Many of us still yearn for the delicious Dutch pantry restaurant food, it is a popular eating place for most especially motorists because of the location. But since the dutch restaurant sold most of its assets, its popularity seems to have plummeted. The question now is, how many dutch restaurants are there?

Formerly the Dutch Pantry restaurant has over 130 sites around the U.S., and they currently have three privately held outlets in Clearfield, DuBois, and Williamstown, West Virginia.

So, what became of the Dutch Pantry? The Dutch Pantry in Camp Hill was soon sold to Friendly’s, which still stands. 

What is Dutch pantry?

Dutch Pantry is a family-style restaurant that serves home-cooked meals ranging from everyone’s favorite comfort dishes to authentic Pennsylvania Dutch fare. Lois Kemberling and Jess M. Kembering built their first Dutch Pantry Restaurant in 1945 along the U.S. 

11 in Selinsgrove. The “Dutch Pantry” implies that every Pennsylvania Dutch family had a huge pantry filled with delicious food. The apple fritters as a side dish. They were deep-fried flour balls with apple bits inside, then topped with confectioners’ sugar.

Dutch Pantry Restaurants are in Camp Hill, Lower Paxton Twp., Carlisle, and Gettysburg. The Dutch Pantry Family Restaurants were the era’s Cracker Barrel. They provided homestyle cooking in a unique country ambiance at freeway interchanges.

The eateries resembled Pennsylvania Dutch barns with luncheon counters, dining rooms, and a rural shop. Dutch Pantry has sites all around Central Pennsylvania.

The Dutch Pantry Family Restaurant was located where Friendly’s is today in Camp Hill.

The most notable locations are:

  1. Friendly’s at 32nd and Market Streets in Camp Hill 
  2. The Comfort Inn at Allentown Boulevard 
  3. Mountain Road in Lower Paxton Twp. 
  4. In addition, Carlisle and Gettysburg have a Dutch Pantry.

There was a massive cast-iron furnace and rough-hewn beamed ceilings.

The 1980s saw the chain fail. Rains International, operating the business under a leasing arrangement, applied for authorization to sell its assets following a 1 1/2-year bankruptcy court fight.

The Dutch Pantry in Camp Hill was soon sold to Friendly’s, which still stands on the corner.

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