Long John Silver's
 |
|
| Private | |
| Industry | Restaurants |
| Genre | Fast-food restaurant |
| Founded | August 18, 1969 Lexington, Kentucky, United States |
| Headquarters | Louisville, Kentucky, United States |
| Products | Seafood |
|
Number of employees
|
8,400 (world wide) |
| Parent | LJS Partners LLC |
| Website | ljsilvers.com |
Long John Silver's is an American fast-food restaurant chain that specializes in seafood. The brand's name is derived from the novel Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson, in which the pirate "Long John" Silver is one of the main characters. Formerly a division of Yum! Brands, Inc., the company was divested to a group of franchisees in 2011.
The first restaurant was opened on August 18, 1969, in Lexington, Kentucky. The original location, on 301 Southland Drive just off Nicholasville Road, was previously a seafood carry-out restaurant named the Cape Codder. The original Cape Codder concrete block building was redesigned by Architect Druce Henn, who created the New England style of LJS's early chain restaurants. That original location is now a styling salon. The chain began as a division of Jerrico, Inc., a publicly owned corporation, 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. The original restaurant concept was developed by Jerrico and a Jerry's Restaurant franchisee. Choices for the restaurant name were 'Limey's, Barnacle Bill's, and Long John Silver's Seafood Shoppes. When the company was sold in 1989 and became a privately owned corporation, 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 an existing Denny's was already 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 with square cupolas, wood benches/tables, lobster pots, and ship's wheels. Later, more nautically-themed decorations were added such as seats made to look like nautical flags. Those early restaurants also featured separate entrance and exit doors, a -like waiting line area, deep fryer with food heaters that were transparent so customers could see the food waiting to be served, and wrought iron 'sword' door handles. A major exterior theme of these buildings had dock-like walkways lined with pilings and thick ropes. Somewhat newer restaurants kept the basic structural design and theme but eliminated most of the interior features. The contemporary, multibrand outlets do not use the blue-roofed Cape Cod-style buildings. All current locations have an "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 once offered small chicken drumsticks which they called "peg-legs", but now offer chicken fingers known as "Chicken Planks". The chain does still offer kids paper pirate hats with LJS's logo.
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Wikipedia