The Return of Gino's

I was driving along Street Road in Bensalem, PA a few weeks ago when I saw something I hadn’t seen since I was in high school, at least.  It was a Gino’s restaurant.  Gino’s was a fast food chain started by legendary Baltimore Colts running back Gino Marchetti, and their restaurants were a fixture in my area during my childhood.  It seemed to me that around here Gino’s was third to McDonald’s and Burger King in the fast food market.  They also worked out a joint deal with the Colonel that paired Gino’s with Kentucky Fried Chicken, and the only place to buy KFC food was at a Gino’s.  The signs outside the stores placed the KFC bucket logo above the big red Gino’s Hamburgers sign.  But as far as I know, Gino’s was never a national chain and never expanded beyond the northeastern United States.  It came to an end in 1982, when the chain was brought out and the Gino’s name was retired.  All existing Gino’s locations were converted to Roy Rogers, and for the most of the next thirty years, Gino’s was a memory.

It was not a total surprise to see a Gino’s restaurant.  I heard a few years ago that a return was planned. They had a website going, with a list of targeted locations, but I don’t remember seeing the Bensalem spot on the list.  I was actually looking forward to seeing Gino’s restaurants again.  Part of it was out of nostalgia, but part of it was also because I liked their food, although I generally try to avoid fast food nowadays.  I think I remember reading that there already was a Gino’s open in King of Prussia, PA, which is on the opposite side of the Philadelphia metropolitan area from where I live.  But once I saw the Gino’s on Street Road, I had visible proof that they were back.

There are a few Gino’s restaurants that stand out to me in particular.  The one we frequented most was in Fairless Hills, PA, which I think was the closest Gino’s to where we live.  It stood at an ideal location, on the corner of a busy intersection.  I grew up in a fairly large family, one of five kids, and my mother was a nurse who didn’t work, choosing to stay home and take care of us while my father supported us.  I think that is why whenever we ate out, it was usually McDonalds or Gino’s.  I don’t remember going to fancy restaurants much.  My parents just tried to treat us as much as they could on the budget they lived on, and looking back I was happy with it.

We ate at that Gino’s in Fairless Hills regularly when I was little, but there was one afternoon that I won’t forget, even though my memory is vague.  I think I was only about six or seven at the time.  We were eating at Gino’s during a windy day, and there was a shopping center under construction nearby.  A few minutes of particularly strong gusts created a makeshift dust storm coming from the construction site, and I saw the dirt flying all over.  For those few minutes, the visibility was very poor.  It had blown past by the time we left, and although I don’t remember it, our car was probably covered in dirt, as were all the others.  Decades later when we drove by that location, which is now occupied by an Amoco/McDonald’s joint store, my father still recalled that day.

Every summer our vacation routine was to spend two nights in Atlantic City during the middle of a week in late July or early August.  My parents liked going there, as they had since childhood.  And they probably found that plan cheaper than spending a week at one of the Jersey Shore resort towns that stretched from Long Branch to Cape May.  Going to Atlantic City was all I knew for vacation, and looking back I was fine with that as well.  As kids, one thing we really liked about Atlantic City was the famous Boardwalk.  And among the hundreds of shops and attractions on the Boardwalk there was a Gino’s, which I think we went to at least once almost every year we went there.  I have a vague memory of sitting at the Gino’s while looking out over the ocean and watching the waves crash into the jetty. 

During my childhood, our family would travel monthly to Jim Thorpe to visit relatives.  Our normal route was to take the Pennsylvania Turnpike to get there, but there was also a back way my parents liked to go.  That route took us through Bucks County, where we would ride the back roads until we got on the turnpike at the Quakertown exit.  More often, we would get off the turnpike there on the way back, and take the back roads through Bucks County the opposite way back home.  Along the way in Quakertown, there was a huge shopping center with a Gino’s, where we would often stop for lunch before continuing back home.

