Do you remember these 1970s restaurants?

[DFW]

70. We had all four where I grew up

That was, at the time, barely rural northern Virginia. I never visited an Arthur Treacher's, but saw them. I always preferred Burger Chef to McD because they used a little pepper in the burgers, which gave them a less bland taste than the McD variety. In those days, stories abounded as to what was really in those "all beef" patties. Grain filler, sawdust, you name it, it was supposedly in there.

MAD once did a great satire on HoJo's where a waitress was crying on the way to delivering some plates to a table. Another saw her and asked what was wrong. She said that she had to deliver a steak to table number whatever, and she couldn't find it on the plate any more. The second waitress asked if she had looked under the parsley garnish. The first one said, "no, not yet, and if it's not under there, I will just die!" I guess their steaks were not known for their generous size.

We used to enjoy going to LUMS, too. They were still around when I started my job. One time, a group of guys were in a LUMS, and were giving their waitress a hard time, joking around at her expense, but she took it all in stride and kept her good humor. Their bill came to something like $6.50. They put down a $50 bill on the table and left. In those days (mid-1970s), $50 was real money, and they went outside and hid to watch her reaction through the window. It was apparently appropriately jubilant.