re: How are traditional sit-down chain restaurants still in business?

LINK

I remember the day it started. I think it was a Sunday afternoon in about 1961. I was standing in one of two long lines of people waiting for something exciting. Among those waiting with me and my parents were merchants, professional people, judges...it seemed the whole town had turned out for the opening of a new business: the Burger Chef, our first fast food franchise. Why were we there? I can only imagine the attraction was to the plastic and metal glitter of the place. The food was cheap, and there weren't many choices to make. Burgers, fries, and Cokes were fifteen cents each. The so-called "milk shakes" were twenty.

Until that day Vicksburg, like most Mississippi towns, had dozens of places to eat. They were all locally owned, and although they weren't exactly gourmet restaurants, they had their own charm. The burgers were usually about a quarter. If you wanted yours "sandwich style," it might cost another nickel or dime. This "sandwich style" thing seems to be a uniquely Vicksburgian burger idiom. Most outsiders assumed it must mean you got your burger on sliced bread. Who would want that? A burger comes on a bun. No, "sandwich style" meant it would be served with lettuce, tomato, and mayo as opposed to "regular," which came with mustard, pickle, and maybe onion. If you wanted your burger some other way, you probably weren't from around here.

But the local places served more than burgers. At places like The Glass Kitchen, Johnny's, The Beechwood, Jack's Village Inn, Tuminello's, Cassino's, The Old Southern Tea Room, Aunt Minnie's, Tasty Food, and Knapp's Pastry, you could find what passed for good Southern cooking. Some were drive-ins, some were full scale restaurants, some were what we called "cafes." But as the Sixties progressed, more and more fast food places sprung up to tempt us with their modern, predictable, paper-wrapped fare. We must have felt that because these places were just like the ones in big cities somewhere else, they must be somehow superior.

The face of our town changed. The face of all towns changed. The South became less Southern. Streets lined with fast-food logos look the same everywhere. Of the dozens of "cafes" and restaurants of my youth, only the Beechwood remains. You can still get a good burger there...probably even "sandwich style." It's more than a quarter, though