They closed our Long John Silver’s here in Charlottesville about 7 or 8 years ago and Nancy and I have been in mourning ever since. Long John’s was often our go-to place on Sunday night when we wanted something fast and tasty and didn’t want to cook. Often, we couldn’t decide between their chicken and their fish, so we ordered a big combo. By the time we finished off multiple pieces of fried fish and chicken, plus fries and hush puppies, we had likely consumed 1500 calories each, which helped tick the bathroom scales up a couple pounds on Monday morning – but it was worth it. How I miss Long John Silver’s.
While I was out of town last week, Nancy e-mailed me a picture of a lunch she and my daughter Laura had just polished off – a Long John Silver’s combo.
“Where did you find it?” I returned.
In the city of Orange. They are still blessed with a Long John Silver’s Restaurant.
According to Wikipedia, Long John Silver’s LLC is an American fast food restaurant chain that specializes in seafood. The brand’s name, of course, is derived from the novel Treasure Island. Formerly a division of Ym! Brands, Inc., the company was divested to a group of franchises in September 2011, and is now 80% franchise owned.
The first restaurant opened on August 18, 1969, in Lexington, KY. The early restaurants were known for their Cape Cod-style buildings, blue roofs, wood benches/tables, lobster pots, and ship’s wheels. Later, more nautically themed decorations were added such as seats made to look like nautical flags.
Those early restaurants also featured separate entrance and exit doors, a corridor-like waiting line area, deep fryers with food heaters that were transparent so customers could see the food waiting to be served, and wrought iron ‘sword’ door handles. A major exterior theme of these buildings had dock like walkways, lined with pilings and thick ropes.
After struggling for several years under a heavy debt load, the parent company, Jerrico Inc., filed for Chapter 11. Bankruptcy in June 1998. In September 1999, A&W announced to acquire the chain out of bankruptcy, as a result a new company called Yorkshire Golden Restaurants has been formed.
The franchise name was bought and sold and swapped around, but finally settled down when James O’Reilly, a former KFC official, took over as CEO.
The chain is now back up and running, and I sure wish they would give Charlottesville another try.