Did Shoney’s have dinosaur-shaped chicken nuggets? Am I mixing it up with Sizzler? Either way, this unassuming bank-slash-hearing-aid-emporium was once home to Muncie’s Shoney’s, a place I remember from childhood even if the details are a little fuzzy. It’s been ages since I last set foot in there, and despite passing it countless times since, I’ve never once been inside under its current guise.
Alex Schoenbaum founded Shoney’s in 1947 and launched the chain as a regional Big Boy franchise. A legal dispute in the 1980s forced the company to drop the Big Boy name, but not its momentum: at its peak, Shoney’s grew into a dining powerhouse, boasting about 1,600 locations nationwide and generating roughly $800 million in annual sales1.
Muncie’s Shoney’s came onto the scene in 1986 when the 168-seat, $800,000 restaurant joined a 52-room Lees Inn on the city’s growing northwest side2. That year, the restaurant offered two-for-$7.99 dinners featuring choices of the Half O’ Pound Dinner, Spaghetti Dinner, Chicken Fillet Dinner, Liver’N Onions Dinner, or the Fish’N Chips Dinner3.
Unfortunately, Shoney’s began to lose market share in the late 1980s as consumer preferences changed. As more sophisticated tastes developed, meals like Half O’Pound Dinners and Liver’N Onions no longer stacked up4. Nonetheless, Muncie’s Shoney’s soldiered on. The best part of eating there, by far, was the breakfast bar.
I’m a little sad to say that Shoney’s only briefly intersected with my Muncie childhood. After a quick pitstop in Pendleton, my family moved here from Fort Wayne around 1995. Shoney’s closed just a year later when its franchise partner in Anderson, Marion, Muncie, and Richmond filed for bankruptcy5. The following year, Star Financial Bank moved in to replace a much smaller facility at 4009 North Wheeling6.
Shoney’s still hangs on elsewhere today, though its footprint has shrunk to just fifty-eight locations scattered across the south. My family even stopped at one on the way home from a South Carolina trip a few years back! Honestly, it was great! My mom thinks she got food poisoning, but somehow, even that felt worth it for one more taste of Shoney’s nostalgia.
Sources Cited
1 Roysdon, K. (2008, September 3). A moment to reflect on Shoney’s. The Muncie Star Press. p. 19.
2 City’s northwest side getting motel, restaurants this summer (1986, May 17). The Muncie Evening Press. p. 1.
3 Shoney’s (1986, November 15). The Muncie Evening Press. p. 13.
4 Roysdon, K. (2008, September 3). A moment to reflect on Shoney’s. The Muncie Star Press. p. 19.
5 Roysdon, K. (2014, July 27). Don’t know your Big Boy from your Azar’s? Here’s a primer. The Muncie Star Press. p. A2.
6 Star bank moving to Shoney’s site (1997, August 3). The Muncie Star Press. p. 51.
One other problem Shoney’s had was a late 1980s class action suit that alleged widespread racial discrimination that reached into top management. This may not have (technically) involved franchise locations, but the brand took a major reputational hit.
I’m sure your mother was happy to pay the food poisoning price for your nostalgia experience. 😛
I completely forgot about that! And Mom was less than pleased during the drive home.
Half O’Pound Dinner…half o’ pound of what?
Judging by its companion dinner specials I suspect something along the lines of meatloaf, round steak, maybe a horribly dry boneless pork chop or 2…
I can’t remember if I’ve ever eaten at a Shoney’s or not. If I did it was most likely somewhere in the south, many years ago.
I think you’re right. My penultimate trip involved some ham I eventually learned was fried bologna. I ate some of that as a kid to learn that, even if it made be sound like an elitist, bologna has no home here.