at some place. Yeah. Additionally, he was selected to play in the 1939 annual college all-star game. Yeah. Impressive. You played football in college. No, not in the college all-star game.

But you played, right? Yeah. I know your scholarship was for football. I genuinely don't know. game. But you played, right? Yeah. I know your scholarship was for football. I genuinely don't know. Did you play through all of college? No. No? No.

But I went to college. Did you bench warm? Yeah, I was a warmer. Speaking of warmer, we have a lovely fire in the background. We do have a fire, and I started that. Okay. You don't have to brag. You taught me how to do it. Yep. I had one go in the other night a good one. It was a good one

Despite his success in football shown bomb decided to pursue other ventures after completing his bachelor of science degree at Ohio State in 1939 he was even drafted by the Brooklyn Dodgers National Football League team as the 55th pick but opted to explore different career paths as he entered his thirties. Also impressive. Growing up and assisting his father in running a series of bowling alleys in West Virginia, Alex Schoenbaum was no stranger to the hospitality industry.

In 1947, he ventured into the restaurant business by opening his first establishment, the Parkette Drive-In in Charleston, located adjacent to one of his father's bowling alleys. Now we saw a since 1947. Was that the year? That's the year that the Parkette Drive-In opened. Got it.

So it didn't become Shoney's until what did I say? It was later. It was like 1954 was when it was named Shoney's. So seven years, it was just the Parkette drive-in. Seeing success with his initial venture, Shonebaum sought to expand his business further. Partnering with Bob Wyan, the founder of the Big Boy franchise,

Shonebaum joined the franchise and rebranded his restaurants as the Parkette Big Boy Shops. However, he felt the name was not quite right. It doesn't sound right. I don't know, Shoney's now will be a right. It doesn't sound right. I don't know. Shoney's now will be a name that makes me wince. Yeah. You know when you like flinch when someone does that?

Yeah, it's a rolled up newspaper. When I hear Shoney's, I'm just gonna wince. Ha ha. In May, 1954, Shonebomb launched the Name the Park at Big Boy contest, offering generous prizes, including a brand new Lincoln to customers who would suggest a new name for the restaurants.

The winning entry, Shoney's, derived from Shonebomb's own last name, was selected as the new name for the franchise, marking a significant rebranding effort for the business. I do love that they're just like, someone's gonna suggest the guy's own last name. That's such a, that's- Very creative.

What an in. You just be like, oh, but what have you thought about you? You. Oh, I am great. Yeah. Yeah. It should be named after Michael's big boy. Can you imagine I hold a giant contest? People like genuinely spend hours thinking of creative and fun names.

And I'm just like, oh, whoever said Michael's genius, they reach deep into their pocket for that one. Shoney's reached its peak in 1998, operating or franchising over 1800 restaurants across 34 states. However, none of these establishments remain part of the Shoney's restaurant enterprise today. So were they all franchises at the time or independently owned? It seemed like they were franchises.

Some were like owned by corporate. And then there were franchises. In 2000, the company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection and was subsequently acquired by the Texas-based investment group Lone Star Funds in 2002. Not to be confused with Lone Star restaurant, which is gone. Gone. Okay. I always confused that with Longhorn steakhouse because Longhorn and Lone

Star are both very integral to the part of Austin that I grew up in. Yep. So, but yeah, so I was looking it up and I kept finding, yeah, there's a bunch of Longhorn, what is it that I'm thinking of? And then I was like, oh, Lone Star was a thing and it's gone. And Lone Star was the one with the peanuts on the floor, right? It was. Yeah. You put them on your table first and Texas Roadhouse. And then you just kind of wipe them off.

You're the kind of guy who loves not even peanuts, but just leaving a peanut trail like you're trying to catch an ET. It's a, it is a gift of mine. You're like a snail. Everywhere you go, just a residue behind you. A little slime. In 2007, Lone Star announced the sale of the Shoney's chain, which had dwindled to 272 restaurants.

So they lost from 1,800 to 272, like 1,528 restaurants in a nine year period. That's again, quite impressed. Like the world figures. That's rough. That's rough. Uh, yeah. Uh, it had dwindled to 272 restaurants to David, David poor, David, poor, David,

David poor founder and the CEO of Royal capital corporation. So they sold Lone star sold it to David Davidpore in 07. Davidpore also the largest franchisee of Church's chicken restaurants, initiated the purchase of franchisee locations and began rebranding the restaurants. This included introducing new menu items and upgrading individual locations. Which I believe is the lineage of restaurants that we went into today. What was the chicken restaurant? Church's.

