jkatz wrote :

Woah. TIL that Jack in the Box is a regional chain.  -end quote

Yeah, I figured that out the hard way when I moved to the east coast. I miss the tacos and Oreo milkshakes 

Found a good list of defunct chains here. Some familiar names, and some not at all familiar. 

Vaporman87 wrote :

Found a good list of defunct chains here. Some familiar names, and some not at all familiar.  -end quote

Just noticed Ponderosa in that last. I remember going there as a kid. There used to be one down the road when I used to live in Jackson, MS. All I remember eating there was these kind of steak fingers things. They were breaded but can't remember what they were called. Man, that was so long ago. I don't recognize any other's besides Sambo's. What an unfortunate name. There used to be one in Hattiesburg,MS during the late 1970s while my parents were in college but obviously I never been there. 

Two that come to mind for me are Johnny Rocket's and Jackasster's.

There are still Johnny Rockets where I live.
Here is a funny yelp review for a location near me that closed down.
https://www.yelp.com/biz/johnny-rockets-monterey-park
"GROSS, NASTY, UNSANITARY doesn't even begin to describe it... what
follows is my complaint to them on their corporate website.  But, after
reading some other reviews here, I AM NOT SURPRISED that my experience
there was so horrible. At this point the quality of the food is
unimportant, I want to throw up just thinking of what happened,!!!
i only gave it one star, since i can't give it zero....

My experience:
My
friend and our kids visited your Monterey Park location on 2/8/2014.
Her and our 3 kids sat at the counter. We were eating when suddenly, one
of the cooks (who apparently was off his shift, or so we thought), came
and put an old, dirty gym bag about a foot away from where we eating.
We didn't think anything of it, until we noticed that he STARTING
CHANGING HIS SHOES right in front of us. YES, HIS SHOES. And in that
process, we got the gross visual of a sweaty, stinky man removing DIRTY,
SWEATY, SMELLY SHOES and replacing them with equally DIRTY shoes from
his DIRTY gym bag which was on the counter where PEOPLE EAT.
WHAT IS
REALLY GOING ON HERE? We were shocked, but at the same time dumbfounded
to the point we couldn't even say anything... the STENCH OF HIS SHOES
was overpowering, where would not eat anymore. Good thing the kids were
not witnessing thing... then, when we were grossed out,  THINGS THEN GOT
WORSE... when he proceeded to RETURN TO THE GRILL to continue
COOKING.... WITHOUT WASHING HIS HANDS.  THIS IS GROSS AND UNACCEPTABLE.
In addition to that, we saw him handling people's water glasses.
Again, without washing his hands!!!!!!.. plus back to the dirty shoes, WHO DOES THAT? in front of EATING PATRONS.
Our
entire meal was ruined by that visual and by the fact your 'management'
team did nothing about it, even though this all happened in PLAIN VIEW.
It's gross to even think about what other UNSANITARY, GROSS, DISGUSTING
PRACTICES ARE HAPPENING AT YOUR RESTAURANT(S)."





All-American Burger was also mentioned in the 1979 Beat the Clock. It was one of the sponsors.

There used to be a Charlie Brown's by the local mall. I remember my cousin used to work there in the mid 90s. That location turned into a Chinese restaurant in the mid 2000s.

A lot of Naugles locations got converted into Del Tacos in the 80s.

I miss Pioneer Chicken when moved to a new neighborhood in 1992 I was sad when Pioneer got converted to a Popeyes.