At one time Gino’s commercials were seemingly on all the time.  During the Phillies telecasts they were, since Gino’s was a sponsor, along with other local institutions such as Schmidt’s beer and Tasty Kake.  These ads stand out to me, I guess, because they ran repeatedly during Phillies telecasts, and I watched plenty of Phillies games.  Following the trend of Ronald McDonald and the magic Burger King, Gino’s also had their own mascot, the Gino Giant.  I don’t remember much about the Gino Giant except his telling kids to rub their bellies and make a wish.  I think after that, they were magically transported to the nearest Gino’s.  Later, in 1977, after the first Rocky movie created a sensation all over the country, Gino’s found a way to work the spirit of Rocky into their ads.  I always remembered a series of those ads, which would end with the main character of the commercial doing a victory dance similar to the one performed by Rocky when he finally made it to the top of the Art Museum steps.  In the background, there was music and a chorus of singers singing “feeling good at Gino’s”.  One day a few years ago, I searched YouTube to see if one of those old commercials was posted, and indeed I found one.  That is what led me to find out Gino’s was making a comeback.  My curiosity led me to look up Gino’s on Wikipedia to find out what actually happened to the chain.  I learned that they were bought out by Marriott and converted to Roy Rogers’s restaurants, but I also learned that there were plans in place to revive the Gino’s brand in the next few years.  That put me on the lookout, occasionally checking the sites, but I missed the news that they had bought property in Bensalem, and also was unaware when it opened. 

According to their website, Ginos now has four locations, with a fifth site opening soon.  Two are in Pennsylvania, and two are in Maryland, soon to be three.  I don’t know if they will regain the presence they had in the 70s.  There is no joint deal with KFC this time, and Gino’s is cooking their own brand of chicken.  I’m glad to see they’re back, although I don’t plan on going there much.  I would like to go there just once, probably when I’m on the run sometime.

Super Bowl Memories

Now that another Super Bowl Sunday has passed, and the game itself is now nearing the half-century mark, I am thinking back to some of the title games that stood out to me over the years.  The Super Bowl itself goes back to January of 1967, just after the merger had been signed in which the former American Football League would be incorporated into the NFL.  The AFL was previously an upstart rival league which had managed to not only survive, but thrive alongside the NFL, and apparently Rozelle and the rest of the NFL brass figured that they couldn’t beat the AFL, so they might as well join them.  Or, more accurately, they worked out a deal to absorb the AFL into their league. The merger would not take full effect until 1970, but an AFL-NFL championship game would be played between the two league champions starting in 1967. That game would soon come to be known as the Super Bowl.  I have watched many of them over the years.  In America, that’s what most people do on that day.  But some stand out to me more than others, and here I’ll describe the ones that I remember most.

Going way back to my youth, I remember Super Bowl XV, because of the excitement of the Eagles finally getting to the Super Bowl.  I also remember the frustration I felt as they proved to be no match for the Oakland Raiders, despite being heavily favored to win.  NFL Films nicknamed it “The Cinderella Super Bowl” but I didn’t think that title was a good fit.  Neither of these teams had just emerged out of nowhere.  The Eagles and Raiders had both been in contention for several years, with the Raiders being a playoff fixture for a decade.  They already had one Vince Lombardi Trophy under previous coach and future color commentator John Madden.  Sometime in the four years between those Super Bowl games, Madden retired and was replaced by Tom Flores.  Longtime Raiders quarterback Ken Stabler, who also wore a ring from the 1977 Super Bowl, was gone by then as well.  Which brings me to what I think is the reason this particular game got the Cinderella nickname, which I thought better described the next Super Bowl pitting the 49ers against the Cincinnati Bengals.  Both of those teams were relative newcomers, and it proved to be the first of several championships that made Joe Montana into a legend.  However, that subtitle was given to Super Bowl XV, and it probably had something to do with Raiders quarterback Jim Plunkett.  Plunkett was a Bay Area native and Stanford grad who had been in the NFL for close to a decade.  He was originally drafted by the New England Patriots and started for them for several years, and if I remember right, lead them to several playoff appearances.  Sometime around 1976 or 1977, Steve Grogan took over and Plunkett was traded to the 49ers, then to the Raiders.  I have to admit, I don’t know his story very well, but I guess it was enough of a rags-to-riches tale for NFL Films to give this Super Bowl that nickname.

