Even before today’s monster Fast Food chains to grew into household names, in the 1960s and 70s, Howard Johnson’s was the largest comfort food brand in the U.S. with more than 1,000 locations at the height of its popularity. But in the end, HoJo’s couldn’t stand up to the grab-and-go onslaught…
‘The last one standing’: The last Howard Johnson’s family restaurant, a few years
back, after one of several attempted re-openings ‘under new management’…
Howard Deering Johnson borrowed $2,000 in 1925 to start a pharmacy business in Quincy, Mass. So popular was its soda fountain that Johnson quickly decided to start his own brand of ice cream. The proprietary formula was an instant hit because of its luscious high butterfat content. Riding that wave of creamy success, Johnson soon offered 28 flavours – a feature that became a marketing icon.
“I thought I had every flavor in the world.,” Johnson once told a reporter. “That ’28’ [flavors of ice cream] became my trademark.”
Of course, Baskin Robbins later had to outdo him by trademarking ’31 flavors’. But that’s the dog-eat-dog nature of the Fast Food business for you.
Expansion into other menu items
During the summers in the late 1920s, at beachfront locations along the Massachusetts coast, Johnson operated food stands selling soft drinks, hot dogs, and (of course) ice cream. And he was beginning to get noticed as an up-and-coming entrepreneur.
The first actual HoJo sit-down restaurant opened in Quincy in 1929 with a menu that featured fried clams, baked beans, chicken pot pie, frankfurters, soft drinks and – again – ice cream. Then came the stock market crash, and plans Johnson had to quickly expand into a chain were put on hold.
Nevertheless, there were opportunities…
And Johnson made the most of them. There were 200 HoJo’s by the time the U.S. entered the Second World War. By the end, only 12 survived the rationing and other economic stresses. But as the original restos shuttered, Johnson sought and won exclusive contracts to set up concessions at the service station turnoffs along the new Pennsylvania, Ohio, New Jersey and Connecticut Turnpikes. And that was the beginning of the brand’s ‘modern era’.
By the mid-1950s there were 400 HoJos in 32 states.
Modern Era, 2.0
As we would say today. Anyway, the next major stage in the company’s development came in 1954 with the opening of the first HoJo’s Motor Lodge – a natural outgrowth of the original turnpike restos.
The next couple of decades brought a mixture of triumph and tragedy. Johnson’s empire received a lot of unwanted publicity over civil rights issues following the Brown v. Board of Education supreme court decision, striking down segregation in public places.
But the 70s saw the final turning point in HoJos fortunes, as Wikipedia so efficiently relates:
“By 1975, the Howard Johnson Company had more than 1,000 restaurants and more than 500 motor lodges in 42 states and Canada. The company reached its peak that year, but the late 1970s marked the beginning of the end for the Howard Johnson Company.
“Because of the oil embargo of 1974, the Howard Johnson’s restaurants and motor lodges, which received 85 percent of revenue from travelers, lost profits when Americans could not afford long trips or frequent vacations. Rather than promoting the restaurants to travelers, management knew it had to focus on nearby population centers.
“Also, the company model of serving pre-made food with high-quality ingredients in traditional dining rooms was costly when compared to the innovations introduced by fast food outlets like McDonald’s, which designed its products and restaurants to appeal to families with younger children. Around this time, the chain introduced ‘Hojo Cola’ and other private-label sodas, which disappointed some customers who preferred familiar products such as Coca-Cola or Pepsi.”
Simple as that.
The long downhill slide
HoJo’s went public in 1961 under the second generation direction of Howard (Brennan) Johnson. By then, the chain boasted 605 restaurants (265 company-owned and 340 franchised) as well as 88 franchised motor lodges in 32 states and The Bahamas.
Then, in 1979, the business was acquired by Imperial Group PLC of London, England, which sold it to the Marriot Hotel chain 7 years later. Marriot wasn’t interested in the motor lodges which they sold off to Prime Motor Inns.
To add insult to injury, Marriot turned out to be more interested in the real estate value of the restaurant properties than in operating the restos. They calved off the franchise locations to a group representing the franchise owners and demolished or converted the company-owned restos to brands such as Big Boy and Roy Rogers which they also owned.
Following a string of mergers and acquisitions, the former HoJo’s ended up in the hands of Wyndham Worldwide. But there quickly followed a conversion of the inns to a variety of sub brands ‘By Windham’, based on a hierarchy of ‘tiers’ at different price levels.
An empire in ruins
By the mid 1990s, we rarely if ever heard the name ‘Howard Johnson’ in reference to any contemporary brand. By 2005 there were only 8 restos operating under the HoJo’s name still in operation. Howard Johnson-branded frozen foods had disappeared from supermarkets across the U.S. by 2008.
And yesterday, we heard that the Lake George, NY, HoJo’s – which had been operating under the name, and the famous orange roof, for 70 years – did not open for the Memorial Day weekend; was, in fact, closed for good.
It’s not a unique story by any means. A whole newspaper obit page of family sit-down restos, diners and Fast Food joints have fallen prey to the big shakeout of the 80, 90s and 2000s. Changing times, changing tastes, the demand for convenience dining. Not to mention the Great Eatery Industry Cull of the COVID Pandemic. I find it supremely iconic that, only yesterday in this space, we announced the opening of the first Fast Food resto of the future, by Taco Bell. Adapt or perish.
The closing of the last HoJo’s represents more than the end of a brand. It’s the end of a long tradition in North American restauranteuring. Nothing less than the end of an era.
~ Maggie J.