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Shoney's Inn

Shoney's North America, LLC
Private
Industry Casual dining restaurant
Predecessors Shoney's, Inc.;
Shoney's Big Boy Enterprises, Inc.;
Danner Foods, Inc. (merger);
Shoney's Big Boy Franchising Companies;
Parkette Foods, Inc.
Founded 1947; 70 years ago (1947) in Charleston, West Virginia, United States (Parkette);
1959; 58 years ago (1959) in Madison, Tennessee, United States (Danner Foods)
Founder Alex Schoenbaum
Raymond L. Danner, Sr.
Headquarters Nashville, Tennessee
Key people
David Davoudpour, CEO
Website www.shoneys.com

Shoney’s is a privately held restaurant chain headquartered in Nashville, Tennessee. Operating primarily in the Southern United States, Shoney's also has restaurants in the Midwestern and Lower Mid-Atlantic states of the United States. Founder Alex Schoenbaum became a licensee of Big Boy Restaurants (originally known as Parkette) in 1952. Two years later the name was changed to Shoney's, and aggressive subfranchising followed. Thirty years later, having outgrown its Big Boy territory, Shoney's dropped the Big Boy affiliation.

The current corporate entity is Shoney's North America Corp., with David Davoudpour as chairman and chief executive officer. Davoudpour acquired Shoney's in 2006 through Royal Hospitality Corp. in Atlanta. He is the founder and chairman of Royal Hospitality. As of early 2011, there were approximately 230 company-owned and franchised Shoney's restaurants in 17 states, stretching from Maryland to Florida in the east, and from Missouri to Texas in the west, with the northernmost location being in Ohio.

In 1947, Alex "Shoney" Schoenbaum opened the Parkette Drive-In next to his father’s bowling alley in Charleston, West Virginia. Schoenbaum became a Big Boy franchisee on February 7, 1952, now calling his several locations the Parkette Big Boy Shoppes. In May 1954, a public "Name the Parkette Big Boy Contest" was announced, and in June 1954 Schoenbaum's five Parkette Drive-Ins were rebranded as Shoney's.

Shoney's (the Parkette) was originally the Big Boy franchisee for West Virginia; however, Schoenbaum rapidly grew the chain through subfranchising, expanding his Big Boy territory through the southeastern United States, excluding Florida only because the rights already belonged to fellow Big Boy franchisee Frisch's.


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