who makes the world's greatest hamburgers  bud records let's look back at some of  

the most popular chain restaurants that have  vanished across america kenny rogers roasters  

check it out wow kenny rogers roasters finally  open like another restaurant chain on our list  

kenny rogers roasters was made into a pop culture  icon after being mentioned in a tv episode  

this time it was the ever popular sitcom  seinfeld not fast food good food quickly the  

episode revolved around a neon sign from a kenny  rogers location being so bright that it prevented  

one of the characters from sleeping in real life  though the restaurant chain needed no help with  

marketing and was expanding quickly throughout the  united states and even into the rest of the world  

kenny rogers roasters was unique in that the  menu focused on whole roasted chickens but  

eventually expanded to include ribs turkey  as well as other various sides and dishes  

by 1998 the once thriving restaurant chain was  struggling and entered chapter 11 bankruptcy  

before being sold to nathan's famous inc for  a measly one and a quarter million dollars  

shut up and take my money due to problems  encountered during the restructuring of  

the company kenny rogers roasters was forced to  close many of their locations around the globe  

and by 1999 had just 40 locations remaining  in the united states finally in late 2011  

the last us-based kenny rogers had closed with  some of the menu items continuing to live on at  

some nathan's hot dog restaurants despite the  restaurant chain losing all of their locations  

in the u.s the brand still continues to operate  in asia after being sold to the burjaia group  

even though the kenny rogers roasters may be gone  from the u.s market you can always get a taste of  

the restaurant by re-watching the classic episode  of seinfeld or even visiting a handful of nathan's  

locations that still offer some kenny rogers  menu items white tower nobody likes a copycat  

the name is not only a poor copy of an already  existing restaurant chain but being founded  

just four years after white castle white tower  hamburgers copied everything from their competitor  

the buildings had the same fortress looking design  the menu was extremely similar and their sliders  

even looked just like those of white castle they  chose an all-white interior for their buildings  

to display the cleanliness of their restaurant  and even had some of their waitresses dressed as  

nurses for some odd reason the chain became  extremely successful and expanded operations  

to many states across the eastern u.s however  just three years after their initial opening  

white tower was facing a lawsuit from none  other than white castle the lawsuit ended  

with white tower being forced to change its use  of these similar style buildings slogans and  

even their name change everything after changing  hands names and investment companies the group  

that owned white tower burgers has completely  removed themselves from the restaurant business  

and now operates in a completely different sector  fuddruckers your mom says hey troy you're ruining  

fuddruckers for everyone one of the most confusing  and oddest names ever given to a chain restaurant  

has to be fuddruckers the name just like their  delicious burgers can be a mouthful for some  

curious diners overall though fuddruckers was  a great family-oriented restaurant chain that  

was famous for their burgers and the ability to  customize said burgers they claim to have the  

world's greatest hamburger and pride themselves  on the fact that they use fresh beef that has no  

fillers or additives many people would consider  fuddruckers to be a truly classic american  

restaurant chain and people have flocked to  their neighborhood location for many years  

the kids do love fuddruckers you're  getting the design any burger you want  

unfortunately for fuddruckers they've had some  issues regarding their parent company looby's inc  

who seem to be steadily running out of money while  there are a handful of fuddruckers that have been  

franchised out to local owners the majority  of the locations have been closed sold off  

or are in the process of closing it's always sad  to see one of your favorite restaurants clothes  

fortunately for some lucky diners it is still  possible to get your fuddruckers fix if you  

live near a franchised location in the south and  southwestern united states consider yourself lucky  

sweet tomatoes you say tomato tomato i say tomato  tomato it really is surprising to hear that sweet  

tomatoes has gone out of business who doesn't love  a good all-you-can-eat buffet sweet tomatoes even  

positioned themselves as a healthy alternative to  the other various buffet style restaurants with a  

truly massive salad bar although they did offer  other not so healthy entrees like fried chicken  

pasta and pizza the real focus was always on  their salad bar which offered a wide variety  

of vegetables and fixings to create a truly  unique and nutrient packed dish salad trying to  

eat healthy while it should come as no surprise to  anyone that the pandemic dealt a hard hit to the  

restaurant industry it is still very surprising to  see it take out such a well-known and established  

chain like sweet tomatoes while other restaurants  had the luxury of switching to takeout style  

dining this proved to be a lot more difficult for  a restaurant chain whose whole identity was based  

on providing a buffet style experience what was  supposed to be a temporary shutdown unfortunately  

turned into a permanent one after the chain  started to lose over one million dollars per week  

due to their restaurants having to close their  doors we will all have fond memories of sweet  

tomatoes skipping over the enormous salad bar  and heading directly to the pizzas and junk food  

only to heavily regret this decision by the end of  our meals burger chef another burger dad here you  

go burger chef was truly an innovative restaurant  chain although many people today may not recognize  

the name burger chef was a direct competitor to  mcdonald's and once had thousands of restaurants  

across the united states at one point the most  amazing thing about burger chef is that they were  

the true creator of the happy meal something  that is synonymous with mcdonald's nowadays  

so what happened to burger chef did something good  happen in the end they grew too quickly even with  

all their success expanding to thousands of  locations in a short amount of time can be  

a very dangerous move eventually burger chef was  bought out by the hardy's group and no longer has  

