"shoneys" news and stories

Photo: Jeff Keen, Flickr.

To all the scofflaws who once swiped a Shoney's menu or stole a Shoney's creamer: The restaurant wants its stuff back.

Naomi Bays, an artist who's coordinating the nationwide retrieval of Shoney's items in conjunction with a new Charleston, W. Va., memorial marking the site of the franchise's first restaurant, is now accepting donations of all things Shoney's -- no questions asked.

"Someone's bringing me a salt shaker he stole 50 years ago," Bays says.

Not every item in Bays' collection was ill-begotten: She's also accumulated Shoney's tie clips, key chains, photographs, watches, comic books and maps from Shoney's golden era, showing the chain's 1,900 locations.

Photo: Pointnshoot, Flickr

Shoney's is hoping a new restaurant prototype it premiered last week in the city where the family-dining franchise got its start will mark a rebirth for the beleaguered chain.

The revamped flagship eatery in Charleston, W. Va., features a new skillet-driven menu -- "we have breakfast skillets, pot-roast skillets and an apple pie skillet for dessert," boasts ShoRest marketing director Denise Biafore -- with a new orange-and-avocado color scheme and new decorations, including live plants.

"We're taking it back to its glory days," Biafore says. "A lot of people think Shoney's is a dying chain."