The Old-School Restaurant Chain Owned By Walgreens That Everyone Forgot About

Walgreens is what you might call a standard drug store: They sell chips and soda and Advil, they have a pharmacy counter in back, and they're always finding ways to shove more ads into your face. However, a long time ago in a city far, far away (Chicago), Walgreens tried to open a restaurant chain that's almost entirely forgotten today. Depending on your age and your hometown, you may or may not remember Wag's, one of the many old-school restaurant chains that disappeared across America. Wag's was Walgreens' foray into the American diner or "family restaurant" scene during the mid-1970s, although they mostly existed around Chicago and throughout Florida.

Some photos of old Wag's menus are still floating around on the internet, advertising what you might expect from a so-called classic diner. There's a breakfast section with lots of omelettes, pancakes, and steak and egg combos. Entrees involve melts, burgers, and even a few seafood sandwiches. A dessert and "Sweeeeeets" section has sundaes, malts, milkshakes, and either apple or strawberry pie. They also had coloring sheets and kids' menus for the tots. A 1986 commercial shows some of these seafood entrees for now-heartbreakingly low prices of a few dollars per dish.

What was the appeal of a Walgreen's restaurant? Before Wag's became its own separate entity, Walgreens had a long history of selling hot, restaurant-quality food. It wasn't at all uncommon to order steak or ice cream sundaes inside the store during the 1940s and 1950s, much like at its competitor, Woolworth. The idea that a big drug store will only sell chips and bottled soda instead of a full luncheon is a fairly modern thing.

Wag's was comparable to 24-hour diners like Denny's, though at the time it was seen as a competitor to Woolworth's counters. To make sure customers recognized the brand, the Wag's logo was written out in the exact same font that Walgreens has used for its logo since the 1940s — it's a very recognizable and fancy "W." Walgreens finally gave up on Wag's in 1988, when it sold all of its 91 restaurants to the Marriott Corporation (now Marriott International) hotel chain. Marriott spent three years with all of its Wag's before it too gave up, and shuttered the diners for good.

After selling its diners, Walgreens focused its attention on drug stores and pharmacies, which seemed to be a smart move — running a restaurant which never closes can be tough, and even Denny's is holding onto its 24-hour service for dear life. Very little of Wag's survived its destruction: Marriott turned most of the locations into Shoney's, and some are supposedly now iHop buildings.