Howard Johnson's (fictional)

Howard Johnson's (commonly shorten to HoJo) is a name shared by Howard Johnson International, Inc., a chain of hotels and motels located primarily throughout the United States, and Howard Johnson's Restaurants Inc., a chain of restaurants that the name is widely known for. 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.

Since its inception, Howard Johnson's has been well-known for its 28 flavors of ice cream.

Howard Johnson hotels and motels are now part of Wyndham Hotels and Resorts, the hotel chain is headquartered in Parsippany, New Jersey. Howard Johnson's restaurants have been owned by 7-Eleven since 2021, the restaurant chain is headquartered in Marlborough, Massachusetts. The frozen food grocery line is now owned by The Kraft Heinz Company. The three companies share the Howard Johnson's trademark and cooperate in running the Howard Johnson's Museum in Quincy, Massachusetts.

1980s
In 1983, Marriott split up the operations of the Howard Johnson's restaurant and hotel chains. Marriott kept the hotel chain, but spun off the restaurant chain as HoJo Food Services, Inc., based in Arlington, Virginia. The company moved it's headquarters to Marlborough, Massachusetts in 1985.

In 1984, Howard Johnson's gave their children's menu a major overhaul phasing out the storybook names for the meals and including a Fun Pak which includes an activity book, crayons, and a toy prize to make their kids meal more like Happy Meals at McDonald's. The Simple Simon character was retired in 1984 in order to make the chain more relevant to the time.

By 1985, many US highway service plaza had sold off their Howard Johnson's restaurants to other chains as result of a phase out of the Howard Johnson's Turnpike/Vending Stores concept leaving very little highway service plaza locations.

In 1987, HoJo Food Services was renamed to Howard Johnson's Restaurants Inc. Also Howard Johnson's Restaurants started a casual "" sister chain called H.J. Fern's Pub, with its first location being opened in a converted smaller Howard Johnson's in Worcester, Massachusetts.

1990s
In 1990, Howard Johnson's Restaurants Inc. merged with Franchise Associates Incorporated, the chain's largest franchisee, and a major remodeling campaign was planned for the chain's locations, with all of the locations roofs being repainted blue from orange.

In 1992, Howard Johnson's started a family entertainment center to rival Chuck E. Cheese's called JoJo's Pizza Palace. The JoJo's Pizza Palace chain was shuttered in 1997 with some JoJo's being converted to Howard Johnson's restaurants.

In 1993, Howard Johnson's Restaurants Inc. was acquired by, and the last of the Howard Johnson's Turnpike/Vending Stores closed completely phasing out the Howard Johnson's Turnpike/Vending Store concept. Howard Johnson's pulled Fun Pak toys based on the Mortal Kombat video game due to due to complaints from parents over the game's violent content, so until the restaurants were allowed to change over the next Fun Pak promo, they just did a "clean up" to get rid of any leftover toys.

In 1994, Howard Johnson's Restaurants introduced Down Home Steakhouse, a steakhouse sister chain, opening the first location in Nashua, New Hampshire.

In 1995, the first HoJo GoGo concept location was opened in Foxborough, Massachusetts, a fast food/quick service variation of the traditional Howard Johnson's restaurant concept that sold burgers and other typical fast-food fare. The HoJo GoGo name was mostly phased out by 2005, and most HoJo GoGo locations were rebranded to normal Howard Johnson's locations. Howard Johnson's also became the official ice cream of Paramount Parks.

2000s
After the 9/11 attacks in 2001, all first responders got a year-long supply of free meals.

In 2003, Howard Johnson's came under fire for having the most unhealthiest kids menu in America out of any chain restaurant. In response to this Howard Johnson's introduced healthier options on their kids menu called "Fun 'n Healthy" and started charging customers extra for less healthy sides and drinks on the kids menu. After customer backlash, the extra charge for the less healthy sides and drinks on the kids menu was dropped in 2005.

In 2008, the H.J. Fern's Pub chain closed suddenly with no advance notice to employees and/or customers.

2010s
In 2014, along with HESS, Howard Johnson's Restaurants Inc. was purchased by Speedway.