The Ground Round: A Retrospective

[Steels]

Easily my favorite place to eat as a child. Barrels filled with all you can eat aromatic peanuts with the shells always discarded to the floor, the sounds of the many projectors constantly running in the background filling each room with classic cartoons. Always a somewhat decent arcade with current titles. The burgers, steaks and ribs were fantastic. I was not there even once when a clown was not on premise ready to make me the animal balloon of my choice. The Ground Round was also the first place I discovered the wonderful world of free refills, at the time I couldn't even fathom such luck. As a kid and right before the "Chucky Cheese" chain was opened in the area this was where your birthday party was, this was the place you choose to go on your birthday & this was the place that all the kids would call what I call Chinatown now......GOOD TIMES! Sadly, the theme was changed at least over a decade ago and it was then just a plain steakhouse. They took away the personality and lure. Since the change the Ground Round's in my area slowly but surely faded away. Nonetheless it kicked ass while I was growing up.

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[mdr55]

Aww...memories.
Kids eat for free!

[monsterone]

nice topic steels.

i was just lamenting about the ground round of the past. especially the peanut shells on the floor.

this might have only been in my area, but did anyone else get the sundae in the baseball batting helmet?

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-kennyallenforprez-

[Steels]

Kids eat for free!

Not at the ones I ever went to.

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[Steels]

this might have only been in my area, but did anyone else get the sundae in the baseball batting helmet?

Wow, great job! One of the BEST parts of the Ground Round was ending the meal with the awesome sundae served in the plastic baseball cap you get to keep when you were done. How could I forget!



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[monsterone]

i actually found a box in the basement of those collected caps, and there was only like 12 teams- can remember which, but a lot of repeats.

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[A.J.]

Nice thread Steels!

I remember going to the Ground Round when I was a kid. All-you-can-eat baskets full of popcorn and cartoons on the screens.

I think there still may be a Ground Round in Cromwell/Rocky Hill, CT off of I-91 just south of Hartford.

but did anyone else get the sundae in the baseball batting helmet?

I used to get those at Dairy Queen. I still have my Red Sox helmet!

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[sr71blackbird]

Oh Yeah! And they had the popcorn machines always going and the cartoons, yep. I had killer steaks and surf and turf and those baseball helmet ice creams too! I went to one not long ago, after it was shut down for a few years and it was like nothing I remember, just a regular resturant now..sigh..
Those Chuck E Cheese places suck. Hamburgers that are like pressed gristle and pizza like cardboard with ketchup on top. Yuk.
That gorilla in the band use to scare me.

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[toneburst20]

I remember my parents always wanting to go on pay what you wiegh nights for kids... My meal would be all of $.96 That used to be a great place to go, with the shells on the floor, always seraching for lost quarters in the arcade room and watching my dad go through plate after plate of the all you can eat fish. Too bad they turned the Ground Round by me into a Tin Alley

The light at the end of a tunnel...... is a train

[furie]

Kids eat for free!


it wasn't free. it was a penny a pound. Whatever you weighted, that's what you paid.

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[StupidGirlllll]

There is this place called HomeTown Buffet kinda the same as Ground Round...But kids pay .50 cents per age

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[Zoefus]

I think there is still a Ground Round in Northport, LI, on Rte. 25-A. Haven't been there in years....

[The Nature Boy]

Man, good times. The first time I saw a Charlie Chaplin film was there at age 4. I remember him going through the Gold Rush machine like yesterday. Popcorn, peanuts galore. I used to go to the one in Fairfield, NJ, but that's gotta be gone for 20 years. I know there was one in West Orange, and I went to one at college in Deptford NJ

Which one did you guys go to ?

Bon Jovi Fan Since Day ONE!

[carguy]

Kids eat for free!




The one by me was pay what you wiegh. My parent would starve me all day just to save three or four cents.

[Steels]

Too bad they turned the Ground Round by me into a Tin Alley


Are you talking about the one on route 4 east in Hackensack? If so that is the one I used to go to as well. I actually stop in Tin Alley from time to time. I forgot about all the popcorn poppers and the Chaplin fims, this place just had a ton of things always going on.

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[sr71blackbird]

Id rather drink piss from a dirty ask tray than eat at Tin Alley. They use the soup pot as a toilet

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[Steels]

Id rather drink piss from a dirty ask tray than eat at Tin Alley. They use the soup pot as a toilet

I go there for drinks from time to time, I never ate there.

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