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There was a SAMBOs on Azusa Avenue, below Gale Avenue, in the City of Industry, CA. It is still standing. It had been an Asian site for quite some time...yet, I believe it is now sitting vacant.

Dean wrote:There was a SAMBOs on Azusa Avenue, below Gale Avenue, in the City of Industry, CA. It is still standing. It had been an Asian site for quite some time...yet, I believ it is now sitting vacant.

Azusa and Railroad. I forgot about that one. It was Eddoko Japanese for almost 15 yers.

The Sambo's in San Bernardino CA was on Highland Avenue, east of Waterman Avenue. It became Baker's Square. It is currently Denny's.

I don't know the exact address, but there was a Sambos on Arden Way in Sacramento. Went there a few times when I was a kid in the early 70s.

There was one here on Atwood Ave. in Cranston, RI.

Yes that was a Sambos at I-10 and Indian Hill just north of the freeway. It is a Bakers Square as mentioned in a previous message. Moved to the area in 79 and remember it being open before their demise.

The Mission Viejo Sambo's was located in a small center near the intersection of Puerta Real and La Alameda. If you look at the Google Maps overhead view, it was located in the northern third of the top most red roofed building that's nestled between Puerta Real and the NB lanes of I-5. This was a music store for years after Sambo's vacated the space, but I have no idea what's in there now.

The San Clemente store was located at 610 Camino De Los Mares. It's now a Baker's Square.

They were both built around 1975.

I'd be interested in finding any more Sambo locations outside of California. So far in my home state of Michigan I've found four.

The Taco Bell in West Des Moines, IA is running out of an old Sambo's.

They even had the old booths up until a couple of years ago when they replaced them with some old worn booths from a different recently remodeled or demolished Taco Bell.

The Taco Bells in this town are just sad...

The El Patron mexican restaurant at 65th and Folsom in east Sacramento is an ex-Sambo's...

TheStranger wrote:The El Patron mexican restaurant at 65th and Folsom in east Sacramento is an ex-Sambo's...

Last time I ate there it was called "Mexico 70" and was painted red. Food was not too shabby.

oh dear god yes i do the only one i can remember just before they morphed into dennys is still in business in richmond va this one's on the west end on west broad street about a block or 2 from i64-west across the road from the corprate HQ for philip morris

Jeff,

The City of Industry Sambo site (was a Korean BBQ restaurant a few months ago) is now vacant and up for lease. I just noticed the for-lease sign yesterday evening as I drove through the area. I think the parking lot (off Railroad) was part of the alignment/right of way of a street vacated by the city, Depot Street, and was there prior to the construction of the railroad underpass on Azusa (possibly at the time Sambo's opened).

By the way, when Sambo originally opened on Azusa (don't know when), the street address may have been different since that section of Azusa was referred to in the 1960's and 1970's as either "Anaheim-Puente Road" or "Pass and Covina Road". The street name was changed to Azusa sometime in the mid 1970's (around the time the Puente Hills Mall was built).

luckysaver

UPDATE 4/19/2009 Building still vacant, for-lease sign missing.

This website has many vintage shots of Sambo's in several states;
http://www.sambosphotos.com/

Daniel wrote:Fresno had two, one on Fulton street downtown that's still standing, and one on Blackstone and McKinley that was demolished after "Season's" went out of business.

The one in downtown Fresno that used to be on Fulton and moved to Van Ness has been converted into a steakhouse called Joe's Steakhouse. It has western-themed decor but you can definitely tell it used to be a coffee shop. There is one in Bakersfield on 354 Oak St. that is now a Mexican restaurant called Lamina's. It still looks like a building from the 1960's. Here are some links with more information:

http://www.fresnofamous.com/node/4762

http://freetv-airconditioned.blogspot.c ... field.html