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tesg's guide to big chain road food consumption
CHAIN -- Village
Inn My mother made the worst pancakes in the history of the world. I still remember the stunning revelation at my grandmother's house the day I found out pancakes were not black, flat, and crunchy. It's one of the most vivid memories of my youth. The Village Inn on TV Highway in Beaverton, OR was about as regular a restaurant as my family visited in my youth, and we didn't visit it that often. But you know...pancakes... Village Inn started out life in Denver in 1958. Co-founders Merton “Andy” Anderson and Jim Mola started franchising in 1961. The chain has been staple of the West ever since, just another brand of family restaurants with a focus on breakfast. They were public for a time, then taken private by an investment firm. They acquired the Baker's Square chain at some point, and were acquired by the same investment group that held Northwest-based Shari's. But Shari's was eventually sold off. Village Inn went through bankruptcy in 2008, closing several Village Inn and Baker's Square locations. There's nothing really special on the menu here. Pancakes is their heritage, so there's a significant breakfast menu, everything from a traditional "bacon-eggs-pancakes" type deal to skillets. They have some pretty good burgers and chicken sandwiches, some regular sandwiches, a few dinner platters...There's really nothing here to differentiate Village Inn from anything else. But that's fine with Village Inn. With a slogan like "Satisfying people's hunger with life's simple pleasures", what else would you expect? Click here to return to tesg's guide to big chain road food consumption |
