Friday, August 28, 2009
Restaurants Shoney's Resets America's Dinner Table
Posted by Carrington Fox on Fri, Aug 28, 2009 at 6:42 AM
This week's dining column features Shoney's at the corner of Thompson Lane and Nolensville Road, where the Nashville-based chain is debuting a modernized menu and restaurant design.
With a sprawling repertoire of well-priced and sturdy American food, Shoney's is making a valiant attempt to reinvigorate the once-beloved brand, and for many diners, the classic Shoney's items--including the Slim Jim and Hot Fudge Cake--will guarantee a trip down memory lane.
I, for one, will never forget the time my family was informally blackballed from Shoney's on West End Avenue for stuffing a to-go box with too much bacon from the all-you-can eat breakfast bar. We were playing by the rules--we just happened to have a highly honed understanding of the value of pork versus bread products.
Anyone else want to share a Shoney's memory?
Comments (39)
Showing 1-39 of 39
Growing up in Nashville, Shoney's was everywhere! My grandparents lived behind Parmer School (now park) and walked to the Shoneys in Belle Meade for breakfast every day in the late 70's. So much fun to go with them. We would get the breakfast bar, but they found that too "excessive"... also every Sunday night we gathered at my other grandparent's house for dinner with cousins with takeout from Shoney's. My standard order was a Slim Jim. Definitely my first restaurant food memories. Other than begging my mother to take us to the only McDonalds, in Melrose...
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There was a time that the most compelling reason to go to church was lunch at Shoney's afterward. All the families would go after Sunday school, and I can remember being a tween and flirting with the tween boys across the breakfast bar. If only I'd know then that steamtable lighting and a logpile of sausage links do not flatter me.
It's Nashville based, but started in Charleston, WV. The first time I ever heard of Shoney's was when my family moved to Charleston, WV. My favorite Shoney's memory would be getting the breakfast bar with friends on a Saturday morning or going before morning events with friends in high school. Now the thought of the breakfast bar makes me a little sick.
I haven't eaten there in a while, but the one on Nolensville looks pretty snazzy.
I'll say it again - if they had any sense in their executive ranks, they'd stop reinventing and just re-visit their heyday: Big Boy, menu service, no buffet just a salad bar, and counter service.
they deserve every dollar they lose by being this obstinate. It's like they think Cracker Barrel ripped them off or something. How anyone could miss the baby boomer retro moment is beyond me, but they have almost managed to let the entire opportunity pass them by.
I love that Big Boy. I wonder what it would take to buy that Bad Boy back. Shoney Bear is lame, though I did love overhearing my kids talk about whether Shoney Bear was friends with Chuck E. Cheese.
Whoa, I just had a total Fortnightly Starlight Cotillion Club flashback.
There was nothing better than an All-American burger and some fudge cake at the Green Hills Shoneys to cure a raging case of the cooties after a sweaty-palmed hour in Miss Hutchinson's class.
CF, were you ever on my dance card?
By the time I Fortnightlied, it was in Bandywood, so the treat was Baskin Robbins. (I still can't dance to any song except "Raindrops Keep Falling on my Head." Every time I watch Butch Cassidy, I break into a box step.)
My childhood memory of Shoneys was going there on Sunday night with a bunch of other teens from church. I know the waitress hating seeing us come. 10-15 teenagers, only about 5 ordering anything from the menu, everyone else asking for complimetary crackers and butter. Yum. And to top it off, we "had" to leave the tip under an inverted water glass. Wonder why they had such an attitude toward us.
You know you're old Nashville if you still refer to the building at the corner of Hobbs and Hillsboro as the Shoneys building.
My family drove to Murfreesboro Road to eat at the first Shoney's until the Nolensville Road location opened, then the Green Hills location. Like BW said, I still don't know what else to call that building.
How much was the Scene paid for this article, the one from a few weeks ago, and this week's print-edition?
Are they a client of McNeely Pigott? What was David Fox's role in this or the Captain D's ad filmed at your offices?
Where was there a West End Shoney's? I remember one on Murphy Road and one out west on Harding, but don't remember a West End one.
S L - you just described my feelings towards Dalt's. Minus the salad bar and Big Boy points. It all hit the fan when the Burbank chain was bought out by TGI Fridays.
Shoneys? Really? I thought you'd topped out when you reviewed Ruby Tuesdays.
As independent restaurants all over Nashville are struggling to remain open, you're tossing a ham-dipped, flour-battered bone to one of the largest chains in the area?
Way to maintain those high journalistic standards, SouthComm.
My parents took us kids (all rambunctious 4 of us) to Wednesday night kids-eat-free-night every week until the Belle meade Shoneys closed their doors. It was a very sad day for us. I always got popcorn shrimp and chocolate milk and colored my little heart out with the crayons they gave us.
JamieAlex -- you're right, I'm talking about Murphy Road, which, if I remember correctly, you could see from West End Ave. (tall sign). We actually walked there and most of the walk was on West End, which I guess is why I remember it that way.
