Groceteria.com

Our very own Tesg is one of the contributors to this project (as he worked on that site's Field Guide).

http://www.notfoolinganybody.com

Gotta give it up to the KFC now being used as a chiropractor's office in Oklahoma:

http://www.notfoolinganybody.com/27gilstrap/

That's an interesting site. I probably have some submissions for them.

I was surprised to see converted Sonics. All of the Sonics I'm familiar with are prefab buildings, like the newer KFCs and KFC/whatever combos. When they leave a location, the building can be gathered up and taken away. Sonic did exactly that in Richmond a while back after they had a brief run (they're coming back now, slowly but surely).

TheStranger wrote:Gotta give it up to the KFC now being used as a chiropractor's office in Oklahoma

One of the updates I've sent in since it was last updated is of a KFC with a similar tower where the new owners simply painted the Colonel image in the tower green.

So there's this silhouette of a green Colonel.

Alas, she hasn't updated the site in a couple of years, unfortunately.

Wonder if you could post that photo here...talk about a cheap conversion!

Here's the tower...



I should note that they HAVE replaced this panel since with a white panel with the restaurant's logo on it (it's now La Bamba, a pretty decent cheap Mexican restaurant...yes, I'm something of a regular). But when lit up at night, the panels in the pyramid still shine their old KFC striping through.

Dave wrote:That's an interesting site. I probably have some submissions for them.

I was surprised to see converted Sonics. All of the Sonics I'm familiar with are prefab buildings, like the newer KFCs and KFC/whatever combos. When they leave a location, the building can be gathered up and taken away. Sonic did exactly that in Richmond a while back after they had a brief run (they're coming back now, slowly but surely).

There's an old Sonic built in the shadow of Norton AFB in San Bernardino when that part of town was going well. It was an auto repair shop the last time I saw it. Do any Sonics have seating areas? There are very few in Southern California, but very common around Las Vegas, along with Dairy Queen...another chain that didn't make a successful re entry in SoCal.

There's a liquor store in Fontana that looks to have the remnants of an old DQ sign, but I'm more familiar with their newer incarnation.

Do you mean indoor seating areas, because we only have one that has one in Vegas? Otherwise do you mean the outdoor seating areas in the middle by the kitchen? The rest of them are like that.

lvkewlkid wrote:Do you mean indoor seating areas, because we only have one that has one in Vegas? Otherwise do you mean the outdoor seating areas in the middle by the kitchen? The rest of them are like that.

The indoor seating area. The San Bernardino location's indoor seating area had been coverted into a garage, and I haven't seen any Sonics with indoor areas. Don't they get tired of people trying to open the door?

The only sonic left in California is in fullerton, its outdoor seating and drive up only.

Jeff wrote:The only sonic left in California is in fullerton, its outdoor seating and drive up only.

El Centro has one, so does Calexico.

javelin wrote:

Jeff wrote:The only sonic left in California is in fullerton, its outdoor seating and drive up only.

El Centro has one, so does Calexico.

The only Sonic left in Los Angeles metro is in Fullerton.

javelin wrote:

Jeff wrote:The only sonic left in California is in fullerton, its outdoor seating and drive up only.

El Centro has one, so does Calexico.

Woodland has one which opened last year on the site of a Burger King (one of several Burger Kings which ultimately closed after a local franchisee went bankrupt in 2000). It's on Main Street near I-5 and Route 113.

In Las Vegas at Eastern/Searles, there is a Church's Chicken that is now a Multi-Servicios-type place. They bricked up the drive-thru windows. But on the sign they still have chicken specials on it which is really funny and they never repainted the building.

At the food court at the mall near me (Bay City, Michigan, about an hour from here), they used to have an A & W. It closed about three years ago and now operates as "H & W". They just put new letters in the oval! (Last I checked, some of the menu boards still had blacked out A & W logos, too.)

Also, at the junky Livonia Mall in Detroit, a former Sbarro's Pizza operates as "LaBarro's". They just put a plank over the Sbarro's sign and wrote "LaBarro's" over it, even keeping "The Italian Eatery" from its Sbarro's days. (You've GOT to see this mall; it's stuck in a 1970s time warp.)

A McDonald's in East Tawas (half hour from here) moved recently to a new building (ironically, two years after the old location was re-built from the ground up). The old location is now a motorcycle dealer - they added on to the building, but it's still only VERY obvious that it used to be McDonald's. The former drive-thru window is now a service window inside the building. I'll get pictures someday.

(This reminds me of a story I once heard about a B. Dalton bookstore that opened in a former Jack In The Box in Chicago. Someone who used to work at that particular store told me that they kept the drive thru window in, and workers used to make jokes like "Do you want fries with your Tom Clancy?". Priceless. Alas, this location has probably been torn down for another Walgreens by now.)

I haven't been able to take a picture of it yet, but there's a motorcycle dealership just north of Santa Maria on 101 that I suspect is a former Bob's Big Boy. (I've mentioned it before on the boards.)