Howard Johnson's (fictional)

Howard Johnson's is an American-owned chain of worldwide hotels and motels, located primarily throughout the United States. It was also a chain of restaurants for over 90 years and widely known for that alone. Founded by Howard Deering Johnson, it was the largest restaurant chain in the U.S. throughout the 1960s and 1970s, with more than 1,000 combined company-owned and franchised outlets.

History
In 1983, Marriot split up the operations of the Howard Johnson's restaurant and hotel chains. Marriot kept the hotel chain, but spun off the restaurant chain. by 1985, many US highway service plaza had sold off their Howard Johnson's restaurants to other chains leaving very little highway service plaza locations.