9 Restaurant Chains from the ’80s You Probably Don’t Remember

The 1980s were a decade of excess, and the wild retro dining trends of the ’80s reflect that. Chain restaurants offered huge portions of American food, often buffet style, for a modest flat fee. Cafeterias were popular with seemingly unlimited choices of any kind of food you wanted from chicken to steak to seafood. Many families had both parents working full-time jobs for the first time in American history, and parents needed a place to take their kids to dinner after a busy week.

The food was plentiful, the choices were many, and those who lived through the ’80s have a certain nostalgia for restaurants they may have eaten at weekly, but are now gone forever. We’ve rounded up some of the most iconic ’80s restaurants that most people have probably forgotten about; cafeterias, fast food joints, and even a pizza joint with an animatronics show on the side. Although a few of these brands may still be around in one form or another, it’s just not the same. Read on for nine 1980s restaurants that may bring you a dose of nostalgia.

Although Beefsteak Charlie’s never made it outside of the East Coast, it was famously mentioned on numerous TV shows, including “Friends” and “Saturday Night Live.” This New York City staple got its start in 1910 when Charles W. Chessar opened the very first Beefsteak Charlie’s, a horse-themed steakhouse inspired by the owner’s nickname. The restaurant closed in 1934, but it’s in the 1970s where our story grows a little bit complicated.

In 1975, restaurant owner Larry Ellman’s Steak & Brew chain filed for bankruptcy. To breathe new life into his business, Ellman renamed his restaurants, “Beefsteak Charlie’s,” creating the chain we know and love. The original Beefsteak Charlie’s restaurant never filed a trademark on its name, so Ellman was free to franchise under the name. From here, the restaurants flourished, peaking at over 60 locations in the 1980s. Beefsteak Charlie’s offered an unlimited salad bar and unlimited beer, wine, and sangria for a flat rate. Famously, at the salad bar, Beefsteak Charlie’s served giant bowls of peel-and-eat shrimp.

Perhaps the business model of all-you-can-eat steak, seafood, and alcohol wasn’t profitable to stay afloat. Despite its popularity, the restaurant was losing money. In 1987, Ellman sold his chain locations to Bombay Restaurants. But this wasn’t enough to save it, and, by 1989, locations had dwindled to 35. The last few restaurants held on past the 80s, but, by 2009, the very last Beefsteak Charlie’s closed.

Anyone who lived in southern California in the 1980s surely must remember Pup ‘n’ Taco. Pup ‘n’ Taco was a small chain of fast-food restaurants founded in 1965 by Russell Wendell. It had a wildly eclectic menu that included not only tacos and burritos, but also burgers, pastrami sandwiches, and hot dogs. You could get your hot dog in several ways, including with sauerkraut or chili and cheese. You could even get a taco on a bun, similar to Taco Bell’s Bell Beefer. Also on the menu were refried beans, french fries, sodas, and slushes.

People living in the ’80s have fond memories of Pup ‘n’ Taco with users online reminiscing over the chili cheese dogs, cherry slushes, and combination burrito. Pup ‘n’ Taco, however, suffered the fate of being competition for Taco Bell. You may not know the history of Taco Bell, but the taco chain and Pup ‘n’ Taco coexisted for decades, with both beginning in the 1960s. However, in the mid-80s, Taco Bell bought nearly every location (which was close to 100) except for three stores in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Those three stores changed their name slightly to “Pop’nTaco,” and hung on a while longer, with the last one closing in 2013.

A night out at Chi-Chi’s Mexican Restaurant was an exciting thing in the 1980s. The servers wore brightly colored full-length dresses with puffy white blouses. The interior was also brightly colored with varied décor, like Mexican blankets hanging from the walls and piñatas dangling from the ceiling. The menu included tacos, enchiladas, taquitos, and specialty drinks, such as margaritas and sangria. Chi-Chi’s, although not the most authentic, was many people’s first introduction to Mexican food, especially in places in the Midwest that didn’t have a large variety of restaurants from other cultures.

