(09-08-2024, 10:42 AM)Ian Wegg Wrote:(01-08-2024, 08:34 AM)Chris KC Wrote: The Little Chef on the A303..... You would go in, eye up the menu, order and wait....and wait....and wait.... Lucky if it would show up within an hour! The concept of "fast food" escaped them completely.
There were a few on the A303. We would stop at the one at Chiclade on our annual pilgrimage to Padstow in the 70s. I went back there once with Mrs W in the 90s. We were put on a table with another family. My meal arrived first and I'd finished it before my wife's turned up.
Our closest equivalent was the Happy Eater at Hindhead. I always thought Happy Eater was slightly more upmarket, even though their logo looked like someone throwing up a giant prawn.
Apparently, Little Chef disappeared in 2017, the final ones being converted to Starbucks or Greggs. Happy Eater had gone by 1997.
Thank goodness for the Wimpy still at Southsea!
You might remember 'The Frying Pan' then - was it at Sparkford? I don't recall ever eating anything there but it was a 'milestone' on my journey West. It was destroyed in a fire I believe, the charred remains stood there for quite a while.
(11-08-2024, 09:21 AM)AustinWood Wrote: The old Little Chef at Markham Moor on the A1 near Worksop was originally a filling station.
I know that one well, for some years I used to turn off just past it to visit a friend who lived at the end of Limetree Ave in Clumber Park.