Howard Johnson's

Howard Johnson by Wyndham, still commonly referred to as Howard Johnson's, is an American hotel brand with roughly 300 hotels in 15 countries. It was also formerly a restaurant chain, which at one time was the largest in the U.S., with more than 1,000 locations. Since 2006, all hotels and company trademarks, including those of the defunct restaurant chain, have been owned by Wyndham Hotels and Resorts. Howard Johnson's restaurants originally started as a single location opened by Howard Deering Johnson in 1925 and grew into a substantial restaurant chain in the decades that followed. By the 1950s, the company expanded operations by opening hotels, then known as Howard Johnson's Motor Lodges, which were often located next to restaurants. Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, it had become the largest restaurant chain in the U.S., with its combined company-owned and franchised outlets. Howard Johnson's served more meals outside the home during the 1960s than any other company or organization except for the United States Army. Howard Johnson's restaurants were franchised separately from the hotel brand beginning in 1986 but, in the years that followed, severely dwindled in number until eventually disappearing altogether. The last restaurant, in Lake George, New York, closed in 2022. The line of branded supermarket frozen foods, as well as its famous ice cream, are no longer manufactured. Paul Freedman wrote that "Howard Johnson's influence is most apparent in two innovations: its pioneering use of franchising and its adaptation to the American highway." He explained that fast food chains "trimmed and improved on Howard Johnson's highway restaurant model by specializing in one or two items and putting into effect a system that allowed patrons to get their food quickly and eat it in a minimally decorated restaurant environment, or even in their cars." Another major Howard Johnson's innovation...