Village Inn Pizza Parlor: Lenoir, NC

Wherever a vintage dead mall is to be found, it seems nearby that other vintage items tend to linger.  Places like this ultimately survive, but tend to not update due to multiple factors including that they simply do not have to since they are surrounded by old things and probably do not get the business to modernize as often.  In Lenoir, I found many such places along Morganton Blvd including an abandoned car wash, a very retro 2-screen movie theater and last but not least this gem of a pizza place.

Village Inn Pizza Parlor is not to be confused with the larger Village Inn chain, but does seem to be part of a once national chain that was fractured into similar, but smaller operations run by local businessmen.  Other separately run locations of the same name are found in Michigan and Illinois.  I also covered on this blog a possible former location next to Tri-City Mall.  This place doesn't serve pancakes, and this set of restaurants only has 12 locations in the Foothills/Piedmont region of North Carolina.  This North Carolina group in particular is run by Ray Lackey Enterprises.  Reviews of the restaurant are generally good, but it is also stated that every location is very old as well.  All seem to have distinctive and dated designs, but the one I'm featuring here stood out enough for me to turn around for a few pics with a highly eye-catching Bavarian A-frame design coupled with a 1970's period road sign. 

A moody bavarian-gothic A-frame building with a dimly lit interior greets diners which apparently were few in number early in the afternoon.  The skies were just as moody with a severe thunderstorm about to hit.  The first photo is the sign posted along Morganton Blvd (U.S. 64) looking southwest.

Angry skies overlook a small, quaint and fascinating pizza place.

Since I did not try it, I have no opinion on the food here.  One thing I do know is that apparently each location has its own distinctive design.  The location in Morganton has a Spanish influence, including arches.  Its original location, according to the website, was in Statesville.  My guess on the chain is that it probably has not seen any significant update in 30 years hitting their stride in the mid-to-late 1970's.  I guess that they do what they can to stay profitable.  I would love to hear if anybody has tried this time warped local pizza chain.  Places like this are part of the joy of traveling: especially these archaic chains with dated architecture that give every community some distinction as well as something new for me to blog about.