The Hilltop is closing.
I have to admit, I’ve haven’t been there is a long time but will always remember the PA announcement for your table being ready in Sioux City or Kansas City. Far well fiberglass cows. I need to take the kids before it closes.
Please share widely!
I use to buy 5 pounds of chicken for $1.99 and steaks Delmonico steaks for half the price at Shaws but that was years ago.
Too bad they didn’t bring in Robert Irving and do a Restaurant Impossible episode. He could have righted the ship, I think.
Is the Chinese Restaurant up on the hill still there?
I’m sorry to see a landmark close.
During the nineties, while I lived in Dunstable (near Nashua NH), the same company closed the Nashua location with no notice to the town, employees, or — as I recall — creditors (including the landlord). There was drama, wailing, and gnashing of teeth for at least weeks afterward. Many of us who remember that were soured by the irresponsible and dishonest behavior of Hilltop.
I also seem to remember, at the time, that ownership had passed out of the original owner. That was at least ten years ago.
Shoddy business practices have a way of ultimately destroying a company, even if they initially seem to “succeed”.
and before it was the Hilltop, it was the Thunderbird. It was like some weird hybrid of a Restaurant and Motel. It was like one of the dumpy places the Griswalds stoped at on their way to Wally World. Anyway, now it is the location of the Best Buy on the Daniel Webster Highway. The DW Highway does not look like the DW of my youth at all.
I remember the Thunderbird, and your description rings true.
My family and I always preferred the Green Ridge Turkey Farm Restaurant, across DW Highway from the Thunderbird/Hilltop. South Nashua was more fun then.
then you probably remember Shakey’s Pizza (which is now an Uno’s). I worked there from age 13 until I left for Boot Camp at 19.
Note: Supposedly, at the time, the only Shakey’s Pizza east of the Mississippi River. They are all over California. They even show up in South Park episodes from time to time.
Back to Green Ridge Turkey Farm, the last time I ate there was with my parents upon graduating from Bishop Guertin High School. It is the location of the Barnes and Noble for now.
Down to the font and script a Green Ridge style restaurant awaits you in the western suburbs of Chicago called White Fence Farm, owned by the Hastert family (yes that Hastert) .
I too will miss the green neon cactus beckoning you to an oasis of seared sirloin. Fortunately Frank’s is still down the street from my house and there is a Jimmy’s Steer House in Arlington and Saugus. But I bet the Continental will be the next to go, followed by the Kowloon.
And yet, I wouldn’t bother to bring the kids. The last time that I went, which was only a few months back, it was really disappointing and not at all worth the trip.