Retail Watchers

One of the things I've found in the course of exploring the area here is that there is a Wienerschnitzel location in Everett, and from looking at the website it appears to be the only remaining location in Washington (a previous location in Spokane has closed.) In fact, it seems to be the only location in the Pacific Northwest, with the closest locations being either in the Bay Area or in Utah (although they seem to be pretty common in California.) The one in Everett has been around for quite a while though, and in fact got a remodel in 2015. The locator on the site also shows a single location in Illinois (Champaign) and one in Guam, which would be even further away from any others.

Can anyone think of any other examples of far-flung chain restaurants?

Grandy's used to be common in Texas. It's primarily in Dallas but one location exists in Victoria, Texas (and it looks very similar to how restaurants looked like in the 1980s/1990s) about 260 miles away.

New Mexico's Blake's Lotaburger had 3 Arizona locations-2 in PHX, 1 in Wickenburg-until the end of the 80s

pseudo3d wrote:Grandy's used to be common in Texas. It's primarily in Dallas but one location exists in Victoria, Texas (and it looks very similar to how restaurants looked like in the 1980s/1990s) about 260 miles away.

Looking at their website, they also have locations in Northern Kentucky around Owensboro, Southern Indiana near Evansville, Oklahoma City, Las Cruces, NM and Monroe, LA, as well as around D/FW and multiple Texas locations. It's an odd arrangement.

Brian Lutz wrote:One of the things I've found in the course of exploring the area here is that there is a Wienerschnitzel location in Everett, and from looking at the website it appears to be the only remaining location in Washington (a previous location in Spokane has closed.) In fact, it seems to be the only location in the Pacific Northwest, with the closest locations being either in the Bay Area or in Utah (although they seem to be pretty common in California.) The one in Everett has been around for quite a while though, and in fact got a remodel in 2015. The locator on the site also shows a single location in Illinois (Champaign) and one in Guam, which would be even further away from any others.

The Champaign location is an old holdover of what was once a much larger Der Wienerschnitzel. They were all over.

When Pizza Inn was larger, they had one Illinois location, in Danville. That has been Jocko's for many years now, but still looks like Pizza Inn.

Also, a newer chain called Freddy's Frozen Custard and Steakburgers, similar to Steak n Shake, has jumped over most of Arkansas and most of Louisiana, opening a couple of restaurants in Lafayette and Baton Rouge. The next closest one I know of is Little Rock, AR.

And speaking of Steak N Shake, there is but one Louisiana location, in Covington, which is in the Florida Parishes area east of Baton Rouge.

There are two Freddy's Frozen Custard and Steakburger locations in southern California (Westlake Village and Victorville.) Victorville also has a Steak and Shake.

Phoenix seems to be a place where the Midwest chains have their farthest outposts....Portillo's Hot Dogs is out here as are the two deep dish pizza chains Geno's and Lou's. And Culver's is building allover the area.

And we have the lone outpost of Ted's Hot Dogs of Buffalo in Tempe

There's a Portillo's in Buena Park, CA (home of Knott's Berry Farm), so that's even farther than Phoenix.

Arizona is where a lot of Midwesterners retire. There are especially big connections to Indiana and to the Chicago area. It also draws people who relocate from places like Omaha.

There's a single remaining Shakey's Pizza east of the Mississippi in Auburn, Alabama. The rest of the remaining locations are on the West Coast or in Hawaii.

The nearly-dead Kettle chain, once plentiful in the Southeast in big cities and small alike, now has just four locations (tracked down by yours truly), one in Laredo, two in Bryan-College Station, and one out in Arizona. The Arizona location has the same logo but seems to have altered its logo (serving things like tacos) from the more traditional Texas locations.