49. Lyon’s

Lyon’s was a diner chain that was founded in San Francisco, California, in 1952. The restaurant chain’s founder was Lyons Magnus, a syrup wholesaler at the time. Lyon’s would change hands more than once throughout its lifetime. Consolidated Foods Corporation (later known as Sara Lee) bought Lyon’s in 1966.

At that time, it had sixty-five restaurants in the West and a yearly turnover of $100 million. But, Lyon’s did not find itself as fortunate as other diner chains like Denny’s. It filed for bankruptcy in 1998 and went defunct in 2012. Though it briefly returned in 2015, those locations went under in 2017.