'90s Restaurant Chains That Totally Vanished

The 90s were a weird time, folks. It's a decade that feels simultaneously familiar, but yet so far away; a time that was carefree, before the stresses of modern life really hit home. Plus, it was a time where it felt like the selection of restaurants out there was never greater. Back in the 90s, there were dozens of restaurant chains to choose from, and while they may not have had the diversity of the food that we have at our disposal today, they had a certain charm and homely appeal which feels a little distant now.

It also feels distant because so many of these restaurant chains have been wiped off the face of the earth. From All Star Cafe to Lone Star Steakhouse & Saloon, names that were once on everyone's lips have seemingly disappeared in the sands of time. It's not unusual for restaurant chains to close dozens of locations in one go, of course, but there's something so tragic about a nostalgic spot like the ones on our list vanishing, either due to bankruptcy or because of changing tastes. Let's take a trip back into the 90s and see which restaurants are no more.

Perhaps one of the most prominent chain restaurants that you probably forgot existed, All Star Cafe was once a really big deal. It never quite reached the size of a McDonald's or a Burger King — in fact, it only had a handful of locations scattered around the country — but it had an outsized appeal. All Star Cafe was a sports-themed outfit created by Planet Hollywood founder Robert Earl, and the first location, based in Times Square, opened in 1995. The 650-seater restaurant was soon followed by restaurants in Las Vegas and Cancun, with subsequent joints popping up in other flashy, tourist-focused areas.

However, just as quickly as All Star Cafe began, it ended. Just four years later, a bankruptcy claim ended All Star Cafe's run of success. Establishments quickly started shutting down, and pretty soon the restaurant chain was no more. That doesn't mean that it hasn't left a lasting legacy, though. All Star Cafe has gone down as a kind of cautionary tale of style over substance and publicity over solid business decisions. In 2023, Stephen Curry's production company signed on to make a documentary about the restaurant chain, which, if released, will spill the secrets about what actually went on behind the scenes. We can't wait.

The downfall of Don Pablo's is a story that makes us feel a little mournful. This restaurant chain was started way back in 1985, with an ambitious future in mind for itself. By the mid-1990s, it was acquired by Tom DuPree, a huge franchisee for Applebee's, and it seemed like the only way was up. By this point, Don Pablo's already had 120 different restaurants across the country, and the acquisition was slated to expand the brand's footprint and the Applebee's identity and parent companies at large, which included Avado Brands, which DuPree ran.

However, things didn't quite go to plan. The problem was that Don Pablo's was a little more complicated to run than Applebee's, and the restaurant chain began to suffer a slow decline and a torturous contraction of its unit sizes. By 2007, Don Pablo's had just 45 stores, and when Avado Brands filed for bankruptcy for the second time, things started to look pretty rough. By 2017, the game was up: Don Pablo's itself had to file for bankruptcy protection, and its final stores closed for good. What was once a great place to experience the difference between Mexican and Tex-Mex food was no more.

There are plenty of steakhouses that time forgot, but Beefsteak Charlie's is perhaps one of the most prominent of them all — and it's also one that had a long and slightly depressing history. Beefsteak Charlie's can be traced all the way back to 1910, when its very first branch was opened in New York by Charles W. Chessar. It soon established a trendy reputation, where people could go to hang and unwind with the coolest folks in the New York jazz scene, while also enjoying an affordable hunk of meat.

In 1975, though, everything changed. A businessman named Larry Ellman began to rename his pre-existing restaurants under the Beefsteak Charlie's banner, and because there was no protection in place for Chessar's restaurant's name, it quickly got subsumed into the other's brand identity. The restaurant chain soon exploded in popularity, and by the mid-80s it was everywhere. At the end of that decade, though, Beefsteak Charlie's was in trouble: In 1989 it had to file for bankruptcy, and was down to just a few dozen locations. It managed to hold on throughout the 1990s, but its footprint gradually dwindled, and eventually it shut down for good.

Kenny Rogers Roasters was once the talk of the town. Named after and started by the famous singer-songwriter himself, the restaurant chain was a response to the fried chicken craze that was sweeping the nation in the early 1990s (and long before that). The idea was that Kenny Rogers Roasters would take a different approach to speedy chicken, and would instead offer rotisserie chicken meals to hungry customers. Rogers was onto a winner with this one: Its first restaurant opened in 1991, and in the early days it seemed like Kenny Rogers Roasters was the place to be.

However, things soon started to go downhill. People cottoned on to the appeal of rotisserie chicken (and probably its leftovers, too) and a host of competing brands started to appear, threatening its success. Kenny Rogers Roasters soon started to sink into decline in the United States, and by 1998 the chain was bankrupt, with Rogers himself trying to stop the restaurant from using his name. It doesn't seem that he was successful, as Kenny Rogers Roasters has continued to be a big presence in other countries. While all of its branches are closed in the U.S., there are a fair few of its restaurants in the Middle East and Southeast Asia as of this publication. In the United States, though, it seems to be long gone.

