September 19, 1961 Appleton Post-Crescent
This chain was created in Champaign, Illinois, by school teachers James Griggs and Don Hamacher. Very common throughout the 1950's and 1960's, at one time the company had about 850 restaurants. Griggs sold his interest in the business in the early 1970's and, as often happens in business, the new East Coast owners tried new cost-cutting techniques, such as changing the root beer formula but this only served to alienate their customer base to the point that business fizzled and many locations were closed.
As of November 2011, seventeen locations remained open in Indiana, Illinois, Arkansas, Ohio, Missouri, Michigan, and one lone holdout in Tomahawk, Wisconsin.
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