>PS: The Fry's pictured in the story is the Campbell location where it was fun to run up/down the flat "escalator" as it was like an airport's people-mover, but much bouncier.
The Fry's in the picture is the one on Brokaw Road in San Jose, not Campbell. It's Inca themed. The Campbell store is Egyptian themed.
I ate at Cliftons some years ago, before the remodeling. It was pretty cool but also pretty worn out. Standard cafeteria fare, nothing really exciting. Mostly it was about the ambience. Some of the interior decoration (i.e. the fake animals and natural settings) looked like it had inspired Disneyland's designers.
Not only that they were dark and you could get lost in them. They had booths and private walls where you couldn't just walk in the front door and see everyone like an open office under one giant spotlight.
I dig the new modern warehouse style like Chipotle's but everything is too open with little personality.
Restaurants used to be like a labyrinth in some restaurants, all dark and adventurous where noise didn't carry, now it is a GAP/Apple Store in the mall. Back in the day with arcades and flair, I guess I miss it. Everything looks the same. One day Ronald McDonald, dark booth labyrinths and flair will return. Famous Dave's BBQ has some of this like Fridays/Cracker Barrel and I like it, fun to look around and you can't see everyone either.
Had a few of those around my place growing up (Nikki’s, around Orange County, CA), but they’ve all gone out of business by now. Absolute tragedy - the food was terrific and dirt cheap.
I miss Sam Wo's, which had excellent food, was open late at night till 3:00 AM, was quite inexpensive, and had extremely insulting and abusive staff. It was the home of Edsel Ford Fong, the world's rudest waiter, and was featured in Armistead Maupin’s Tales of the City. Kids love the Sam Wo Mystery Room. And there's absolutely no fortune cookie!!!
They just remodeled the one in my town to be pretty comfortable. (Not quite as nice as that one in the photo someone else replied with-- no carpet for one-- but it's quite nice and much nicer than the other fast food places in town.)
Whoa quite the surprise to see this posted on hacker news. I used to work with Travis for a few years. He was pretty much never in the office and if I did see him, he was usually hiding in the fish bowl.
I also lived in Cherry Hill Downtown Lansing for three years about two blocks from Reo town. The food at Saddleback was decent but never knocked my socks off. Now crack chicken, east side fish fry, astros pizza and Olympic broil, those places had some food that brings back memories
AFAIK this chain has no footprint in the UK, so for quite a while wasn't sure if it wasn't a fictional restaurant invented by the Big Bang theory writers!
http://www.skynnykitchen.com/ is the execution I know of in this space. There's actually a lot of movement in the gimmicky restaurant space (there's successful franchises that are ONLY cupcakes, ONLY grilled cheese or ONLY milkshakes - it's totally absurd). LA's restaurant culture could have been written by Dr Seuss.
Except, the restaurant is not there. None of the signs are on the building except for Lake Powell Realty. Not the "Restaurant" sign on the left, not the CNG Burgers sign in the middle. And the reviews kept on coming even after we left.
Yeaaaa I go once a week and this is not a thing. I think this place literally has it all.
- Never noticed chewing / drinking / glasses
- The lights under the table is so dull I honestly don't even know where it is or how they even see it. I've looked under the table and can't seem to find it
- This may just be me but their projectors are just fine
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