America's Biggest Restaurant Chain Now Has Zero Locations

A drugstore soda fountain in Massachusetts once grew into a restaurant empire so big it dwarfed McDonald's, Burger King, and KFC. Today Howard Johnson's does not have a single restaurant left anywhere in the world.

From a Soda Fountain to a National Empire

Howard Deering Johnson borrowed $2,000 in 1925 to buy a small drugstore in Wollaston, Massachusetts. Its soda fountain became so popular that he perfected his own 28 flavors of ice cream and opened his first full restaurant in 1935. He topped it with a bright orange roof and turquoise cupola, a color scheme picked specifically to catch drivers' eyes from the highway. The chain also became famous for its fried clam strips, made from a recipe it licensed from the Soffron Brothers of Massachusetts.

Bigger Than McDonald's

By the mid 1960s, Howard Johnson's had grown into America's largest restaurant chain, with hundreds of restaurants and motor lodges stretching from Maine to California. In 1965 alone, the company served an estimated 350 million meals to 8 million travelers. It was America's largest restaurant chain at a time when McDonald's, Burger King, and Kentucky Fried Chicken were all still small, regional operations. By the late 1970s, the orange roofs numbered more than 1,000 across the country.

The Long Decline

Fast food chains beat Howard Johnson's on speed and price, and the sit-down model that had built the empire became its biggest weakness. Marriott bought the company in 1985 and began selling off restaurants to franchisees and competitors. By the mid 1990s, fewer than 100 locations remained. The orange roofs kept disappearing one by one until only three were left: in Lake George, New York; Lake Placid, New York; and Bangor, Maine. The Lake Placid restaurant closed in 2015, and Bangor followed in 2016, leaving Lake George as the very last Howard Johnson's on the planet.

The Last Orange Roof

The Lake George restaurant had stood on Canada Street for almost 70 years. Celebrity chef Rachael Ray scooped ice cream there as a teenager, back when her mother managed the restaurant. The final Howard Johnson's did not reopen for the 2022 season and closed for good that March. The building was later sold to become a second location for a local sushi restaurant, Sushi Wa. A chain that once fed millions of Americans every year, and once outgrew every name in fast food, now has zero restaurants left anywhere on Earth.