My first real job was at a little place called Arthur Treacher’s Fish & Chips.
This is one of the many brands from the previous century that didn’t venture too far into this one before calling it a day. While there are still a few Arthur Treacher’s around, they are usually in split locations sharing a building space with A&W, another brand that is a shadow of its former self.
I wanted to spend a little time learning more about the place that gave me some of my first spending money. This was cash at a time when physical media was still king and we bought CDs, DVDs, books, magazines, and still did things in analog.
To me, Arthur Treacher’s is more than just fish and chips, chicken, a baked potato bar, and to my palette the best fast-food hush puppies to have ever existed.
I know that it was named for a British actor, and that I still have a backlit chicken sandwich combo menu from when I took it – along with a hushpuppy baller, soup mug, serving trays, and a few other marketing menu odds and ends from when we closed down the location I worked at in the wilds of Pennsylvania. I also still have my shirts and hats which, yes, still do smell of work despite the fact that I have washed them a few times since.
I also had the neon “Potato Topping Bar” sign, but the neon got shattered during a move. Otherwise I might still have that to this day, much like the vinyl “Try a Combo Today” outdoor banners. I am unaware of the latter’s exact whereabouts in my house, but it’s somewhere in the basement.
The point is, not only was I a worker, but I was a fan, mainly because the food was good and the friends I made along the way were fantastic. So what was Arthur Treachers?
Arthur Treacher was an English actor of the stage and screen in the early 20th Century from the 1920s through the 1960s. The man literally played Jeeves! Anyway, Arthur Treacher had a resurgence of popularity due in large part to his occasional appearances on The Merv Griffin Show. Remember when one guest appearance on television could mean something? That’s how far back we’re going.
It was during this time that Arthur Treacher capitalized on his name recognition with a household help agency called “Call Arthur Treacher Service System” and the fish and chips restaurant that bears his name which was founded in 1969 in Columbus, Ohio.
The household help agency wasn’t nearly as popular or even as long-lasting as what ballooned into his franchise empire of fast food fish and chips restaurants.
The empire peaked in the late 1970s with 826 stores, an era that ended with the brand filing for bankruptcy protection. However, the brand didn’t simply go out of business. It minimized its franchise footprint enough to keep being the apple of some investor’s eye, because it bounced around from investor to investor until 1996 Arthur Treacher’s was acquired by M.I.E. Hospitality Inc.
M.I.E. kept enough stores afloat for me to be employed by my local franchise in 1999. Corporate downsized a few years later, and we closed the store down in 2001 shortly after it was acquired by PAT Services Inc., which would eventually have its own legal issues in 2005.
Since then, a franchise here and a franchise there have dotted the landscapes of Ohio, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and New York, but only one standalone appears to remain in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio. There is another in Bridgewater Commons, N.J., and a split store with Nathan’s Famous in South Bound Brook, N.J.
At this point any one of them could go at any moment, though I do hope they survive long enough for me to visit one and relive a certain chapter of my life. You know the chapter I mean: where the work you were doing was second to those who you were working with. For me, it’s a chapter full of friends, fun, and yes, fish and chips.
There is no putting the toothpaste back in the tube. You won’t be turning the train around. Arthur Treacher’s, while those few stores remain, is basically gone. So, too, is what remains of its largest competitor, Long John Silver’s, which also has seen it’s fleet of franchises dwindle in this fresh millennium.
Should anyone care? Not unless you have memories of the place, from employment to dining. If you had never been, there’s no reason to miss it. But for those of us who not only ate there, but have the shirts and scars to prove it, we remember and reminisce. Because like all other things from our past, all we can do is remember.