People dine out for all kinds of reasons, Seriously, and fine cuisine is just one of them. Sometimes they're hungry and not flush with cash. A restaurant reviewer earns her cred by reflecting how the people in the city really eat.
Your point that Shoney's isn't independent is true, but it is local and has very strong, deep roots here. Working in management at Shoney's or on the Shoney's account at Dye Van Mol was what Bright Young Things did in the 1980s. And every neighborhood had a Shoney's.
Waiting tables at Shoney's was the after-school job during the Opryland off-season.
Nicki- if I needed a listing of a place to go just because I was hungry, I'd open the yellow pages. A restaurant reviewer earns her cred by reviewing restaurants, not by reprinting press releases on behalf of a billion dollar corporation.
If the Scene started listing the weekly discounts at Dollar General, I'd find it equally bizarre, and DolGen's a heck of a lot more "local" than Shoneys.
It's in poor taste, just like the reconstituted eggs. There may be a place for it. But it's not on the pages of the Scene. Another nail in the coffin of thoughtful, independent journalism.
It would be a better argument if there were a giant Shoney's ad on the inside front cover...
Perhaps that is the argument for why there are not many ads in the Scene these days.
Wow. I don't know about y'all but if every time I picked up the Scene all I read about were fine dining options that make up about 20% or less of my dining out, I'd stop reading. If I was constantly reading reviews of places that I can't afford to eat at on a regular basis, I'd stop reading.
I've lived in this area for about 3 years now, I didn't grow up with Shoney's and I've eaten there exactly once since I moved here. I wasn't impressed and I've never been back. But they are obviously making improvements from the sound of things in this review and I'm sure I'm not the only one who read it and considered giving them a second look. It's a weekly paper people, I love the small indie local places as much as anyone (and frequent several of them often) but there's room for all kinds of dining reviews.
I can agree with either side of this argument. But...
Shoney's has a massive ad budget to convey the message of their new business model. The general public does not need this review to learn about the kids eating free. As it was not a "glowing review," but rather an affirmation that Shoney's is what it is, I question the need for the review to begin with.
That said, I agree with Ryan on all points, except the assertion that it is either Shoneys or fine dining. Independent does not equal fine dining, as we see here on Bites every day. There really are better subjects of review, those would prove more valuable to the general public.
In conclusion, if you think you can do better, then take your resume and writing samples down to the Scene...
A couple of years ago the spouse and I were moving into our house in Nashville (from Murfreesboro) over Thanksgiving weekend. We neglected to think about buying food before the stores closed or planning to have dinner with somebody else, and ended up having the Thanksgiving buffet at Shoney's. (If anything else with a turkey option was open, we didn't know about it.)
All the more reason to value objective criticism of a restaurant that has the wherewithal to broadcast its offerings. Sure, Shoney's has a colossal advertising budget, but that budget funds the lopsided message that its menu is 100 percent awesome. It's not all awesome, and part of the critic's role is to help diners navigate a menu in order to get the most from their dining dollars. People are going to eat at Shoney's, especially in Nashville. The parking lot was full every time I showed up. Let's hope that my review will help some fraction of those diners steer clear of the crab-and-artichoke skillet, tired gray steak and disproportionately priced kids' beverages. And for people who end up there against their will (Let me count the business meetings I've attended at Shoney's over the years.), I hope I steered them well to the Slim Jim and shake.
Carrington, you wrote a review of Shoney's. Shoney's. And you're defending it because of your noble intent to steer us clear of the Slim Jim and shake?
Are you actually arguing that Nashville Scene readers need your advice to know not to order the STEAK at SHONEY'S?
This is the equivalent of the Nashville Scene printing a column of this week's "must-haves" at Walmart.
If the Scene's editors think that this article deserved publication, none of our resumes will matter. It'll be a regurgitation of press releases penned together by a handful of unpaid interns within the year.
i hate to disagree with you all but i went to shoneys for lunch the other day because i was in a hurry and needed to sit down and read something. mannnn i had the BEST service and wonderful food. i ate healthy although i could have had so many options. the tab was so low i thought they had forgot to include my drink.
i suggest you revisit shoneys with a new idea or blank slate. i had the breakfast bar in my head.....and i was just so impressed with the lunch bar which i really liked better - and is cheaper!
When you have small kids, Shoney's is a soft place to fall.
When the steep hill/parking lot of Las Americas is too much to bear with the young'ns, I'm glad to know The Slim Jim is just around the corner in a new version of an old favorite.
This review is relevant.
A food critic's job is to cover food. Period. Anyone who thinks Shoney's is not worth covering as part of that beat in Nashville has no business in it. Should that be the entire beat? Hell no. Has it been? Of course not. I've got about 200 links I can show you to the contrary from this year alone. But as an item of local interest and history, love it or hate everything it serves and represents, Shoney's meets just about every criterion for coverage.
Are you actually arguing that Nashville Scene readers need your advice to know not to order the STEAK at SHONEY'S?
You know which restaurant got about four awards from Nashville Scene readers in the very first Best of Nashville? Shoney's. And the next year? And the next? I'll spare you the suspense.
