Oklahoma is Still Home to One Remaining Classic Shoney’s Restaurant

While I was clicking around Google Maps yesterday collecting pics for the massive list of Oklahoma's past "Sundown Towns," I noticed something odd while looking at the street views in Henryetta.

They still have an operating Shoney's restaurant.

If you're Gen-X or Elder Millennial, it's probably a little shocking. After all, with such a storied history of immense popularity and ultimate failure, you wouldn't expect to see part of childhood that all but disappeared.

Shoney's started out like any other restaurant chain in America. A small, locally-owned, mom & pop eatery. They franchised a burger restaurant during the post-WWII Great American Economic Boom.

It started originally as a Big Boy Burger drive-in franchise but quickly grew into its own standalone Shoney's brand over time. If you've ever seen the McDonald's movie--The Founder--it happened a lot like that, except Shoney's would often license other restaurants' food as a selling point.

While they still served the burgers, it became a sit-down eatery that was considered somewhat fancy for the time.

While the restaurant brand went through several different stages of the American Dream, it grew in my lifetime to include 1800 locations during its prime in the 1990s.

Shoney's filed bankruptcy, was sold to a new owner, and dwindled to just 272 locations by 2007.

Just like that, Shoney's went the way of Furr's, Bennigan's, Howard Johnson's, K-Bob's, etc... They just disappeared into fond childhood memories... until I spotted one randomly on the internet in Henryetta.

The only change seems to be that instead of ordering your food now, Shoney's has become a buffet.

While I wouldn't necessarily recommend you drive across the state to reminisce about your childhood, if you happen to find yourself near Henryetta at chow-time, Shoney's might satisfy more than just your appetite.