It’s a restaurant with a bar, not really a diner. It’s more of a place that middle-class workers would go after work to have a few drinks and eat cheaply sourced food. It also doubled as a place for families to go during the day. We have several of these kinds of restaurant chains that all serve microwaved food and have a bunch of memorabilia on the walls. TGI Friday’s, Applebee’s, Chili’s, Fudrucker’s, etc.
The original was Max & Erma’s. They were the first “casual dining” restaurant that appealed to baby boomer nostalgia in their design/layout. Imagine the bar from Cheer’s but with antiques, collectables, and vintage signage all over the walls. It became a chain and was so successful everyone started copying it.
food mass produced offsite, packaged in bags, sent to restaurant where it is either microwaved or the bag is put in a hot bath to heat up. to be honest, i don’t think i’ve ever eaten there (because i have dignity and ) but it’s known for being low-tier amerislop for boomers without tastebuds
As far as I know yeah. I guess Harvester might be there closest thing we have, but that’s more like shitty pub grub. I think Applebee’s is just shitty food in general.
Frankie & Benny’s or TGI Fridays would probably be the closest in more recent decades, especially the fact that they had a bar and were very much for the office worker crowd back when I remember them being big / new.
Most of ours are roadside places really, but none fit exactly. Little Chef was probably the most like it in terms of not having a ‘theme’, but the kinds of food and cheaper vibe was more like Happy Eater’s maybe, with the buffet counters and salad bar etc.
(For any non-Brits go look up Happy Eater restaurants. The logo was a Pacman seemingly trying to make itself throw up, I shit you not)
We don’t have it in the UK. Not sure we have anything like it
Got me thinking, I have heard of Applebees before but have never cared enough to think what it is - Is it a diner or some kind?
An extremely shitty diner
I’d take a diner any day over CRAPlebees, cheaper too.
Burgerlander slop joint
It’s a restaurant with a bar, not really a diner. It’s more of a place that middle-class workers would go after work to have a few drinks and eat cheaply sourced food. It also doubled as a place for families to go during the day. We have several of these kinds of restaurant chains that all serve microwaved food and have a bunch of memorabilia on the walls. TGI Friday’s, Applebee’s, Chili’s, Fudrucker’s, etc.
The original was Max & Erma’s. They were the first “casual dining” restaurant that appealed to baby boomer nostalgia in their design/layout. Imagine the bar from Cheer’s but with antiques, collectables, and vintage signage all over the walls. It became a chain and was so successful everyone started copying it.
Oh that’s interesting, I forget how much of this gets imported into our (UK) country and culture
food mass produced offsite, packaged in bags, sent to restaurant where it is either microwaved or the bag is put in a hot bath to heat up. to be honest, i don’t think i’ve ever eaten there (because i have dignity and
) but it’s known for being low-tier amerislop for boomers without tastebuds
As far as I know yeah. I guess Harvester might be there closest thing we have, but that’s more like shitty pub grub. I think Applebee’s is just shitty food in general.
Frankie & Benny’s or TGI Fridays would probably be the closest in more recent decades, especially the fact that they had a bar and were very much for the office worker crowd back when I remember them being big / new.
Most of ours are roadside places really, but none fit exactly. Little Chef was probably the most like it in terms of not having a ‘theme’, but the kinds of food and cheaper vibe was more like Happy Eater’s maybe, with the buffet counters and salad bar etc.
(For any non-Brits go look up Happy Eater restaurants. The logo was a Pacman seemingly trying to make itself throw up, I shit you not)