Shari's takes over Cocos and Carrows

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Shari's takes over Cocos and Carrows

Post by bm11k »

https://www.nrn.com/family-dining/shari ... 3b026e421b

maybe they can advantage of the situation. with Marie Callenders closing locations left and right
they find themselves in a good position
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Re: Shari's takes over Cocos and Carrows

Post by Super S »

This is an interesting development. Shari's seems to be hit or miss as of late with quality of food as well as prices. Although there are some well-run locations, I have been to a few that are not that great. Shari's seems to be moving away from their typical 6-sided buildings in not only their new-build restaurants, but in some acquired locations as well. I recently ate at one in Pendleton, Oregon which looked like a former Denny's (and had some of the worst service I have ever seen in a Shari's) but also ate at one somewhere in southern Oregon which looked more like a new-build for them a few years back.

Carrow's has been in a slow decline for years. There were several scattered around Portland/Vancouver, WA which quietly disappeared, and the few times I recall eating there were nothing special.

Shari's seems to be a chain that has tried to move more upscale at times to mixed results. They also have had some odd advertising in recent years such as the "Dale likes the taste" commercials. They have also closed a handful of locations over the last several years.
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Re: Shari's takes over Cocos and Carrows

Post by storewanderer »

Super S wrote: September 18th, 2018, 9:06 pm This is an interesting development. Shari's seems to be hit or miss as of late with quality of food as well as prices. Although there are some well-run locations, I have been to a few that are not that great. Shari's seems to be moving away from their typical 6-sided buildings in not only their new-build restaurants, but in some acquired locations as well. I recently ate at one in Pendleton, Oregon which looked like a former Denny's (and had some of the worst service I have ever seen in a Shari's) but also ate at one somewhere in southern Oregon which looked more like a new-build for them a few years back.

Carrow's has been in a slow decline for years. There were several scattered around Portland/Vancouver, WA which quietly disappeared, and the few times I recall eating there were nothing special.

Shari's seems to be a chain that has tried to move more upscale at times to mixed results. They also have had some odd advertising in recent years such as the "Dale likes the taste" commercials. They have also closed a handful of locations over the last several years.
This may work. Carrow's and Coco's closed a lot of marginal performing locations. I have to assume what is left performs okay. I think Carrow's and Coco's still have a few franchise locations left; I am not clear if Shari's franchises or if they are all corporate operated.

My few visits to Shari's over the years have been pretty indifferent. Not terrible, but definitely not something I'd go out of the way for. I feel exactly the same about Carrow's and Coco's. I feel like they may be a step above Denny's or IHOP in menu variety and intended food quality, and price vs. Denny's, but I am not sure the overall value is really there.
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Re: Shari's takes over Cocos and Carrows

Post by submariner »

Coco's has two locations near me. One is right across the street from Disneyland and seems to be constantly busy (gee, I wonder why? :lol: $$$) The second location is a mile and a half away or so, but is located in a googie-style former Big Boy and has been the unfortunate subject of closure talks (there is a modest effort to keep the location, though for historical purposes).
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Re: Shari's takes over Cocos and Carrows

Post by rwsandiego »

I had a friend who L-O-V-E-D Coco's. Every time we went out to diner we went there. While I found the food to be edible and even somewhat tasty, it was no more satisfying, but was more expensive, than a couple of Lean Cuisines. Nonetheless, there is a demographic for whom it is a fabulous restaurant.

That said, I do like their pie.
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Re: Shari's takes over Cocos and Carrows

Post by submariner »

rwsandiego wrote: September 20th, 2018, 7:01 pm That said, I do like their pie.
Shari's, Coco's, etc all seem to have that in common... completely average diner food, but their real gems are the baked goods.
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Re: Shari's takes over Cocos and Carrows

Post by storewanderer »

submariner wrote: September 20th, 2018, 6:48 pm Coco's has two locations near me. One is right across the street from Disneyland and seems to be constantly busy (gee, I wonder why? :lol: $$$) The second location is a mile and a half away or so, but is located in a googie-style former Big Boy and has been the unfortunate subject of closure talks (there is a modest effort to keep the location, though for historical purposes).
Coco's never had many locations in northern California and I think the few that exist are franchises.

Originally Coco's was the "bakery" concept and Carrow's was just the garden variety coffee shop. Somewhere along the way they seemed to add baked goods to the Carrow's format as well and kind of blur the lines between the two.

Denny's owned the two chains for a time and I felt like that was when they seemed to lose track.
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Re: Shari's takes over Cocos and Carrows

Post by Brian Lutz »

I don't think there have been any operating Coco's locations in Washington for quite a while now. At some point back around 2005 or so all of them either shut down or became Black Bear Diner, but several of the ones that changed over ended up closing eventually, as Black Bear shows only five locations in WA (one of which seems to have opened recently.) Looking at their website there are a number of other Black Bear locations that seem to be in former Coco's/Carrows locations, so I assume at some point there was either a sale of locations or a major franchisee that defected?
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Re: Shari's takes over Cocos and Carrows

Post by Super S »

submariner wrote: September 20th, 2018, 7:07 pm
rwsandiego wrote: September 20th, 2018, 7:01 pm That said, I do like their pie.
Shari's, Coco's, etc all seem to have that in common... completely average diner food, but their real gems are the baked goods.
Shari's had a "free pie night" for a while where you got a free slice of pie with your meal at dinner. Not sure if they still do that as I tend to eat there for breakfast most of the time. But the pies are a strong point for Shari's.
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Re: Shari's takes over Cocos and Carrows

Post by BreakingThrough »

All this Coco's talk makes me realize that I haven't been to one since I was a child. They recently closed the closest Coco's to me (Manhattan Beach, CA). For kicks I took a look at their current Lunch / Dinner menu, which you can see here.

Coco's seems to really be hitting on fresh, high-quality ingredients in their positioning – grass-fed beef, sides like quinoa, low-calorie and gluten-free options, etc. I imagine the food is probably pretty bland overall, but it's nice to see that folks within the organization obviously care about remaining contemporary and competitive (at least among generic chains like this). More than I expected to be honest.
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