The '70s Burger Restaurant Chain That's Still Hanging On With A Few Locations

Make no mistake, it's a considerable feat when a restaurant chain can stay in business for over 50 years. For example, while the vintage Pittsburgh-based burger joint Winky's Hamburgers declared bankruptcy in 1982 and went kaput soon after, the vintage 1950s burger chain Henry's Hamburgers has managed to keep just one location open in Michigan.

Meanwhile, the Midwest-based restaurant chain Max & Erma's is still hanging in there with just seven locations. Those seven include one in Michigan, one in Indiana, three in its home state of Ohio, and two in Pennsylvania. Of these, five are standalone restaurants, and two exist within the confines of an airport.

Throughout the early 2010s, Max & Erma's underwent a series of adjustments that reduced this once-thriving restaurant chain of over 100 locations, many of them franchised, to a mere handful. Indeed, within a period of just six years, from 2010 to 2016, ownership of the chain changed hands twice (its current owner is Glacier Restaurant Group), while restaurants continued to close in the years that followed, with some locations holding liquidation auctions to sell off their contents.

It's a shame this burger chain has fallen so far from its heyday in the 1980s, 1990s, and even early 2000s, especially considering its modest beginnings as a Columbus, Ohio restaurant in German Village, owned by the titular Max and Erma Visocnik. They purchased the original location in 1958, named it after themselves, and then held onto it for the next 14 years. In 1972, the Visocniks were persuaded to sell the restaurant to Barry Zacks and Todd Barnum.

Zacks started out as CEO, and his impact was huge. It was under his leadership that the restaurant chain was put on the map for its zany and wacky decorations, including not just art but also eclectic vintage items. It was a design aesthetic that other restaurants would eventually copy, like Applebee's and TGI Fridays. Zacks also expanded the menu, which at one point during his reign grew to almost 40 pages. He was eventually replaced in the mid-1980s by Barnum, who immediately set to work scaling back the menu and went on to spearhead the franchising program. Under Barnum, Max & Erma's experienced unprecedented growth, maxing out at 110 locations.

Directly after Barnum stepped down from his role in 2007, Max & Erma's financial problems really began to mount. Just three years later, it started its freefall into the abyss of once-popular chains that are hanging on by a thread — but still around, for now.