Sambo’s Restaurants

But not for that video or that mascot....you know that, right OP?

I used to love to eat there when I was a kid and I loved that tiger!

Chambo! Chambo!

LOVED Sambo's. Went to them all through my youth. When I visited Santa Barbara in 1999, we went to the last standing Sambo's in the country and I stole everything I could get my hands on.

We didn't think of it as rascist. The food and service was good. They were similar to Denny's, Shari's, and VIPs. Back when you're family could go out and enjoy a meal together without the whole, friggin world, intruding on a cell phone

I guess they couldn't just rename it "Sinbads".

I used to get Bob's Big Boy and Sambo's mixed up.

As restaurants, they were rather interchangeable.

Yes they were.

Restaurants, in general, should bring back the vinyl booth seating. So much more comfortable than the ugly, plain, wooden ones, currently in favor. Young people have no idea what good things they've missed out on.

I worked at a Sambo's in Mobile, Alabama as a DECA student, 1977 -1978. There were two Sambo's on the Government Blvd. Still have a pair of coin earrings a customer gave me as a gift.

Our family loved the food and the service at Sambo's.

My boss at the Mobile, Alabama Sambo's had a teen son who worked the kitchen. One time he was opening frozen meat boxes and sneezing and spitting all over. I told him he shouldn't be doing that while sick. He said he didn't give a shit because his dad was making him work there without paying him.

Back in 1982 I went to a Sambo's in Los Angeles - Sambo's was not cancelled in the 70's.

Sambo's was great. Bob's Big Boy always sucked.

[quote] Bob's Big Boy always sucked.

Big boys always suck and not in a good way.

I worked at a Sambos in San Antonio washing dishes in high school.

My Grandma used to take me there all the time. I loved it. It makes me think of her. Then she would to me to Pic And Save.

Did Sambo's Restaurant ever have a BLACK boy as their logo?

I looked it up and all I see is the Indian boy with the tiger.

R17, see R5.

[quote] Instead of choosing another restaurant name, the founders decided to lean into it — even making their first mascot a little black boy — and used the tagline, “The finest pancakes west of the Congo.”

There was a chain of restaurants called Aunt Jemima's Kitchen up until about 1970. A lot of the restaurants were located in the Northeast. There was even one in Toronto.

My grandparents had a black dog named Sambo in the 60’s, I kid you not. This was, unsurprisingly, in Texas. I didn’t make the connection until decades later when I received a box of photos after everyone had died. I didn’t think anyone in my family was particularly racist, but I guess you never know.

I also remember getting a coloring book from a Sambo’s restaurant in the early 70’s.

[quote] I also remember getting a coloring book from a Sambo’s restaurant in the early 70’s.

Was the only crayon black?

R18, here's the logo that it's referring to. The boy eating pancakes doesn't look black to me.

There was a Sambo's in San Jose near where my grandparents lived, it was conveniently near our favorite movie theaters. I always remember asking if we could go eat at Little Black Sambo's; I swear that's what it was called in the beginning & they only shortened it to Sambo's after some fuss.

I still remember the artwork on the walls, depicting the story of Sambo & the tiger, & the outcome of him turning into butter.

I thought the food was really good, but I was only a kid; as an adult my father said he always hated the food & it was a junky, trashy place. That's not what I remember. Ah, nostalgia...

[quote] I swear that's what it was called in the beginning

Mandela effect.

They had great pancakes and syrup. As a child, I found it to be quite exotic. Loved the little boy and tiger. Like an early racist version of Calvin and Hobbes.

All they had to do was change the "o" to an "a" and make it a Brazilian restaurant

There was a Sambo's in the Hudson Valley (New York), before they closed they tried a name change to Sam's.

When I was very young we once drove to Illinois to visit my mother's family, and we stopped at Sambo's for a meal. I asked my dad why they called it tiger butter, and he was aghast that I'd never heard the story of Little Black Sambo. Apparently it was as prominent as Goldilocks and Snow White in years past.

I remember the food being delicious. It's a shame they were saddled with that unfortunate name.

There was one in Seattle and I remember eating their as a kid and race never entered into it. It was a boy and his tiger and if I recall the tiger ran in a circle so fast he turned into pancakes? I am remembering this correctly?