For decades, Howard Johnson's was an American institution. The story of Howard Johnson's started in the 1920s, when Mr. Howard Johnson himself opened a series of ice cream stands that eventually built into him starting a full-service restaurant. In a little over a decade, there were over 130 Howard Johnson's restaurants across the United States, and the franchise kept growing from there to a cultural and gastronomic giant.

Although the heyday of Howard Johnson's was during the 1960s and 70s, the 1990s continued to see a massive presence for the restaurant throughout the U.S. However, pretty soon the mood started to change. The restaurant chain had undergone a series of sales that began to diminish the power and ubiquity of the brand, and slowly its number of locations started to dwindle. Then, in 2022, the final blow was dealt. The last Howard Johnon's location in the United States, in Lake George, New York, finally shut its doors. It had actually parted ways with the franchise several years before that, but it was the last location to have the famous name above its door. With its closing, a legacy died.

We kinda feel like ESPN Zone is the quintessential 90s restaurant chain. This series of restaurants was opened in 1998 by the Walt Disney Co., which has been a major investor in the ESPN brand, and the concept was pretty straightforward: Let's make a sports bar that'd overwhelm the customers. Okay, we're kidding, but that's kind of what it felt like. This restaurant chain wasn't just a restaurant, but also an arcade, a bar, and a place to watch the game. They were also absolutely huge, with the restaurants being multi-story outfits with blaring TV screens and music coming from every corner. We can feel the sticky floors and smell the ketchup from here.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, this restaurant concept wasn't built to last. While it stuck around for the rest of the 90s and through the 2000s, by 2010 the majority of locations were closed. ESPN Zone managed to remain in operation in Anaheim until 2018, but by that point the idea behind the restaurant was well and truly cooked. In June of that year, the final ESPN Zone shut down, and it was consigned to history for good.

For a long time, if you wanted a hot dog with a twist, Lum's was the place to go. This chain was famous for its beer-steamed hot dogs, and from its first opening in 1955, it built a pretty impressive presence. At its most popular, Lum's had 450 locations dotted across the continental United States, Hawaii, and in Puerto Rico. It seemed like the appetite for these slightly malty dogs, and the various other menu items it sold (including burgers, sandwiches, and seafood) was unstoppable.

Sadly, though, the owners of Lum's decided at a certain point that they wanted to jump ship. Cliff Perlman and his brother, the founders of Lum's, ended up selling the brand to the owners of KFC, shortly after they bought Caesar's Palace in Las Vegas. The Lum's franchise then subsequently began dying, and throughout the 70s and 80s it began to decline. After the chain filed for bankruptcy, it held on by its fingertips throughout the 90s, and eventually the last Lum's closed in 2017.

Sambo's is a restaurant with a deeply problematic history. The restaurant chain was once absolutely massive, with well over 1,100 locations across the United States during its heyday. Sambo's was started in 1957, and in the 1970s it had reached an enormous market presence and was making huge amounts of money each year. Although it filed for bankruptcy in the early 1980s and sold many of its restaurants, it still managed to hang on as a brand for another couple of decades, although many of its restaurants were converted into Denny's branches.

However, in 2020, Sambo's ended for good — but the original restaurant still remained in operation. Instead, it was its name that changed. The name for the restaurant was (and is) also the name for a longstanding anti-Black caricature, and the restaurant chain itself repeatedly leaned into racist stereotypes throughout its history via its mascot, and of course in the refusal to change its original name despite widespread recognition of its problematic nature.

Little Tavern is a small restaurant chain with a big history. This hamburger outfit opened its first restaurant in 1927, and it slowly and steadily built its market presence over the next few decades. By the time the middle of the century rolled around, there were about 50 locations in operation in the D.C. and Baltimore area. The emphasis at Little Taverns was on giving customers a good meal at a reasonable price, and the cuisine it offered reflected its unpretentious approach: Burgers and slices of pie were the name of the game, evoking a sense of comfort and nostalgia. It was particularly known for its cutesy locations that mirrored its name, with a lot of them housed in tiny buildings barely bigger than a residential cottage.

Unfortunately, as with so many other restaurant chains throughout history, Little Tavern started to struggle. By the 1990s, it had about 20 locations left, and while it still kept going through the decade (and kept alive in the public's imagination), it wasn't long for this world. By the end of the 2010s, Little Tavern was officially out of business. Some of the buildings have since been reused for various different businesses, but have kept their inherent charm.