any brick and mortar locations it's interesting to  imagine a world where the rolls between mcdonald's  

and burger chef were reversed if mcdonald's had  expanded too fast way back when would burger chef  

have taken its place as one of the most famous  fast food chains across the world lubies i will  

take a free breakfast buffet anytime any place to  follow up the loss of our beloved fuddruckers we  

must look a bit deeper into the parent company  looby's inc their flagship restaurant chain lubies  

was another buffet style american classic luby's  was a very popular restaurant among all ages but  

it was especially a huge hit with the older  crowd their cafeteria-style approach to dining  

was extremely affordable had a variety of culinary  options and offered a warm and inviting atmosphere  

you're always welcome here looby's locations  would commonly be found throughout various  

shopping malls across the country where  hungry shoppers would stop in for a home-style  

meal after a long day of shopping like many of the  other cafeteria and buffet style restaurant chains  

across the nation luby's was hit hard by the  effects of the pandemic luby's inc announced late  

in 2020 that they would be liquidating and selling  off all of their lubies restaurants this would  

come as a huge surprise to some loyal customers  as the chain had a large and almost cult-like  

following across the u.s meatheads burger and  fries i'll bring him a burger and some regular  

fries although it's a newer restaurant chain  compared to many others on this list the demand  

for meathead's burgers was strong and the lines  were consistently out the door offering delicious  

burgers fries shakes and other sandwiches  meatheads was a favorite among many of the  

chicago suburbs that surrounded the city what made  meatheads stand out amongst the other countless  

burger chains was the ability to customize your  burgers in a mind-blowing amount of ways offering  

a handful of signature sauces seasonings and a  wide variety of both free and premium toppings  

meatheads allowed its customers to make some  truly unique creations this is a tasty burger  

meatheads was also one of the restaurant chains  to offer access to coca-cola freestyle machines  

these soft drink dispensers allow you to choose  from an extremely large variety of beverages and  

open up the option for users to create their own  unique mixes like so many other restaurant chains  

meatheads was heavily affected by the pandemic  unlike many other restaurants though meatheads  

also struggled with mismanagement during their  rather short life span paired with a steep  

drop in sales meet head's parent company crave  brands is facing bankruptcy proceedings benefits  

have you ever been to ben against mister made  into a pop culture classic due to its appearance  

in an episode of south park bennigan's has been  struggling for years and has been sold multiple  

times during the course of their existence  bennigan's is a restaurant that is similar in a  

lot of ways to the likes of tgi fridays chili's  and applebee's unfortunately for bennigan's  

the chain never seemed to acquire the same level  of success that the others achieved you have  

failed after constantly changing hands through  various companies over the years bennigan's  

finally filed for bankruptcy in 2008. even though  the chain has almost completely disappeared we can  

always look back on the episode of south park  that revolved around one of the characters love  

and excitement for a trip to bennigan's chi cheese  we went to chi-chi's and danced the night away the  

room completely disappeared chi chi's is a very  interesting restaurant chain in that it still has  

locations in belgium kuwait and the united arab  emirates but exited the us and canadian markets  

in 2004. chi chi's is a mexican restaurant chain  that was co-founded by a former green bay packers  

player max mcgee starting in 1975 chi chi's grew  to over 200 locations and seemed to have a bright  

future ahead of its constant expansion however  due to increased competition from other hispanic  

fast food chains chi chi started to struggle  and they were forced to start closing some of  

their locations in 2002 there were less than 150  chi chi's locations remaining and they would be  

forced to file for bankruptcy just a year later  bankrupt following their bankruptcy filing tragedy  

struck at one of their pittsburgh locations where  a hepatitis a outbreak that was traced to a batch  

of onions killed four people and sickened over 650  others even with the double whammy of a bankruptcy  

and the horrific hepatitis a outbreak chi-chi's  still continues to live on outside of north  

america unfortunately more like a shadow of their  former tex-mex glory with just a few locations in  

a select few countries throughout north africa  europe and the middle east if chi chi's were  

still operating in the united states how  do you think they would stack up to the  

seemingly untouchable mexican fast food giants  like taco bell and chipotle crumbs bake shop  

cupcakes up everyone crumbs bake shop started  off from very humble beginnings once a small  

mom-and-pop bake shop on the upper west side of  manhattan they soon became much more than just  

a unique bakery offering 50 different types of  diverse and mouth-watering cupcakes crumbs bake  

shop was able to expand to over 75 locations and  became the largest cupcake chain in north america  

with candy coated cupcakes and unique flavors  such as peanut butter cup and cosmopolitan  

time what happened next for crumbs was unfortunate  and may have even been avoidable had the business  

been handled differently aggressive expansion of  the brand when profits from existing stores were  

already stagnant caused a huge problem for the  crumbs group are we in trouble coppicer after much  

struggle crumbs bake shop closed all locations  in 2014 and filed for bankruptcy eventually  

the brand was sold off to tv personality marcus  lemonis marcus did his best to bring the shuttered  

company back to life but even the addition of  a celebrity to the mix wasn't enough to revive  

crumbs bake shop they finally closed down all  locations in 2017 and this time they would not  

get another chance to come back from the dead  got a favorite you've seen disappear let us know  

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