Chi-Chi’s began in the midwestern state of Minnesota. It was founded by Marno McDermott and Green Bay Packers player Max McGee in 1975. The Tex-Mex chain was a hit, peaking at 200 restaurants in various states. Although the last Chi-Chi’s closed in 2004, unable to recover from a nasty hepatitis outbreak affecting hundreds of people who dined at the restaurant, you can still find Chi-Chi’s name on store-bought flour tortillas and salsa.

If you find yourself feeling nostalgic for Chi-Chi’s, we have good news. Michael McDermott, son of Marmo McDermott, has announced his plans to reopen Chi-Chi’s restaurants in 2025. Although we don’t have the exact details yet, McDermott said in a press release, “We have seen the impact our restaurant has had on individuals and families across the country and believe there is a strong opportunity to bring the brand back in a way that resonates with today’s consumer.”

While Tippin’s still lives on today as Tippin’s Pies, a Kansas City chain that specializes in pies, the restaurant it once was is long gone. Tippin’s Restaurant Inc. was founded in 1979 with locations around the Midwest and in Texas, so people who buy a Tippin’s pie today may not know it was once a restaurant with a wide variety of American food. Tippin’s offered American diner food with a typical large diner-style menu that included quiches, burgers, breakfast foods, salads, sandwiches, chicken pot pies, and soups. But that’s not all, you also had your choice of sirloin steak, steak supreme, or a steak sandwich. On the so-called “Light Menu” were items that today we might not consider healthy eating, such as a pasta salad, a chicken burrito, or liver and onions.

But the star of Tippin’s was always its desserts. You could get just about any pie you could dream of. In addition to the usual fruit pies, there were harder-to-find flavors, such as rhubarb and boysenberry. There were also chocolate banana pies, coconut custard, French silk, and so many more. But Tippin’s Restaurants began to fade, and by 2004, every restaurant had closed. The company, however, knew they had a good thing with their pies and kept the pie bakeries running.

Located up and down the West Coast in the 1980s was the diner-style VIP’s Restaurant. The first VIP’s was opened in 1968 in Oregon by Keith Andler and Robert Smith. The key to the chain’s success was the owner’s strategy of opening restaurants along highway exits, making VIP’s a common stop on road trips. Similar to Denny’s — another restaurant that has to close hundreds of locations – it also kept late hours, making it a place to grab a bite to eat any time of the day or night.

Like a typical diner, you could get breakfast food all day. The menu also offered a variety of other American foods including sandwiches, soups, burgers, and salads. With its West Coast location, there was plenty of seafood on the dinner menu, including shrimp, clam strips, and scallops. An old menu shows a seafood platter with shrimp, white fish, scallops, and french fries for just $3.35. If seafood’s not your thing, there was sirloin steak, fried chicken, veal steak, and plenty more.

VIP’s must have been giving Denny’s a little too much competition because Denny’s bought 35 VIP’s locations in the early 80s. By the end of the decade, VIP’s sold off their remaining restaurants to various companies, and VIP’s Restaurants were no more. VIP’s Industries, Incorporated, the parent company, switched to the hotel business and operates hotels to this day.

Cafeterias, and their all-you-can-eat buffet style of dining, were big in the 1980s. Diners loved to head to restaurants with vast arrays of American-style food that you could pile high on plates and go back for seconds, thirds, or even more. The 1980s were a profitable time for Morrison’s Cafeteria, which got its start in 1920, as one of the first restaurants offering cafeteria-style dining. Customers loved the concept of home-cooked meals at reasonable prices, and Morrison’s flourished. Morrison’s Cafeteria had a few dishes that diners still remember today, such as the almond cream pie, Spanish rice, and chicken a la Morrison.

