Shoney's
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Shoney's is a restaurant chain, operating mostly in the Southern and Midwestern United States that once had a franchise with the Big Boy chain. It is named after Alex Schoenbaum, the owner of the original chain of Big Boy restaurants in the southeastern United States in the 1950s. Centrum Equities is currently in the process of buying Shoney's.
Shoney's owned the Big Boy franchise in most Southeastern states. In other states, other chains owned the franchise and Shoney's expanded under the name "Shoney's Town and Country Restaurants" which were identical, except for the lack of the Big Boy iconography. In 1984 a dispute arose among the several Big Boy franchise holders about this practice and as a result, Shoney's gave up its rights to the Big Boy name, thus Shoney's restaurants no longer have a statue of the Big Boy mascot in front of the store. The restaurants were all simply renamed "Shoney's", the Big Boy sandwich was simply renamed the "double decker hamburger" and "Shoney Bear" was developed as a corporate mascot.
The company formerly operated the Captain D's fast food seafood chain.
Formerly it operated a motel chain as "Shoney's Inn" (properties rebranded as Guesthouse International Inns), three casual dining chains, The Sailmaker, Pargo's and The Fifth Quarter, and fast-food chain Lee's Fried Chicken, now part of Mrs. Winner's. However, these assets have been sold in recent years with the majority being owned by ShoLodge, Inc.
In 2000 the company went bankrupt and was acquired by a private investor group.
