You mean this 'weird' restaurant?!

My first instinct is to name Chuckwagon as the restaurant to nurture my love of prime rib, but, in fact, it was this long gone restaurant chain on Kapiolani Blvd...Victoria Station. Our parents had a love of eating out that far surpassed anyone else I grew up with and stays with me today. To us, a 'home cooked meal' meant we were leaving home to go eat a meal that someone else cooked.

This restaurant had a boxcar train on the side of the building and besides the prime rib, I loved coming here because they gave me a placemat that I could fold into a cardboard train of my own! The Old Spaghetti Factory would soon use the same idea, but there the placemat would fold into a 1920's lamp...not so interesting. I even remember the red English phone booth and stuffed mushrooms (I don't think I liked them) that are still on the menu today. Yup, there is one left...in Salem, Massachusetts.