Would You Miss Max & Erma’s?

I read in today’s Day­ton Busi­ness Jour­nal that Max & Erma’s, a regional restau­rant chain, was being acquired by a firm out of Pitts­burgh. Bor­row­ing a ques­tion that my friend John Moore poses reg­u­larly on his blog Brand Autopsy, “Would you miss them if they were gone?” Details of the buy­out of the chain of 100+ restau­rants men­tion noth­ing of shut­ting any of them down, but if it did would there be an outcry?

As a kid, I can remem­ber my friends com­ing back from one of the orig­i­nal loca­tions in Colum­bus and telling me sto­ries of how the tables had phones where you could call peo­ple at other tables in the restau­rant. They also went on and on about “garbage burg­ers” loaded up with artery clog­ging goodness.

I can remem­ber 15 (ish) years ago, when Max & Erma’s opened in Beaver­creek, it was a big deal. There were lines out the door of the place. In col­lege, I had room mates who loved work­ing there because it was always packed — which equaled great tips for servers and bussers (which usu­ally equaled ample amounts of beer money). It seems that over time, the magic has gone away.

Now, I ques­tion just how rel­e­vant the chain is any­more. I will own up to still eat­ing there, usu­ally for carry out, more than once a month. Gen­er­ally my choice is based on the geo­graphic prox­im­ity to my home as opposed to actu­ally lov­ing the restau­rant. Con­ve­nience does mat­ter. Still, would I miss Max & Erma’s if it were gone? Prob­a­bly not — at least as it exists now.

Per­haps the new own­er­ship group will fig­ure out some ways to bring the magic back to Max & Erma’s. I hope they do. It is a long drive to any­where else and gas is not cheap. My first sug­ges­tion would be to go back to mak­ing the burg­ers from scratch. No more frozen pat­ties. Make me a garbage burger that is sloppy, messy, and per­fectly imper­fect in form and you will at least get my atten­tion. Just my thoughts.

What do you think? Will a change in own­er­ship be good for Max & Erma’s? Would you miss the restau­rant if it were gone tomor­row? If you bought the chain, what would you do to turn things around?

Max & Erma’s to be acquired for $10.2M — Day­ton Busi­ness Journal: