From Dave Brigham:
I had several really good meals at the Papa Razzi along Route 2 in Concord, Mass. The Italian restaurant closed in the summer of 2023, so I'll have to get my delicious pasta and lasagna elsewhere. While there, I never thought about the history of the restaurant building, assuming it was just your run-of-the-mill joint that had hosted several eateries over the years. It has, but it's also got a pedigree right out of the annals of legendary roadside America.
And so does the former hotel located across the parking lot.
This pair of buildings, you see, was once part of the vaunted Howard Johnson's dining and hospitality universe. I realize my pictures are sub-optimal, but when I took them I didn't realize the history of this site. I will make up for that with plenty of background information and personal reflections!
Although it's difficult to tell by the looks of the place now, the old Papa Razzi space opened as a Howard Johnsons's restaurant in 1938, according to MACRIS (another source says 1937). The motor lodge (aka motel) opened in 1964 (or perhaps earlier) as the 199th in the chain, according to information at this Flickr post (which also features a nice historical photo). You can see hints of the famous Howard Johnson's pitched roof in the second photo above.
The restaurant operated as a HoJo's until 1991 (or perhaps 1992...sigh); the motor lodge was a Howard Johnson's until the mid-1990s. According to MACRIS, before the restaurant closed, it was "the last operating of all the pre-war Colonial Revival Howard Johnson's in the United States."
During its tenure in Concord, the HoJo's "acquired about two dozen of the original captain's (sic) chairs from the 1935-36 Howard Johnson's in Portsmouth, NH, which burned in 1983," according to MACRIS. Before its closure, the Papa Razzi had approximately 60 full- and part-time employees.
The former motor lodge operated as a Best Western and the Inn @ Historic Concord before being converted to a homeless shelter.
As for the Howard Johnson's chain, known across the country for its bright orange roofs, it was founded by its namesake in 1925 as a restaurant specializing in ice cream in Quincy, Mass. When the company went public in 1961, "there were 605 restaurants, 265 company-owned and 340 franchised, as well as 88 franchised Howard Johnson's motor lodges in 32 states and The Bahamas," per Wikipedia.
The chain continued to grow over the ensuing years...until it began to decline. Eventually, the restaurants all closed and the motels were acquired by Wyndham Hotels.
I used to eat at the HoJo's in Avon, Conn., a neighboring town to where I grew up. It was a great late-night spot after the movies or mini golf or just cruising around town to parties with my high school friends. One time a friend and I got kicked out, along with two slightly older co-workers, because one of us -- I forget who after all these years -- jokingly pretended he was going to lift a chair onto the table. I may also have chewed and screwed once or twice.
We split our time along Route 44 between that restaurant, McDonald's and an Abdow's Big Boy. Good times. A few years ago, I wrote about another former Howard Johnson's located on Cape Cod (see July 16, 2022, "Hyannis Revisited: A Little Something About the Kennedy Clan Here").
Because the former Concord HoJo's buildings are located in prime locations along Route 2 (along with an adjacent shuttered Chinese restaurant), they are likely to increase in value in the near future once the nearby MCI Concord prison is shuttered and the site potentially opens up for redevelopment (for more on this, see June 2, 2024, "Doing Time on the Reformatory Branch Trail").
In May 2023 the owner of the restaurant site, Elm Street Realty Trust, filed a demolition review application with the town. In late May of this year, the Boston Globe reported that in 2025, the site would become home to three eateries: Starbucks, Chipotle and Sally's Apizza, the latter a New Haven-based chain that is expanding into the Bay State.
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