Okay, well, so that has a brand. Yeah, Church's is pretty big. And in 2017, the chain embarked on a modernization effort, updating locations with a contemporary look. As of 2019, Shoney's operates in 17 states and offers Shoney on the go for takeout orders, particularly in smaller locations such as malls and airports. So they're still in 17 states. That's not a small footprint.

And I'm trying to say, but that was as of 2019. If our restaurant had the updated look, I wonder what the no, I actually don't agree with you. I feel that ours looked fine. I had... this place didn't look old to me. The paint was fresh. Granted. Look, I'm trying to find a positive

here. They need some mercy. They need some mercy. So, they have had some very well deserved racial discrimination issues in the South. Go on. So I'm going to read directly from their Wikipedia page. In April 1989, a class action lawsuit was filed in Pensacola, Florida, charging Shonies

with widespread racial discrimination in which African American applicants were denied employment and African American employees were denied promotion, harassed, or terminated without cause based on race, and that white managers were harassed or terminated for objecting to the practices. The case, joined by the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund, was filed by nine named plaintiffs, five black employees, and four white managers.

It's horrible. It's... Boy does it... We're gonna get to it. The lawsuit claimed that racial policies were systemic, involving upper management, including Chairman Ray Danner, who was named individually as a co-defendant. On restaurant visits, Danner would allegedly tell managers

to lighten the place up if he felt too many blacks were employed at the location, as the number of blacks needed to coincide with the neighborhood ethnic group. Restaurant managers testified that Danner didn't want blacks seen by customers because no one wanted to eat at a restaurant where a bunch of the N-word were working. That's not good. No, no dad no, it's not Dana responded that he could not remember making such statements and denied use of the racial epithet or having such racial policies Managers also testified that company officials instructed them to blacken the O in the showny's logo or the a in the word application on job applications of African Americans as like a code. Oh is a code so you can know. So when you

hiring or making the person who's looking over the resumes can see oh this individual is black. That is awful. That's terrible and creative. Let's not give it props for their out of the box racism. In 1993, the court approved an award of $105 million, $132.5 million, including costs and fees, the largest discrimination settlement at the time. Danner, who in the interim became a life member of the NAACP, surrendered shares of company stock worth $65 million toward the settlement and resigned from Shoney's board of directors.

The court also ordered a detailed company-wide affirmative action program, including training and educational programs. Among an estimated 40,000 persons in the class, compensation was awarded to every African-American person employed at Shoney's company-owned restaurants between February 4th, 1985 and November 3rd, 1992. 11 persons received the maximum of $100,000, equivalent to $211,000 in 2023 money.

The suit included company-owned food service operations such as Shoney's, Captain D's, and Lee's Famous Recipe, but excluded franchised restaurants. So. A very dark day in their history. Dad, you can't do that. And that'll do it for this week's eat deep. Okay, dad.

So that's the rather in the weeds history, the, the ownership, the expansion, all the different big boys. The good news is I found 10 golf balls when we were in the weeds. So it all worked out well. All right. Well, we, we have a review to give and people have gathered. It's not going to be flattering, but they're going to have to wait a week for that. Because this week it's other people's reviews that we get to hear.

Are you ready? I'm ready. Are you ready? We're going to go into this week's Yelp from Strangers. A little Yelp, a little Yelp. Give us those complaints while you literally white and die. Yelp! All right, this is Yelp from Strangers, our segment where we go to a restaurant and read out our favorite one, two, three, four, and five star Yelp reviews from that restaurant.

However, however. there's a surprise. I read every review for this show needs. Nobody gave it a three. Oh, this a polarizing place. They bipolar. This is a polarizing place. So we're going to read a one, two, four, five and another one star review. OK, one star review. OK, I, and another one star review. Okay.

One star review. Okay, I'm gonna start us off, if you don't mind. I don't mind. May I? Father, may I? You may. Please. With the first of two one star reviews.

Excellent. You gotta. This is from Adam W. from Fairfield, California. He has only been so inspired to write for Yelp reviews. And this show, he's made the cut. You can't pass them up. You can't. It took over two years to open and I guarantee it won't be open that long.

