Whatever Happened to Howard Johnson’s Restaurants?

LAKE GEORGE, N.Y. (AP) — Howard Johnson's restaurants nourished baby boomers before burgers and burritos were hot. Now they have almost disappeared.

The HoJo's on the main strip of the Adirondack Mountain resort town of Lake George and another in Bangor, Maine, are the last two restaurants operating under the famous name. The Bangor restaurant may close soon. A third in Lake Placid, New York, turned off its fryers recently after almost 60 years.

Howard Johnson hotels are still common. But like pay phones and parking lot photo kiosks, Howard Johnson's restaurants are almost meaningless to millennials but strike a nostalgic chord with middle agers.

Customers come for dishes like meatloaf and fried fish, but there's also the tug of nostalgia.

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