Funny website (fast food related)

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So, this friend of Baked Bean Teeth and mine created a pretty tragicomic website where she aims to document instances of old, failed fast food outlets being awkwardly transformed into new businesses. Perhaps of special interest to JBR and Elvis Telecom. Probably Mr. Kingfish and some other Michiganders will be familiar with a few of these locales. Check it out - some funny stuff there. Everyone should comb their hoods for instances of same and take pics, and she'll put them up on the site.

― Broheems (diamond), Friday, 9 January 2004 04:11 (twenty-two years ago)

I didn't see an example of the most tragic kind of conversion: early 20C banks into fast food restaurants, pizza joints, etc. Usually it's too expensive to remove to the safes and safe deposit boxes so they keep 'em!

― Michael Daddino (epicharmus), Friday, 9 January 2004 04:20 (twenty-two years ago)

Classic conversion: early 20th century bank into nightclub.

― the music mole (colin s barrow), Friday, 9 January 2004 04:21 (twenty-two years ago)

i've seen an old bank converted to a restaurant. it seemed to work pretty well.

― the surface noise (electricsound), Friday, 9 January 2004 04:23 (twenty-two years ago)

Oh yeah, I've seen a few good bank-to-restaurants conversions, too. There was one not far from where I lived when I still lived in Bay Shore, NY. The problem, though, is that bad conversions are really *really* bad.

― Michael Daddino (epicharmus), Friday, 9 January 2004 04:29 (twenty-two years ago)

I think I've been to that Coffee Time in Toronto.

― tokyo rosemary (rosemary), Friday, 9 January 2004 04:29 (twenty-two years ago)

Great site. I recognize some of the ones around Toronto.

― may pang (maypang), Friday, 9 January 2004 05:05 (twenty-two years ago)

a block from where i now work in millburn, nj, they are putting the finishing touches upon converting what was so obviously an old IHOP into a chinese restaurant (called "saipan"). nothing creative at all ... just an old IHOP turned into an eggroll/porked-fried rice joint.

i will have to be arsed to bring my camera to work one day.

― Eisbär (llamasfur), Friday, 9 January 2004 05:25 (twenty-two years ago)

Oh Oh, There's some restaurant near here that was so obviously a kenny rodgers chicken place, but now is some noname diner.

― A Nairn (moretap), Friday, 9 January 2004 05:36 (twenty-two years ago)

I'm sure theres a few badly-done places nearby. I shall have to go hunting with my camera on the weekend and see. Chapel st is notorious for shops opening and closing faster that a lady de la nuit's legs.

― Trayce (trayce), Friday, 9 January 2004 05:57 (twenty-two years ago)

In my town there's a Hertz place that used to be a Wendy's. Converting old buildings into new types of businesses is better than what they usually do. There's this BP station that was demolished after about a year and a bank is being built in its place. Such a waste of materials, but it's not like that's anything new in the burbs.
The oddest transformation that I know of is this auto repair shop (where I used to deliver parts to) that is now a Connie's pizza.

― oops (Oops), Friday, 9 January 2004 06:57 (twenty-two years ago)

Here in Dallas, a popular cineplex is being converted into a church! (Protestant Christian, natch)

― Aaron A., Friday, 9 January 2004 07:29 (twenty-two years ago)

Chichester Corn Exchange. A cinema from the 1920s the 1960s. A McDonalds since the 1980s.

http://is.freefoto.com/images/38/20/38_20_3_web.jpg

― robster (robster), Friday, 9 January 2004 07:44 (twenty-two years ago)

Heh, I was going to mention that Wendy's-->Hertz place, but I see you beat me to it, Oops. (Also -- didn't Portillo's, way back in the day, used to be on the south side of Boughton, and then when they moved across the street, Sona Video moved in? They then demolished that building altogether and built a new Sona...)

