Arthur Treacher's

Arthur Treacher's Fish & Chips is an American fast food seafood restaurant and restaurant chain. At the peak of its popularity in the late 1970s, it had 826 stores. As of 2025, there are only four stand-alone Arthur Treacher's locations remaining. The menu offers fried seafood or chicken, accompanied by French fries. The fish and chips recipe is authentic having been purchased from Malin's in Bow, the first recorded fish and chips store in England (est. 1860s).

Founding

The franchise was started in Columbus, Ohio in 1969 as National Fast Food Corp. Its founders included S. Robert Davis, his friend Dave Thomas (future Wendy's founder), and L. S. Hartzog. They were looking to sell an authentic traditional British fish and chips. As background, in the 1860s Joseph Malin opened the first recorded combined fish-and-chip shop, located in Bow, East London, called "Malin's in Bow". For over one hundred years, the Malin family ran that store until closing in the early 1970s. In 1969, Malin's sold the exclusive rights to their recipe to Arthur Treacher's. The chain thus maintained the same recipe and cooking methods that had originated in 19th century London. At one time in 2021, there was only one Arthur Treacher's restaurant left, in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio, making it the only place in the world that still served this historic recipe.

The chain was also looking for a namesake and they purchased the rights to Arthur Treacher (1894–1975), an English character actor typecast as "the perfect butler" for his performances as Jeeves, a butler in several Shirley Temple films in addition to the role of Constable Jones in ''Mary Poppins'' from Walt Disney Productions. At the time the chain was founded, Treacher was best known as the announcer and sidekick to Merv Griffin on ''The Merv Griffin Show''. Although Treacher never confirmed whether he had a financial involvement in the restaurants, he was "a spokesman for the restaurant chain in its early years, underscoring the British character of its food." Treacher sometimes visited the restaurants, arriving in a red double-decker bus.

Later mergers

Fisher Foods

In 1970, Fisher Foods swapped capital with and licensed franchises from National, with a total of 550 franchises sold (106 to Fisher alone), but only 99 stores were actually in operation. Long John Silver's, Captain D's, Skipper's and Alfie's Fish & Chips likewise employed the fish franchise concept about the same time. Aided by Arthur Treacher's advertisements, these companies introduced British fish and chips to northeastern America.

Orange Co.

By the early 1970s, National Fast Food had become Orange Co. Under this name, Davis conducted an aggressive expansion campaign from 1972 through 1976. Lacking equity, he relied on generous sale-leaseback agreements. Under the terms of the agreements, Orange Co. would sell to investors sites for new restaurants and then sign long leases unconditionally guaranteeing to continue lease payments if the restaurants failed.

Mrs. Paul's Seafood

On November 21, 1979, Orange Co. sold Arthur Treacher's to Mrs. Paul's. However, under the terms of its original sale-leaseback agreements, Orange Co. remained liable for millions of dollars of payments to investors.

The "Cod Wars" between the UK and Iceland during the 1970s caused cod prices to double. Mrs. Paul's responded by replacing Icelandic cod in Arthur Treacher's recipe with less expensive pollock. The move exacerbated tensions with franchisees—some of whom had already withheld a total of $5 million in royalties for what they perceived to be a steadily declining level of service. Litigation arising from the conflict eventually reached the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit.

Lumara Foods

After losing the case to the franchisees and having no way to compensate them, Mrs. Paul's sold Arthur Treacher's to Lumara Foods of America Inc. in March 1982. Lumara Foods filed for reorganization under Chapter 11 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code four months later.

Investment group

The company was then bought by a group of investors, and the corporate offices were moved to Youngstown, Ohio. It went into bankruptcy in 1983. Two years later, it was merged into a shell company by Jim Cataland. From 1985 to 1993, Cataland slowly expanded the company again. In 1993, money from a new group of investors was used to introduce a more modern seafood concept, to buy additional stores, and to move the company from its base operations in Youngstown to Jacksonville, Florida.

In the mid-1980s, franchises in Detroit were converted by their owner to a new chain called Seafood Bay. Arthur Treacher's purchased back six Seafood Bay locations in 1997 but was unsuccessful in reverting them.

The company experimented with co-branding, forming an alliance with Arby's (which originated in the Youngstown suburb of Boardman) for co-branded locations. One such location existed in Breezewood, Pennsylvania. However, by the late 1990s, Arby's parent Triarc Cos. Inc. removed the Arthur Treacher's portions of its co-branded Arby's.

PAT Franchise Systems

In 2002, the company holding the Arthur Treacher's trademark was acquired by PAT Franchise Systems, a wholly owned subsidiary of TruFoods Systems. In 2006, Nathan's Famous bought the exclusive rights to market the Arthur Treacher's trademark and sell their products, co-branded with Nathan's Own concepts, Kenny Rogers Roasters, and Miami Subs (now Miami Grill). However, PAT Franchise Systems retained a license agreement entitling it to sell Arthur Treacher's Fish and Chips franchises in eight states.

Nathan's Famous

In 2021, Nathan's Famous announced plans to offer Arthur Treacher's branded food nationwide as a ghost kitchen concept only available via food delivery services. James Walker, the senior vice president of restaurants, said, "We think it’s a nice combination of historic, storied brand, with new focus on the food.”

Locations

Stand-alone

There are four remaining stand-alone restaurants in the United States. All are located in northeastern Ohio. The two oldest are in Garfield Heights (est. 1978) and Cuyahoga Falls (est. 1972) - the later has remained in continuous operation albeit in different buildings, and by 2021 it was the last restaurant in the country. Ben Vittoria, the Cuyahoga Falls owner, kept the last store alive and indeed the entire franchise would have ceased to operate without him. In recognition of the restaurant's last stand and survival at Cuyahoga Falls, the town mayor Don Walters designated June 30, 2021 as Arthur Treacher's Day. Customers traveled long distances to relive memories of youth and made the town a food destination. Building on resurgent popular interest, investors opened on April 1, 2025 a new location in Cleveland Heights, Ohio. This was followed on June 11, 2025 with a new location in Columbus, Ohio, at the former Marino's Seafood Fish & Chips, which was originally an Arthur Treacher's.

Embedded

In addition to the Ohio stand-alone locations, four Salvatore's Pizzerias in Rochester, New York, have embedded Arthur Treacher's franchises. The Twin Oaks Convenience Store in Pomeroy, Ohio, has an Arthur Treacher's sharing kitchen space with a Hunt Brothers Pizza and a Sub Express.

See also

* List of fish and chip restaurants
* List of seafood restaurants
* Pie and mash

References

External links

*
*

{{Jacksonville Corporations

Fast-food seafood restaurants
Fish and chip restaurants
Seafood restaurants in the United States
Regional restaurant chains in the United States
Fast-food chains of the United States
Restaurants established in 1969
Companies based in Jacksonville, Florida
Companies based in New York City
Companies that have filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy
Companies that filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 1983
1969 establishments in Ohio
1979 mergers and acquisitions