Pepin & HoJo in the NYTimes

My favorite chef celebre, Jacques Pépin, wrote a nice Op-Ed in today's NYTimes, lamenting the loss of the Howard Johnson's in Times Square.

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http://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/28/opini ... ab&ei=5088

Enjoy.

Best,
Michael / EC

He has a point. Hard to believe now, but when I was a little kid (70's), HoJo's was a sign of civilization in most of the US.

We of course still have our classic HoJo motor court right there on LaSalle in River North, looking like something that should be roadside off of Rt. 66, not smack in the middle of one of the densest urban areas in the country. And the coffee shop remains.

Hi,

I wonder if the snack shop at the LaSalle location is indeed a Howard Johnson's restaurant rather than an independent. This unofficial website suggests they have the complete inventory of Howard Johnson's restaurants.

When I lived in Maryland, we had a Howard Johnson's in town. We often went there for ice cream. I liked their macaroni and cheese, though I have wondered if I would like it now. This Howard Johnson, and I think many others, had a large freezer case with packaged frozen entrees from their menu. I was always somewhat miffed my parents did not buy any of these frozen entrees I was so curious about. Now after reading this article and knowing who was in the HJ kitchen, I am doubly miffed.

The last Howard Johnsons restaurant I knew about in this area was just off Touhy Avenue near the Leaning Tower of Pisa.

I'm quite sure that that is NOT a Hojo restaurant, nor is it a Joho restaurant for that matter. It's a greasy spoon diner (and not bad as I recall from many years ago, though not necessarily good either) with the classic diner-style menu which is somewhat different from the Hojo franchisee menu (no clam strips, for instance).

Right, I should have clarified that our beloved Hojo's diner is more like Clara & James than the proto-Denny's that Hojo restaurants were. Now that the restaurants are down to a small handful, don't you wonder where the hell they get the food, which was obviously frozen and shipped worldwide in the heyday de Hojo. The way I see it, there are two alternatives, either there is a huge stash of rapidly aging frozen clam strips and mac n cheese deep in a Manhattan bunker or the survivors are outsourcing/making their own.

PS, is it the Hojo diner that has the angry sign about the place being a real diner, and not a cynical tourist trap (read Ed Debevics)? Or is that the coffee shop at the other strange old north Lincoln Avenue/South Ashland Avenue-- esque motel in River North?

Hi,

I am presently watching Mad Men season five. In the sixth episode, Don Draper (Jon Hamm) spirits wife Megan (Jessica Paré) away to a HoJo in upstate New York.

This Howard Johnson motel and restaurant were exactly as I remembered: both interior and exterior. I was soaking up the details and vying to visit sometime. When googling for the information, I found a blog post with the pertinent information. Unfortunately, it is more true on the television screen than in real life:

http://blog.zap2it.com/frominsidethebox ... -stop.html


At 4:06 is where you want to forward to for the Howard Johnson scenes: