what did sambo's restaurant become?

Answer 1

This is from an article on CNN. It basically says that there is one restaurant left (the original, in CA). The owner is thinking of starting the chain again, and that the official reason it died was that it expanded too fast - but unofficially, it was more likely that the name caused people to get very upset (with good reason).

There was one in Kansas City many years ago (where I grew up) and from what I can remember, the food was very good.

SANTA BARBARA, California (CNN) -- Once upon a time there was a man named Sam Battistone. Sam had a friend named Newell Bohnett, whom everyone called Bo.

In 1957, the two men decided to open a restaurant. They figured they'd serve sizzling hotcakes, offer coffee for 10 cents a cup and give their customers service with a smile.

They called the restaurant Sambo's.

Fast-forward 41 years. Sam Battistone's grandson, Chad Stevens, has plans to rebuild the restaurant chain -- which once numbered 1,200 units coast-to-coast -- to its former glory.

There's just one problem: the name.

Sambo's was an amalgam of Sam and Bo, and as part of their marketing strategy the founders used a logo based on a children's story called "Little Black Sambo."

The book was written in 1899 by Helen Bannerman, a Scottish woman, and takes place in India. It is about a little boy who goes into the jungle and loses his clothing to bullying tigers. But the tigers chase each other around a tree and eventually melt into butter, which Sambo puts on his pancakes and eats.

The marketing strategy was obvious: Sam and Bo open Sambo's, and pancakes were one of the restaurant's specialties.

The original Sambo's restaurant used as its logo a depiction of an Indian boy, but in the book -- and in the minds of many who read it -- Sambo looked more African than Indian.

Eventually the chain failed and the reason given was that it expanded too fast. But Stevens nurtures visions of putting his grandfather's empire back together.

Only one of the original restaurants survived, the first one in Santa Barbara.

Answer 2

the sambo's near where I live became a friendly's restaurant.

Answer 3

White's Castle.

Answer 4

In my area (Cali's central coast) they first changed into a place called "Season's", and now they are "Baker's Square".
Although the original location in Santa Barbara is still there, I think it was allowed landmark status.

Answer 5

If it did turn into Big Boy as the previous person said then it is now Shoneys as well.

Answer 6

I believe they turned into Big Boy's, or that's what the one's in the NE became.