― jaymc (jaymc), Friday, 9 January 2004 07:56 (twenty-two years ago)

ohhh yeah Sona did used to be a Portillo's. I remember being in that Portillo's as a kid and it'd always creep me out. So dark and musty and woody. Speaking of creepy remember the original Sony that was underground? Actually that whole double-decker strip mall things has always been a bit bizarro.

― oops (Oops), Friday, 9 January 2004 07:59 (twenty-two years ago)

dude we have TWO frickin Meijer's in town now! So if you wanna get oil filter, some twinkies, that new Shania album, and a Taz sweatshirt at 4AM you can accomplish your mission that much quicker.

― oops (Oops), Friday, 9 January 2004 08:07 (twenty-two years ago)

So dark and musty and woody.

Yeah, exactly. It felt more like a bar. Even weirder when the video store moved in. I think I only went to the original (underground) Sona once -- there was some crappy video store in Pinecrest Plaza we liked.

dude we have TWO frickin Meijer's in town now!

Where's the second one?

― jaymc (jaymc), Friday, 9 January 2004 08:14 (twenty-two years ago)

Video Inc! Rented my first movies there: Grease and The Incredible Shrinking Woman (why/how the fuck do I remember that?). It was within walking distance of my house and me and my friends used to dare each other to walk into the Adult section. Used to be the only video rental place in town and I used go there exclusively until they started having no selection and simultaneously charging more.
And back on topic, that place used to be a fish market. Very vague memories of it---I musta been only 5 or 6 before it changed. It musta been hell trying to get that smell out. I forget what it is now. An extension of the dance studio next door maybe?

Second Meijer is by 355 and Boughton. In the same lot is a yet-to-open Buffalo Wild Wings which I'm sorta stoked about. You would be too if the best restaurant in your neighborhood was Portillo's.

― oops (Oops), Friday, 9 January 2004 08:24 (twenty-two years ago)

Well, and if I ate meat. :)

― jaymc (jaymc), Friday, 9 January 2004 08:27 (twenty-two years ago)

An extension of the dance studio next door maybe?

Kim Jascewsky's still kickin' it?

― jaymc (jaymc), Friday, 9 January 2004 08:28 (twenty-two years ago)

Haha that I do not know. However, Jill..um...Jill...Szostak! yeah that's it. Jill Szostak used to bust moves right thar.

― oops (Oops), Friday, 9 January 2004 08:30 (twenty-two years ago)

I had a total boner for her in third grade.

― jaymc (jaymc), Friday, 9 January 2004 08:30 (twenty-two years ago)

Well, er, not quite. But you get the idea.

― jaymc (jaymc), Friday, 9 January 2004 08:31 (twenty-two years ago)

That just made me lose my shit.

― oops (Oops), Friday, 9 January 2004 08:34 (twenty-two years ago)

MAJESTIC STENTORIAN MCDONALDS!!! Holy crap!

There's a McDonald's in St. Paul a short distance from the State Capitol that looks like it used to be a International Style late '50s/early '60s bank, as it was obviously built back when McDonald's had a pretty uniformly fastfood-looking aesthetic in their buildings. There's a fountain in the middle of the dining area and the ceiling is about two and a half stories high. It's pretty bizarre.

There's another building on Nicollet Mall in Mpls. -- a brown brick Logan's Run fortress -- that housed a McDonald's at one point (possibly as the original tenant) and is now an awkward-looking nightclub. I think one of the unused exterior doors still features the Golden Arches on it.

One of the weirdest conversions in the Twin Cities was a '60s-ish bank on the super-crowded University-Snelling -- it was already pretty demented in the first place as it was completely round and was glass almost all around from floor to about 3/5 of the way up (the upper sections were a deep forest green metallic somethingorother). This was later converted into a very unpopular restaurant in the early '90s and retrofitted with fast-food accoutrements and a pastel color scheme. Sadly for enthusiasts of impractical ugly architecture like myself, it was torn down.

― nate detritus (natedetritus), Tuesday, 13 January 2004 02:02 (twenty-two years ago)

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