Spaghetti Warehouse
Encyclopedia
Spaghetti Warehouse is an Italian restaurant geared towards families with 16 locations in 7 U.S. states. The chain started in 1972 in Dallas, Texas
Dallas, Texas
Dallas is the third-largest city in Texas and the ninth-largest in the United States. The Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex is the largest metropolitan area in the South and fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States...

, and has since spread throughout the southern and eastern parts of the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

. The location in Columbus, Ohio
Columbus, Ohio
Columbus is the capital of and the largest city in the U.S. state of Ohio. The broader metropolitan area encompasses several counties and is the third largest in Ohio behind those of Cleveland and Cincinnati. Columbus is the third largest city in the American Midwest, and the fifteenth largest city...

, 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 trolly car in the dining room and patrons are able to sit in the car. On Mother's Day, May 11, 2008, the Pittsburgh Spaghetti Warehouse built the World's Largest Lasagna weighing 8,800 pounds and serving 9,600 people. All proceeds from the sale of the World's Largest Lasagna were donated to the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure. 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
The Old Spaghetti Factory
The Old Spaghetti Factory is an Italian-style restaurant currently operating in 40 locations in several U.S. states, primarily Oregon, Washington, California and Utah as well as Nagoya in Japan,[3] and previously in Kobe and Kawagoe, Saitama .There are also Old Spaghetti Factories in Canada There...

, 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.

Location Highlights

Dallas, Texas

The original location, located 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. One of the largest locations 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 70's and 80's. 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.

Austin, Texas (CLOSED)

The Austin location was the third one 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 it's 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.

Columbus, Ohio

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. In fact, 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.

Akron, Ohio

The Akron, Ohio location opened in 1994 on the site of a former Goodyear Tire warehouse, that was originally built in the late 1890s. Although not one of the original, warehouse type ones, it is in a historical building in a historical area, unlike other newer locations such as Plano, Texas, Arlington, Texas, or Elk Grove Village, Illinois, which are all in buildings that were built specifically to be Spaghetti Warehouses.

Memphis, Tennessee

The Memphis location is located inside a typical warehouse of the late 19th to early 20th century. It is decorated with an original trolley used for transportation in downtown Memphis, and with doors and light fixtures of the old train station that was torn down to make way for a new post office in the 1970s. Elvis Presley left on a train when he joined the army from the old train station that was on the restaurant's current site.

Houston, Texas

The Houston location is said to be haunted, and is the company's second one and second largest, after Columbus, Ohio. It opened in 1973 in Downtown Houston. Like the Dallas location, it has two floors of dining, and is the second busiest store in the chain after Columbus.

Ybor City, Tampa, Florida

The Tampa franchise is located in the former tobacco storage warehouse of the Ybor Factory Building
Ybor Factory Building
The Ybor Factory Building is a historic site in Tampa, Florida, United States. The main factory and its surrounding support buildings cover an entire city block between 8th Avenue and 9th Avenues and 13th and 14th Streets in the Ybor City Historic District section of the Ybor City neighborhood.The...

 in the historic neighborhood of Ybor City. The building was constructed in 1886 and was the largest cigar factory in the world at the time. The walls and floors of the restaurant consist mainly of original exposed brick, and a replica of an Ybor City street car is located inside the main dining room.

Current Location List

Syracuse, New York

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

Akron, Ohio

Toledo, Ohio

Columbus, Ohio

Dayton, Ohio

Oklahoma City, Oklahoma

Tulsa, Oklahoma

Memphis, Tennessee

Tampa, Florida

Plano, Texas

Arlington, Texas

Mesquite, Texas

Dallas, Texas

Houston, Texas

San Antonio, Texas

Past Location List

Austin, Texas

Cleveland, Ohio

Rochester, New York

Buffalo, New York

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Aurora, Illinois

Elk Grove Village, Illinois

Richmond, Virginia

Norfolk, Virginia

Newport News, Virginia

Glen Allen, Virginia

Fort Lauderdale, Florida

Abilene, Texas

Fort Worth, Texas

Corpus Christi, Texas

Addison, Texas

Bedford, Texas

Irving, Texas

Stafford, Texas

Willowbrook, Texas

Little Rock, Arkansas

Charlotte, North Carolina

Columbia, South Carolina

Springfield, Massachusetts

Hartford, Connecticut

South Bend, Indiana

Providence, Rhode Island

Wichita, Kansas

Marietta, Georgia

External links

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