The Golden Nugget Pancake House is a chain of
family restaurant
Restaurants fall into several industry classifications, based upon menu style, preparation methods and pricing, as well as the means by which the food is served to the customer. This article mainly describes the situation in the USA, while catego ...
s originally launched in
Florida
Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...
but now operating exclusively in
Chicago
(''City in a Garden''); I Will
, image_map =
, map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago
, coordinates =
, coordinates_footnotes =
, subdivision_type = Country
, subdivision_name ...
,
Illinois
Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolita ...
. Some of the restaurants serve
breakfast
Breakfast is the first meal of the day usually eaten in the morning. The word in English refers to breaking the fasting period of the previous night.Anderson, Heather Arndt (2013)''Breakfast: A History'' AltaMira Press. Various "typical" or "t ...
24 hours a day, and their decor generally has a
Western
Western may refer to:
Places
*Western, Nebraska, a village in the US
*Western, New York, a town in the US
*Western Creek, Tasmania, a locality in Australia
*Western Junction, Tasmania, a locality in Australia
*Western world, countries that id ...
motif. They were also known for their particularly delicious French Toast.
History
The chain was founded by Howard N. Quam, a Chicago native, who served in the
US Marines
The United States Marine Corps (USMC), also referred to as the United States Marines, is the maritime land force service branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for conducting expeditionary and amphibious operations through combi ...
and then worked as a
blackjack
Blackjack (formerly Black Jack and Vingt-Un) is a casino banking game. The most widely played casino banking game in the world, it uses decks of 52 cards and descends from a global family of casino banking games known as Twenty-One. This fami ...
dealer at the
Golden Nugget Casino in
Las Vegas
Las Vegas (; Spanish for "The Meadows"), often known simply as Vegas, is the 25th-most populous city in the United States, the most populous city in the state of Nevada, and the county seat of Clark County. The city anchors the Las Vegas ...
. In the mid-1960s, Quam moved to Florida and opened his first restaurant, which he named in honor of the casino. He returned to Chicago in 1966 to open additional restaurants. He returned to Las Vegas in 1988, where he opened other restaurants.
There are four Golden Nugget franchises in Chicago. Many other local restaurants with "Golden" in their titles, such as the Golden Apple restaurant in
Lakeview, and the now-closed Golden Angel restaurant in
North Center, belonged to the Golden Nugget chain in the past. Over the years, the so-called "Golden Empire" has attracted a loyal and diverse clientele and has become a familiar part of the Chicago culture. In the 1970s, local writer
Jon-Henri Damski described the
Lincoln Park
Lincoln Park is a park along Lake Michigan on the North Side of Chicago, Illinois. Named after US President Abraham Lincoln, it is the city's largest public park and stretches for seven miles (11 km) from Grand Avenue (500 N), on the south, ...
Golden Nugget as "the biggest chicken coop in the Midwest". Later,
Dodie Bellamy
Dodie Bellamy (born 1951) is an American novelist, nonfiction author, journalist, educator and editor. Her book, ''Cunt-Ups'' (2001) won the 2002 Firecracker Alternative Book Award. Her work is frequently associated with that of the New Narrativ ...
used a Golden Nugget as one of the settings in her 1984 short story "The Debbies I Have Known".
In 2000, the
Irving Park Golden Nugget became the site of a local scandal when a pair of police officers allegedly stopped at the restaurant for two hours while an intoxicated 56-year-old man waited in their police wagon. The man died of
asphyxiation
Asphyxia or asphyxiation is a condition of deficient supply of oxygen to the body which arises from abnormal breathing. Asphyxia causes generalized hypoxia, which affects primarily the tissues and organs. There are many circumstances that can i ...
when he fell into an awkward position in the vehicle, and the Chicago City Council agreed to pay the victim's family $1.8 million.
[Spielman, Fran. "City pays family in asphyxiation death". ''Chicago Sun-Times''. 3 December 2002. p. 8]
See also
*
IHOP
*
Denny's
Denny's (also known as Denny's Diner on some of the locations' signage) is an American table service diner-style restaurant chain. It operates over 1,700 restaurants in many countries.
Description
Originally opened as a Diner, coffee shop un ...
*
Walker Brothers
*
Lou Mitchell's
Lou Mitchell's, also known as Lou Mitchell's Restaurant, is a Chicago diner located at 565 W. Jackson Boulevard. It is a popular restaurant for commuters, as it is located near Union Station. It is also located near the start of U.S. Route 66 and w ...
*
Waffle House
*
The Original Pancake House
The Original Pancake House (TOPH) is a chain of pancake houses across the United States. They have franchises in Canada that started in 1958 and are still operating. They have recently expanded into both Japan and South Korea. They follow tradi ...
*
List of pancake houses
This is a list of notable pancake houses. A pancake house is a restaurant that specializes in breakfast items such as pancakes, waffles, and omelettes, among other items. Many small, independent pancake houses, as well as large corporations an ...
Notes
External links
Golden Nugget Pancake House website
{{coord, 41.9323, -87.6883, type:landmark, display=title
Restaurants in Chicago
Regional restaurant chains in the United States
Pancake houses
Cuisine of Chicago