Morrison’s held on through the Great Depression and the rationing of World War II. By the time shopping malls started popping up everywhere, Morrison’s was in a good place to add its restaurant as the anchor store, taking advantage of hungry shoppers looking for a meal. Morrison’s Cafeteria peaked in the 1980s, but by the 1990s, the old cafeteria-style diner was falling out of fashion. By 1996, the parent company dissolved the brand, turning Morrison’s Cafeteria into Morrison Healthcare, among other subsidiaries. Morrison’s Healthcare is still in business today and offers food service for nursing homes and hospitals.

Amid the burger joints and taco shops of the fast food industry in the 1960s arrived the fried chicken takeout restaurant, Pioneer Chicken. The first Pioneer Chicken opened in 1961 in the Echo Park neighborhood of Los Angeles. California is often called the unofficial birthplace of fast food with McDonald’s, Jack in the Box, and Taco Bell, and many others originating there. Los Angeles, with its highways and car culture, was the perfect place to grab a quick meal to eat in your vehicle. Pioneer Chicken continued to expand throughout the 1970s, making it a hot spot for fried chicken in the 1980s.

More than just a restaurant, Pioneer Chicken entwined its way into popular culture. In 1981, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar was featured in the chain’s TV ad for its fish and chips meal. In 1985, the exterior of the restaurant can be seen in the background of the “Rhythm of the Night” music video for ’80s band DeBarge. Finally, if you look closely at the opening sequence of the sitcom, Full House, you can see a box of Pioneer Chicken sitting next to the baby, Michelle, on a blanket.

In 1989, Pioneer Chicken peaked at 270 locations across the West Coast. But the end came soon after, with bankruptcy and sell-offs. However, if you have a longing for Pioneer Chicken, you aren’t completely out of luck. Two locations were not sold and remain to this day in Los Angeles in the neighborhoods of Bell Gardens and Boyle Heights.

In 1946, the first Furr’s Cafeteria opened in Hobbs, New Mexico. Furr’s expanded through the years and was known for its cafeteria-style food, which was served buffet-style by the 1980s. While some Furr’s were more of your typical diner restaurants, others offered a high-end feel, with live piano and wood-burning fireplaces. Furr’s was the place to go after church on Sunday, with diners reminiscing online about their dishes, such as chicken fried steak with white gravy and jello for dessert.

By 1980, ownership changed hands, and Kmart acquired the brand. By 1986, Furr’s had grown to nearly 100 locations across Texas and the Southwest. But in the 1990s, styles changed and cafeteria restaurants were fading fast. In 2003, Furr’s filed for bankruptcy. Although with a much smaller footprint, there were still 16 Furr’s Cafeteria locations in four states by 2020. However, the last few Furr’s couldn’t hang on through the pandemic, and all Furr’s locations closed in 2021.

In 1977, Nolan Bushnell opened his first pizza restaurant, which was combined with an animatronics show for kids, in San Jose, California. The place was Chuck E. Cheese, and it was wildly successful. Following those footsteps, the first Bullwinkle’s Family Food ‘N’ Fun opened in Santa Clara, California a few years later in 1982. Bullwinkle’s was a place where parents could take their kids for pizza, arcade games, and an animatronics show. The show had characters from “The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle and Friends,” a kid’s cartoon that originally aired from 1959 to 1964, although we’ve seen many different iterations of the cartoon since then.

Bullwinkle’s menu offered traditional kid’s fare for the time, including pizza, burgers, fried chicken, sandwiches, fries, biscuits, and a salad bar. For dessert, the ice cream was Haagen-Dazs, much higher end than you’d expect at a place like this today. What’s more, frazzled parents could have a drink of beer or wine. People fondly remember heading to Bullwinkle’s as kids, although more than one person reminisced on Reddit that the animatronics show was terrifying to small children.

While the ’80s was a time of growth for the restaurant, by 2001, Bullwinkle’s was failing and was bought out, closing many of their locations. Amazingly, three Bullwinkle’s Restaurants have hung on through the ages, and you can still find one location each in California, Washington, and Oregon. Today, the remaining Bullwinkle’s are more like amusement parks with rides, arcade games, and miniature golf. The animatronics show is long gone.