By Steve Cichon
steve@buffalostories.com
@stevebuffalo
When expats think of what they miss most about Buffalo, food might come up even before family.
It’s not just the regional delicacies and brands that we love, but also the wide and deep array of local restaurants that make our food the way we like it.
That’s why when a national chain can remain part of the conversation on where we love to eat, there must be something special about it.
Here are a few of the sit-down national chain restaurants that we love to miss in Buffalo.
Howard Johnson’s
There were as many as seven Howard Johnson’s locations in the Buffalo area, most of them conveniently reached via expressway. Generations of Americans remember the homestyle dinners and 28-flavor ice cream selection at the more than 1,000 orange-roofed Howard Johnson’s locations around the country.
The first – and ultimately the last – Howard Johnson’s was on Delaware and North starting around 1941. The restaurant was a part of the sometimes-strange development of Delaware Avenue. Working class families piled out of wood-paneled, American-made station wagons right across the street from the home of News Publisher and Buffalo aristocrat Edward Butler.
The restaurant was remodeled in 1960, and remained a familiar landmark for the next three decades. A Walgreens was built on the spot in 1994.
The Ground Round
Peanut shells on the floor. What else do you need to say about the seven area Ground Round locations?
Buffalo’s first Ground Round opened outside the Seneca Mall in 1971. “The Ground Round,” explained General Manager Burton Sack, “is a fun-type family restaurant featuring a player piano, nostalgic wall decorations from the ’20s, ’30s and ’40s, free peanuts on all tables, beer by the mug and pitcher, and free toys and games for the youngsters.”
Five years later, the Howard Johnson’s restaurant at Sheridan and Delaware in Tonawanda was converted into a Ground Round, as was the Cross Bow Restaurant on Sheridan Drive in Amherst.
In 1989, there were 215 Ground Round restaurants in 22 states – six in the Buffalo area. Those local stores were located at 3545 Delaware Ave. in Tonawanda; 208 Seneca Mall in West Seneca; 8529 Niagara Falls Blvd. in Niagara Falls; Thruway Mall and 1445 French Road, both in Cheektowaga; and 3180 Sheridan Drive and 7566 Transit Road, both in Amherst.
The Seneca Mall location was the first to open and the first to be closed – and then bulldozed – as the Seneca Mall was demolished starting in 1994. By the end of the year, half of the remaining stores were sold to become the home of Kenny Rogers Roasters chicken restaurants.
Ponderosa
The steakhouse and salad bar arrived in Buffalo in the mid-’70s, and there were eight locations by the end of the decade.
Ponderosa’s popularity took a big jump when the salad bar expanded to include hot items such as macaroni and cheese, and eventually breaded chicken wings and soft-serve ice cream.
There were still nine Ponderosa Steakhouses in 2003, but the number has dwindled to none in the immediate Buffalo area. Up until the pandemic shuttered restaurants across the state, there were still Ponderosa restaurants operating in Niagara Falls and Springville.
IHOP
The International House of Pancakes is one of those chain restaurants that has come and gone a handful of times in Western New York.
The chain was founded in 1958, and opened on Sheridan Drive in 1962. A few years later, IHOP was gone and Alice’s Kitchen took over the building for decades.
IHOP returned to Western New York with a handful of locations in 2001, several of which closed in 2009. Two IHOP locations remain near Buffalo in Cheektowaga and Amherst.
Perkins
Pancake lovers have also seen Perkins come and go a few times over the years.
There was a Perkins Pancake House on Main at Swan in the early 1960s, only a few years after the Perkins brothers started the chain in Cincinnati 1958. Eventually, the 13 Perkins Restaurants that were open in the Greater Buffalo area by 1990 were owned by a group in Rochester.
In 1999, 10 Buffalo-area Perkins locations were bought out by Denny’s.
Six Perkins opened and closed again around Buffalo in the 2000s. The last Western New York Perkins closed in Olean in 2019.
Lum’s
Kids loved to help make their parents’ coffee at Lum’s, which featured cream poured from cow-shaped dispensers. The house specialty was hot dogs steamed in beer.
There were several Western New York locations through the years, including on First Street in Niagara Falls and George Urban Boulevard in Depew. The Depew location closed when the company filed for bankruptcy in 1983.
Special mention: Your Host
Your Host was a locally (not nationally) owned chain and one of the most popular places to eat in Buffalo in the ’60s, ’70s, and ’80s.