I also remember the 1986 Super Bowl very well, as it capped off a near-perfect 18-1 season for the Chicago Bears.  They seemed unstoppable, except for one loss to the Dolphins.  It also seemed to me that a rematch between the Bears and the only team to beat them during the regular season would have made a perfect Super Bowl, but the Patriots pulled off an upset of the Dolphins in the AFC Championship Game and so earned the right to play for the trophy in New Orleans.  But, like every opponent the Bears faced that year (except the Dolphins), the Patriots were no match and a very predictable one-sided blowout by the Bears materialized.  Bears defensive coordinator Buddy Ryan was hailed as a genius for his 46 defense, and caught the attention of new Eagles Owner Norman Braman.  He was soon offered the head coaching job with the Eagles, and was out the door. Ryan may have been missed by the Bears fans and players, but Head Coach Mike Ditka, who couldn’t stand Ryan, was only too happy to see him go. Today, they have apparently put their differences aside, and have recently appeared at some functions together, including a much belated White House reception for the 1985 Bears.  This game was also the beginning of a trend.  For the next decade, the NFC team would win every Super Bowl, usually by a wide margin.  Only two games were close.  The next year, the Giants replaced the Bears as the juggernaut, and steamrolled over the Broncos in Super Bowl XXI.  In the coming years, the 49ers and Cowboys would also build near-perfect teams that squashed whatever AFC opponent stood between them and the Vince Lombardi Trophy.

The next game that stood out to me was the 1990 Super Bowl between the 49ers and the Broncos.  It was a fitting way to close the decade, as it epitomized the state of the NFC and AFC in the Super Bowl.  The 49ers epitomized the NFC, and the Broncos the AFC.  Predictably, it was a blowout, with the 49ers winning by a final score of 49-10. It was a summary of the decade in football, or at least the second half of it, and it just wouldn’t have seemed right if it went any other way.  It was the fourth Super Bowl victory for the 49ers, and the fourth loss by the Broncos, who up until then lost all their Super Bowls by a wide margin.  The first Super Bowl lost by the Broncos was actually in 1978, by an entirely different team, so that loss could be isolated from the John Elway era Broncos.  But the 1990 Super Bowl was still the third one lost by the Broncos in five years.

The next year, what stood out to me about the Super Bowl game between the Giants and the Bills, was of course the fact that it came down to a last second field goal attempt by the Bills. Kicker Scott Norwood missed wide right, and the Giants won 20-19.  As in many such cases, that play effectively ended Norwood’s career, although not immediately as he played with the Bills for one more season.  It was also one of the few competitive Super Bowls during that decade of NFC dominance.  The Bills would make it back to represent the AFC in the next three Super Bowls, but would not find themselves coming anywhere near that close to a victory.  They lost those three games by a combined score of 119-54, to the Redskins in 1992, then twice in a row to the Cowboys. They took over the Broncos role of super blowout victims.

After the mid-90’s, I don’t remember following the NFL too closely.  I know that after that time, the NFC dominance ended, as well as the Cowboys and 49ers dynasties that did most of the dominating.  I honestly can’t name who won most of the Super Bowls after that, although I am on the computer and could easily cheat on this.  I remember sometime in the late 90’s, the Packers won the title for the first time since Vince Lombardi was coach.  The balance of power eventually shifted to the AFC, with dynasties in Indianapolis with Peyton Manning, and in New England with Bill Belichick and Tom Brady.  I remember the near perfect season the Patriots put together, only to have their hopes crushed by the Giants in the final seconds.  If only they held on for that last minute, they would have topped the 1972 Dolphins.  They were also one of those truly dominant teams like those 1972 Dolphins, as well as the 1985 Bears, the 1986 Giants, 1992 Cowboys, and probably a few other teams I missed. 

Over the years, Super Bowl Sunday grew into an unofficial national holiday, and having Super Bowl parties became common in households all over the country.  Eventually, the commercials became a part of the show that people had to see.  Halftime entertainment also became a ritual, featuring mostly music legends.  It has become the grand finale for the season.  Now the season’s over, and it’s time to focus on basketball and hockey, and anticipate baseball in the spring.  The next big event is the March Madness week leading up to the NCAA Division I men’s basketball championship.  Maybe that will become the next unofficial holiday.  But for football, there is only the NFL network to hold people over until the end of summer.