Dining at New- or Really Old- Restaurants: Marie Callender's
Who remembers Marie Callender's? Okay, probably few people outside of California. They're a restaurant chain and a brand of ready-made frozen pies you can buy at the supermarket.
The restaurant chain has gone through ups and downs- but mostly downs- over the years. They were more common in California in the 1980s and '90s as an American variety menu restaurant whose specialty was a large selection of pies available for dessert. The chain went through a series of purchases and stumbled badly after its co-founder passed away. Today there are only 27 Marie Callender's restaurants left, per their website. Their map shows they've mostly in California, and mostly in Southern California at that. There are two in Las Vegas, one in Salt Lake City, and one near Boise. And of the merely two located in Northern California, one's right here in Sunnyvale.
Why the little history lesson on a little-known restaurant chain? Well, we decided to eat there for the first time in... years. It was a partly a matter of my sort-of New Year's resolution last year to try some new restaurants in the area- or old ones we hadn't been to in a long time. This definitely counts as the latter. I think Hawk ate at the local Marie's a few years ago, but for me it's been probably 20 years.
We did used to eat at Marie Callender's more often. ...Not weekly, or even monthly, but definitely more often than once in 20 years. The chain was one of many at the time in the category of variety-menu American food. In addition to Marie's there were Lyons, and Carrows, and bears Baker's Square. Now they're all gone. Though other chains in the once-crowded space, Denny's and Hobee's, are still around. It was partly because there were so many chains in the category that we didn't dine at any one all that frequently. Plus, middle-American wasn't a cuisine we cared to eat more than maybe once a month, and even then only for variety when we were tired of Mexican, Italian, Indian, Chinese, Greek, and so many other categories we're rich with here in Silicon Valley.
So anyway, we decided on a visit to the local Marie Callender's for old times' sake. And because we were curious about this restaurant, in our town, being one of the few survivors.
Stepping into the restaurant was like entering a museum from the 1940s. The place was decked out in dark wood, highly waxed, with dim lighting. The wood floor creaked gently underfoot as we crossed the large foyer. Marie Callender's always made its niche within its crowded restaurant category with old-timey decor and a more upscale character than its competitors. But here what was once an artificial old-timey look now looked... genuinely old. Like nothing had changed for 40 years. Walking to our seat was like walking through a museum that serves food.
Little has changed about Marie Callender's menu, either. It looks similar to what I remember from 25 years ago- not that I remember it all that well. It does seem to have shrunk over time, though. That's understandable as a result of all the times it was bought and sold and the constant pressure from new owners to find ways to reduce costs. Luckily I was in the mood for a classic Marie Callender's dish, a meatloaf sandwich.
At least one thing changed from 25 years ago. Beer. Note that glass behind my plate and the bottle of beer in the upper right hand corner. Marie's offers a choice of about a dozen beers now! Serving beer was once considered antithetical to the family-friendly image chains in the category anchored by Denny's strove to maintain. As that category withered the chains decided they'd have to broaden their offerings in various ways to survive. So now there's bottled beer.
How was the food? Well, that meatloaf sandwich was the main thing, and it was... barely edible. The meat tasted like low quality ground beef, possibly with too much filler. It was also dry, like it had been left sitting under a warming lamp all day.
I was really disappointed by that, though at the same time not too surprised. I mean, Marie Callender's did used to be better. I know that because I know the kind of food I enjoyed eating when I moved to California in the 1990s, and I know it was better that this. This restaurant was never great; but it was at least fair. Now it's not even that.
Food at family-oriented restaurants that were once a mainstay of dining almost all seems to suck today. It's the end result of too many years of cost reduction in search of greater profits. The problem is, when they reduce the cost too much the product starts to suck, and once the food isn't that great anymore customers will go elsewhere. Witness why so many chains in this once booming category have disappeared over the past 25 years and even the survivors have only a fraction of the locations they once had.
The restaurant chain has gone through ups and downs- but mostly downs- over the years. They were more common in California in the 1980s and '90s as an American variety menu restaurant whose specialty was a large selection of pies available for dessert. The chain went through a series of purchases and stumbled badly after its co-founder passed away. Today there are only 27 Marie Callender's restaurants left, per their website. Their map shows they've mostly in California, and mostly in Southern California at that. There are two in Las Vegas, one in Salt Lake City, and one near Boise. And of the merely two located in Northern California, one's right here in Sunnyvale.
Why the little history lesson on a little-known restaurant chain? Well, we decided to eat there for the first time in... years. It was a partly a matter of my sort-of New Year's resolution last year to try some new restaurants in the area- or old ones we hadn't been to in a long time. This definitely counts as the latter. I think Hawk ate at the local Marie's a few years ago, but for me it's been probably 20 years.
We did used to eat at Marie Callender's more often. ...Not weekly, or even monthly, but definitely more often than once in 20 years. The chain was one of many at the time in the category of variety-menu American food. In addition to Marie's there were Lyons, and Carrows, and bears Baker's Square. Now they're all gone. Though other chains in the once-crowded space, Denny's and Hobee's, are still around. It was partly because there were so many chains in the category that we didn't dine at any one all that frequently. Plus, middle-American wasn't a cuisine we cared to eat more than maybe once a month, and even then only for variety when we were tired of Mexican, Italian, Indian, Chinese, Greek, and so many other categories we're rich with here in Silicon Valley.
So anyway, we decided on a visit to the local Marie Callender's for old times' sake. And because we were curious about this restaurant, in our town, being one of the few survivors.
Stepping into the restaurant was like entering a museum from the 1940s. The place was decked out in dark wood, highly waxed, with dim lighting. The wood floor creaked gently underfoot as we crossed the large foyer. Marie Callender's always made its niche within its crowded restaurant category with old-timey decor and a more upscale character than its competitors. But here what was once an artificial old-timey look now looked... genuinely old. Like nothing had changed for 40 years. Walking to our seat was like walking through a museum that serves food.
Little has changed about Marie Callender's menu, either. It looks similar to what I remember from 25 years ago- not that I remember it all that well. It does seem to have shrunk over time, though. That's understandable as a result of all the times it was bought and sold and the constant pressure from new owners to find ways to reduce costs. Luckily I was in the mood for a classic Marie Callender's dish, a meatloaf sandwich.
At least one thing changed from 25 years ago. Beer. Note that glass behind my plate and the bottle of beer in the upper right hand corner. Marie's offers a choice of about a dozen beers now! Serving beer was once considered antithetical to the family-friendly image chains in the category anchored by Denny's strove to maintain. As that category withered the chains decided they'd have to broaden their offerings in various ways to survive. So now there's bottled beer.
How was the food? Well, that meatloaf sandwich was the main thing, and it was... barely edible. The meat tasted like low quality ground beef, possibly with too much filler. It was also dry, like it had been left sitting under a warming lamp all day.
I was really disappointed by that, though at the same time not too surprised. I mean, Marie Callender's did used to be better. I know that because I know the kind of food I enjoyed eating when I moved to California in the 1990s, and I know it was better that this. This restaurant was never great; but it was at least fair. Now it's not even that.
Food at family-oriented restaurants that were once a mainstay of dining almost all seems to suck today. It's the end result of too many years of cost reduction in search of greater profits. The problem is, when they reduce the cost too much the product starts to suck, and once the food isn't that great anymore customers will go elsewhere. Witness why so many chains in this once booming category have disappeared over the past 25 years and even the survivors have only a fraction of the locations they once had.