Before the Olive Garden had all the salad and breadsticks you could want, before Chili’s sang of their “baby back, baby back, baby back,” there was The Ground Round. 

Once a household name in the Northeast and parts of the Midwest, The Ground Round was a popular restaurant chain known for steaks, burgers and bottomless popcorn. It hit its peak in the 1980s, but a couple decades later the chain filed for bankruptcy and most of the restaurants shut down. For years, the Ground Round was just a fond childhood memory for lots of people. But now, a Massachusetts couple is reviving the brand. 

Howard Johnson’s opened the restaurant chain, starting in Shrewsbury, Massachusetts, back in 1969. The idea was to convert their underperforming restaurants for travelers into affordable, family-friendly neighborhood joints. The Ground Round grew to over 200 locations in the ‘80s with zany draws like soft-serve that came in mini baseball cap cups and pay what you weigh deals. 

The chain changed ownership several times, but by the turn of the millennium, it became kinda old-fashioned. It filed for bankruptcy in 2004. Now, twenty years later, Joseph and Nachi Shea are taking a shot at reopening — they bought the branding rights in 2024. 

“We're just a husband-and-wife team. We don't have investors or deep pockets, we're bootstrapping this,” said Joseph Shea. 

When they announced the plans to reopen on social media, some who fondly remember The Ground Round were excited. Nachi Shea said some customers even gifted them Ground Round memorabilia from years past. 

“People have brought in different menus. They've brought in even employee manuals from the old one. We had a lady bring in her old suspenders from when she used to work at the original Ground Round here in town,” said Nachi Shea. 

Some of those mementos now hang on the walls of the new restaurant. The couple hopes that nostalgia is enough to bring guests through the door at least for a first visit. 

“As a kid being there, I think I remember the soda and the burgers,” said Steve Clark, president of the Massachusetts Restaurant Association. “Going there and having salty popcorn.”

He said that the reopening comes at a time when consumers want to spend their money not just on food, but on a good time. 

“The cost of everything is up, inflation, household budgets, et cetera. The consumer wants the experience they're getting from a full-service dining restaurant, but they don't want the price that you have to get from a fine dining place,” Clark said. 

That’s one reason The Ground Round may be better poised for success in the 2020s than, say, in the ‘90s. Fast casual restaurants have been on the rise, more so than fast food chains these days. 

It was 20 minutes after doors opened on a Thursday and the dining room was filling up. Food runners carried trays of burgers and fish and chips out of the kitchen. 

Nachi Shea fielded a call where someone wanted to rent out the restaurant for a party of 30 to 40 people. Soon, there was a 30-minute wait for tables, and the bar was already full. Kristen Richards and Heather Dudko sipped on cocktails, a lemon drop and a blueberry bella, and ate popcorn.

“The smell that kind of takes you back … the popcorn smell,” Dudko said. 

The Sheas weren’t sure yet if they’ll expand beyond this location, but if “selling nostalgia” works here, they said, it’s a possibility.