Long John Silver's - History

History

The first restaurant was opened in 1969 in Lexington, Kentucky. The original location, on 301 Southland Drive just off Nicholasville Road, was previously a seafood restaurant named the Cape Codder, which accounts for the Cape Cod style of LJS’s early chain restaurants. That original location is now a styling salon. Until its bankruptcy in 1998, Long John Silver's was a privately owned corporation. The chain began as a division of Jerrico, Inc., which also operated Jerry's Restaurants, a chain of family restaurants which also began in Lexington, and that was very similar to Big Boy restaurants. Jerry's was located in the Midwest and Southern United States. When the company was sold in 1989, the Long John Silver's concept had far outgrown the Jerry's chain. Most of Jerry's 46 remaining locations were converted to Denny's by the new owners, with a handful staying under the original name, usually because there was already an existing Denny's nearby. Only a dozen or so, now called Jerry's J-Boy Restaurants, are still open in Kentucky and southern Indiana. LJS stores were largely unaffected by this move. (Many original LJS franchisees were also operators of Jerry's locations.)

Earlier restaurants were known for their Cape Cod-style buildings, blue roofs, small steeples, and nautically-themed decorations such as seats made to look like nautical flags. Most early restaurants also featured separate entrance and exit doors, a corridor-like waiting line area, food heaters that were transparent so customers could see the food waiting to be served, and a bell by the exit which customers could "ring if we did it well." Many of these buildings had dock-like walkways lined with pilings and thick ropes that wrapped around the building exterior. Somewhat newer restaurants kept the basic structural design and theme, but eliminated most of the interior features. The contemporary, multi-brand outlets do not use the blue roofed Cape Cod-style buildings. All locations continue to have the "if we did well, ring the bell" bell by the exit, a feature that was later copied by Arby's. Originally, the chain had a much larger focus on a pirate theme. For example, the chain used to offer small chicken drumsticks which they called "peg-legs", but now offer small chicken fingers known as "Chicken Planks". The chain does still offer kids paper pirate hats with LJS's logo.

The restaurant, which has over 1200 units worldwide, was formerly a division of Yum! Brands, Inc. The company purchased it from Yorkshire Global Restaurants, which originally acquired it from Fleet Boston Bank after its having gained control of the restaurants due to bankruptcy. Yum! originally combined many of the franchises' locations with its chain of A&W Restaurants, and most new Long John Silver's locations in the first few years after the acquisition were co-branded with A&W. Yum! announced in 2005 that it would expand the multi-brand concept and pair Long John Silver's with KFC, just as they had paired Taco Bell and Pizza Hut along with A&W, and Long John Silver's was since paired with all of Yum!'s other chains. The parent corporation of the chain's Canadian franchises, which have no connection with A&W in Canada, is Priszm. Long John Silver's had only one New York City location (in Eastern Queens), but it is no longer in business.

On January 18, 2011, Yum! Brands announced its intention to sell Long John Silver's, along with its A&W Restaurant chain. Citing poor sales for both divisions, the company plans to focus on its international expansion plans for its other brands, with particular emphasis on its growth in China. In September 2011, Yum! announced they had found a buyer, called LJS Partners LLC.