Pizza was seriously big business in the 1990s. This was the decade of the "pizza wars," when Domino's, Pizza Hut, and a few other key chains were all duking it out for market supremacy. The main thing that these chains were offering, and what they were battling over, was reliable delivery: In 30 minutes or less, you could have a hot, steaming pizza arrive at your door, getting rid of the need to go to a physical location and eat it there.

Unfortunately, though, to do this on a massive scale, you needed to obtain some pretty big firepower — and Pizza Haven just didn't have this. Pizza Haven started in 1958, and it was actually one of the first restaurants out there to offer delivery. From its first home in Seattle, it soon expanded across the Pacific Northwest and California, and was a recognizable name in those parts. The problem is that when the 1990s rolled around and the pizza wars began in earnest, the few dozen branches that Pizza Haven had just weren't enough to compete with the big boys. It managed to put up a good fight during the 1990s, but it soon disappeared at the end of the decade after filing for bankruptcy, soon becoming ancient history.

Geri's Hamburgers was a small but mighty restaurant chain that anyone who lived in the Midwest likely had an awareness of during its heyday. The chain began its journey in the 1960s, and quickly moved from a single joint to a chain that had locations in places like Illinois and Wisconsin. Geri's was set apart from the rest by its huge signage, with a prominent red arch sticking out of the ground at every location, beckoning drivers off the road to try its burgers, fries, and shakes.

Geri's managed to thrive for a few decades, but in 1981 its franchising operation was done. Regardless, it still managed to keep its individual restaurants open throughout the 1990s, before it finally called it quits towards the end of the decade. The issue was that Geri's was just too small of an outfit to compete with massive restaurant chains like McDonald's, which were able to occupy way more real estate and expand at a pace that the humble franchise just couldn't keep up with. These days, Geri's is just a distant memory, but it offers a window into a bygone era.

It's kind of wild to think that Lone Star Steakhouse & Saloon no longer has any presence in the United States when you consider how big it once was — especially during the 1990s. The first Lone Star Steakhouse & Saloon opened in 1989, and it quickly embarked on an expansion process that rivals some of the biggest names in restaurant history. In just six years, it had ballooned to 182 restaurants, and it left the decade with a massive 265 locations. It seemed like the appetite for steak and beer was just unstoppable, and the higher-ups and board members were raking in the benefits — and the profit.

However, just a few years later, things started to take a turn for the worst. In the middle of the 2000s, its sales started to dwindle as people started to look for their food elsewhere, and in 2010 it was left with 112 restaurants across 31 states. Things didn't stop there, though, and throughout the 2010s it continued to shutter outfits at a serious speed. The company filed for bankruptcy in 2017, and as of 2025 there are no Lone Star Steakhouse & Saloons left in the U.S. The only one that's still in operation as of this publication is located in Guam.

There's something that feels both ironic and poignant about Mighty Casey's name, considering that its presence in 2025 is anything but mighty or large. The restaurant chain was started in 1980 in Atlanta, Georgia, and the "mighty" in the restaurant's name referred to its large serving sizes. The fare at Mighty Casey's was exactly what you'd hope from a restaurant like this: It specialized in things like onion rings and hot dogs, although it also offered up some items more specific to Georgia itself, like spicy Cajun wings and Grand Slam burgers.

Mighty Casey's managed to stick it out for the 1980s and a lot of the 90s, but almost halfway through the decade it seemed like it's time was up. In 1994, Mighty Casey's was bought by Krystal, another Southern burger chain which had acquired the means to expand way more quickly and aggressively. Mighty Casey's ended up closing, and in doing so, a slightly quirky fixture of the Georgia food scene left the world.

The death of the cafeteria is one of the sadder stories in American history. Although companies like Piccadilly Restaurants and Luby's are still in operation, the days of homemade, homestyle meals served in an unfussy setting to scores of people are now kind of long gone. One prime example of this is Morrison's Cafeterias, a chain with an esteemed history that's now no more. Mobile, Alabama was the home of Morrison's Cafeteria, and the chain was really one of the outfits that kicked off cafeteria dining at large. Because of this, it achieved almost immediate success: It expanded quickly, and at its biggest it had 151 restaurants in operation.

Unfortunately, while it managed to keep things going for almost a century, gradually people started to crave different dining styles. By the mid-1990s, the chain was seriously in trouble, shedding locations and dealing with its audience's attention turning elsewhere. The Morrison's Cafeteria ownership started to turn its attention to Ruby Tuesday, a franchise it also owned, and in 1996 it sold its remaining units to competitor Piccadilly Restaurants. Thus began a slow conversion of Morrison's Cafeterias into Piccadilly Restaurant locations, and the franchise slowly, but surely, perished. As of this publication, only one remains in Mobile, Alabama.