They are always advertising, hiring dishwashers, cooks, servers, et cetera. Why? Because they can't find quality employees. Wainsville has a lot of restaurants, but not many quality people for positions. Well, there's impugning an entire city, skewering all of Wainsville. There's not a lot of quality people here.

No. You're in a dog shit hole. Who are you going to hire to cook a steak? His implications, not mine. I went inside and it was just senior citizens serving senior citizens and appeared to be an adult living centers cafeteria. At least there were bright colors. See, he even agrees that it looked modern.

I never got the chance to eat because the elderly waitress never got to me after 10 minutes. She made eye contact with me twice. So she either figured I was a shadow or a mirage of her great grandson. Well, she had six tables and he was the fifth table. That's a long way to go. Look, a lot of coverage. And this is March 10th, 2020. That was COVID days. That was the lot of coverage. And this is March 10th, 2020. That was COVID days. That was the start of COVID. March 13th. I am crossing my fingers that any of the people he saw in the

restaurant that day, they're either gone or dead, have gotten the opportunity to grace that show needs once again. To heal or die. One star. Four star review. I will read the review from Tammy S. This place is awesome. I only wish it was closer to my home. I had missed Shoney's for a long time and decided to go here for dinner. It lived up to my fond remembrances about how good it was. Ordered the slim Jim sandwich. You know something about that.

I do. And not A and D E and D and and it was excellent and Of course for dessert. It was difficult to choose between the strawberry pie and the hot fudge cake Decided on the hot fudge cake and reluctantly shared it with my husband. We'll order my own next time, LOL. LOL. It's always good to get a review. I'm not sharing this next time. LOL. Service was also outstanding.

I do agree with that in that a lot of our service involved them just outstanding. They were outstanding. You know. Definition of a farmer. man outstanding in his field. Yeah. I do love the idea of like, I ordered this cake to share and it wasn't enough next time you get your own.

But for the record, and we'll get to the, this and the food review, there was plenty to share. There was plenty to share. Yeah. This is not a skimpy cake. No, they did not skimp on the cake. Yeah. They're not Chipotle. You can go download our full Yelp from Strangers segment at our Patreon. The link for that is in the description of this episode,

or you can go to patreon.com slash fine dining podcast. And we're now offering a one week free trial. So what do you have to lose? Go check it out. People have wild opinions and we get to read. Oh, so many of them. Thanks. Okay, dad.

So we've covered the Yelp reviews. We've covered the eat deets. We have a review to give. We do. We have to chronicle our time inside of this show. Nice restaurant, but you folks at home watching and listening, that's next week's episode. That's part two. But for the meantime, dad, thanks for coming on.

Thanks for taking the show. Thanks. Thanks for making me obliged to go to show me. Look, I'm sorry. There aren't a lot of chains out here that I don't have back home. The other option would have been Bojangles. They had Burger King. I have Burger King now. OK, so it's like I have to hit something that's not home. And Bojangles. They had Burger King. I have Burger King now.

So it's like I have to hit something that's not home, and Bojangles just announced that they're going to be opening like 30 locations in LA next year, so I'll just do it then. There you go. Maybe I'll join you. Maybe you'll join me. Maybe it'll be better. I mean, you would have to be.

Yes, can't get worse. Do you want people to follow you on social media? Do you have anything to plug? I got nothing to plug. I'll leave it at that. All right. I'll plug. You can follow me on Instagram and TikTok at Fine Dining Podcast.

You can send me an email, fine dining podcast at gmail.com. Tell me whatever you're feeling. You know, have some fun with it. If you enjoyed the show or if you think that we're wrong about shownies, I mean, you can save we're wrong about shownies. I mean, you can save that for hearing about what we have to say next week, but you can probably gather. It's not going to be great. Yeah, we're just going to be sitting here for a week waiting on our table.

We'll see you next week. Have a fine day! Waiting on our table, waiting on our table We're so hungry, tummy's grumbling Waiting on our table, waiting on our table We gotta continue our search for mediocrity Yeah Waiting on our table, waiting on our table We'll be waiting and dissipating Waiting on our table, waiting on our table

We're shrinking in this week, we're digging in Cause we're waiting on our table, waiting on our table We've got an appetite, but just sit tight Cause we're waiting on our table, waiting on our table Sir, you'll continue when we see you next week He Hee hee hee! But I'm gonna let her know Waiting on her table, waiting on her table Waiting on her table, waiting on her table

Waiting on her table, waiting on her table