Spaghetti Warehouse

Spaghetti Warehouse is an Italian restaurant geared towards families with 10 locations in 4 U.S. states. The chain started in 1972 in Dallas, Texas, and has since spread throughout the southern and eastern parts of the United States. The location in Columbus, Ohio, which opened in 1978, is the largest both in seating capacity and in sales. The Columbus location seats approximately 800 people. Each restaurant has a trolley car in the dining room and patrons are able to sit in the car. One of Spaghetti Warehouse's unique characteristics is that many of the older locations are in renovated, historic buildings.

Spaghetti Warehouse, Inc., was acquired in 1998 by Consolidated Restaurant Cos. (a holding company of the private equity firm Cracken, Harkey & Co. L.L.C.).The Old Spaghetti Factory, started three years earlier, has a very similar format. In June 2007, Consolidated Restaurants sold the chain to the Los Angeles-based investment firm Frandeli, Inc.

The original location, in the West End of Dallas, Texas, opened in 1972. The building was built in 1891 and served as a pillow factory for much of its history. The 3rd largest location in the chain, including two floors and private dining rooms, it is credited as the first restaurant-retail business in the neighborhood that spurred the rebirth of the West End area of Downtown Dallas in the 1970s and 80s. It is home to many former brass bed headboards, an old confessional, and the headboard and footboard of a bed that belonged to Stephen F. Austin, which is now a booth that fits up to 8 people. An original East Dallas trolley car is in the main dining room.

The Austin location was the third location in the chain's history. Opened in 1975, and built in 1902, it used to be a grocery warehouse, and during prohibition, was a brothel. Two chandeliers from New York City's Penn Station reside there as well as the original box office from Grauman's Chinese Theatre in Los Angeles, California. Like its Dallas counterpart, it is also home to an original East Dallas trolley car. The Austin location closed April 23, 2011 due to physical building issues.

The Columbus location was the first Spaghetti Warehouse outside of Texas, and the fifth to open in the chain. It opened in April 1978 in an old ice house built in the 1880s. It is the largest in the company and continually exceeds its counterparts in weekly sales. It is such a "landmark" in Columbus, that many diners there believe it to be the only location. It is home to two confessionals taken from churches in New England, as well as a 1920s German elevator in which patrons may sit for dinner. The original steam engine that kept the building cold when it was an ice house, is still located in its lobby. Another artifact there includes the head of a moose killed by former President Theodore Roosevelt along with its certificate of authenticity.

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