Monday, February 8, 2010
Cheap Eats How Far Would You Go for a Free Grand Slam at Denny's?
Posted by Chris Chamberlain on Mon, Feb 8, 2010 at 9:17 AM
It wasn't until I was researching Denny's annual post-Super Bowl Free Grand Slam Breakfast Offer on Feb. 9 that I realized that according to their website the closest Denny's is now in Jackson, Tenn. Is it possible that they've all closed down? If one is still open around town, let your desperately hungry friends know in the comments.
I guess Bowling Green, Ky., is technically closer than Jackson, but I imagine it's against some federal law to cross state lines to commit crimes of nature against your own digestive system. True story ... on a college road trip to Disneyland in a Suburban full of slackers, we somehow managed to each consume three Grand Slams apiece in a 24 hour period. I guess I've never really fully recovered from that one.
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There haven't ever been any around here. I think part of it may be the previous prevalence of Shoney's(?). There is one in Cullman, AL. On a lark a few months ago, I stopped in while I was on the road for work and tried their new burger (I think they call it the "Better Burger"), and I was shocked to find that it was pretty darn good. Good fries too, they were a combo of steak fries with a sort of crinkle cut on the outside.
P.S. Like CC, I think the last time I had eaten at Denny's was in college. Nostalgia was probably what got me in the door.
I was going to say I wouldn't cross the street for this offer, but Ryan has me beat.
Maybe I'm old, or maybe I was just lucky, but my Denny's experiences are all remembered fondly, beginning in the '60s. Who else had ever heard of Kona coffee back then, let alone served it, and at 35 cents? Their Googie style architecture was absolutely thrilling - at night you could almost believe the whole building would take off into orbit. Far from being the ubiquitous basic fare you found in any local coffee shop of the day, they dared you with exotic items like their French Dip sandwiches and British Burgers, and they always served bona fide Roquefort dressing instead of the bland, pedestrian Bleu cheese everyone else had. There weren't many places East of the Arizona state line back then that served hash brown potatoes in the shredded style, let alone offered grits as well. It took Waffle House a hundred years to realize the value in offering biscuits, and they had them all along.
They get a lot of flack for the late 70s/80s promotions that began with the Grand Slam and Moons over My Hammy, and I've heard my share of other people's bad experiences, but I never had a bad meal there, let alone a bad time. I can't count how many of them I was in, let alone in how many states. They just became too corporate - JoJo's, El Pollo Loco, et al were all part of the emerging conglomerate - and seemed to fall apart internally, and it's a shame. Maybe Nashville just isn't a coffee shop venue, but if there's a counter with a stool and a cup of Kona coffee and a familiar menu waiting for me, I'd go. I don't need no stinking free meal.
At least, unlike Shoney's who has permanently lost their way, Denny's remembers what they're about. Googie revival, anyone ?
The one that was at Metro Center - at the corner of Rosa Parks/8th/Metro Center Blvd/Whatever and Dominican is long gone - that land is part of the nunnery now.
The last three local ones I can remember were the one at Metro Center, one on Murfreesboro Rd. near the I-440 exit and one on Briley Pkwy at Elm Hill Pike. I have eaten at them all, and I have no idea when they moved on to the great greasy griddle in the sky.
I know the ones in California at least served beer, so that was a plus.
Hey Chris, there was also one at I-24 & Harding. Trouble was in the boom days of the 90's they scraped the bottom of the barrel to get help & it was scary in there. The one on Harding & the one off Murfreesboro Rd. were torn down. The one on Briley is a Mazatlan. I've stopped at the one in Bowling Green several times when driving north and find their omelettes to be good.
I was watching a football game one time, and, since Denny's is open 24 hours a day, the sportscaster yelled, "that receiver was as open as Denny's!" or something to that effect.
Jack, one of the boneheaded moves they made in the 90s that IMO have led to their demise was when the new CEO decided, hey, our people should be home on Christmas like everyone else. Never mind that those people signed up for work on that day, he decided - all that "Always open" signage be damned - they would now close on Christmas.
And then he had to approve the most ridiculous expense times how many facilities - Denny's restaurants didn't have door locks. Why should they? They never closed. That's how you know the people in charge don't get the most fundamental aspects about their actual products...
