One of the last Howard Johnson's restaurants closes in Lake Placid, NY

On the outside, they had bright orange roofs. On the inside, they offered fried clams and 28 flavours of ice cream. 

It used to be you could go anywhere and find a Howard Johnson's -- it was, at one time, the largest restaurant chain in America. It was iconic. It was popular. Even Mad Men had the always-dapper Don Draper eat there.

This week, after 59 years of serving people food, Ron Butler closed the doors of his restaurant forever. His was one of three remaining Howard Johnson's restaurants on this continent.

"We had a very successful run and we did business when other Howard Johnson's were fading away," Butler tells As It Happens guest host Dave Seglins. "We had lots of good employees and my two boys came to work there when they were little... that was their first job."

In its heyday, you could find around 1,200 Howard Johnson's restaurants across America and Canada. Now that number has fallen to two.

"They were on the highways and they had medium-priced food which most people could afford," Butler says of the chain's initial success.

Among its signature menu items were its frankfurters -- which were soaked in butter and put on double-buttered New England-style buns -- and deep-fried clams and coleslaw.

However, the chain began its decline in the 1980's as its menu remained stale and tastes changed. As a result, it passed through many owners during that decade.

"It destroyed the restaurant chain," he says of the ownership shuffle.

Butler says that in the past four years, his restaurant has been losing money due to increased local restaurant competition.

But how did his restaurant stay so successful for so long, when many other franchisees and licencees began to fail?

"We had built up a tremendous following of local people," he says. "We were the place where people went Sunday morning for breakfast."

The two remaining Howard Johnson's are in Lake George in New York's Adirondacks and Bangor, Maine.