There's more to going out to eat than just "going out to eat." Sure, sometimes we just need to grab a quick bite, but to truly go out means so much more than going for the food and staying for the pie. It's an event, a special occasion, or perhaps even a ritual. We do it to celebrate. We do it to meet old friends---or to make new ones.

I'm sure it would only take most of us just a minute to think of one significant memory that happened while eating out. It might have been a first date. (Or a last date.) It might have been that time you got a big promotion at work. (Or lost a job.) It could be something as simple as the time you ate that twenty pound hamburger in less than five hours. (What? You don't remember that?)

I've heard it said that the greatest comic book ever written was the one you read when you were twelve. One could probably say the same thing about restaurants. Because nothing you'll ever do as an adult will ever have the same magical quality of the place you went to as a kid.

One of these places for me was Shakey's Pizza. To me, this was what "going out" was all about. It was fun, it was different, it was special, and it just might be the place I honed the excellent pizza-eating skills I possess yet today. My memories now are fuzzy, of course, but a few specific things still stand out clear. It was dark. I loved that. It made you feel like you were leaving the waking world behind and truly entering a new domain. (Not to mention it made swiping extra slices that much easier.) They played old movies and cartoons up on the wall. How awesome was that? I remember popcorn---or maybe it was peanuts---but you could throw a handful in the general vicinity of your mouth and it didn't matter how many hit the floor.

It would be nice to be able to go back and re-live that. But, as the saying goes, you can never go home. If for whatever reason you did try to track down an old haunt, you would now find it:

* Run down and dirty (and depressing)
* All modernized and shiny (and even more depressing)
* Torn down and replaced with a Starbucks (no comment)

So perhaps these things are best left to our memories. And I'm okay with that. Because there are still plenty of places out there to create new memories and hone new pizza-eating skills.

What magical place did you go out to eat at as a kid? Share your story. One lucky winner will receive a free slice of memory pizza.

Well, we never ate out as a kid. I do remember stepping into a hole of cockleburs going into a seafood place once as a kid. I had on knee socks and had to throw the socks away. LOL.

My first car date was to Bennigan's. The guy later came out as being gay. LOL.

There is a special place my husband and I went in college near the romantic road in Germany. It was the place we fell in love--the rest. had an attached guest rooms..LOL. We took our kids there last Christmas and it was just as magical for us--kind of a weird closure of sorts. I felt every bit as enchanted as we wondered through the creaky corridors and opened the heavy iron doorknobs into a menagerie of cooking odors.

Being allowed to draw on the back of the paper placemat while waiting for the food is a big childhood memory. And how much I dreaded restaurants with plastic or cloth placemats.

I remember my aunt and uncle taking me out for lobster when I was quite little (maybe 7) and again out for crab legs (maybe 11). Being allowed to order an expensive "adult" dish was quite a big deal.

My husband and i have been able to do that for our nephews, and it's just as fun on the other side. When my nephew Caleb was about two, his favorite restaurants were "table restaurants" (nice restaurants as opposed to fast food restaurants with booths), especially an indian restaurant we would take him to. For their birthdays, when we were living close we'd call it their day and they got to choose whether or not to take their brother (they always do, but having a choice is a big deal), and how to spend the day (within reason).

McDonald's was a treat as a kid, and it was pretty rare. We got so excited. Now, I could visit again (the same one!) and it wouldn't be run down. It's updated but that wouldn't be depressing. It's just ... ick, McDonald's makes me feel ick now :-) Except when I'm just getting a $1 big ole Diet Coke. Then I feel ick (I hate this habit) and good (in a druggie about to get her fix way) all at the same time

Eating out as a child meant Chinese--my Dad had a friend who owned the place, so we went often. And I hated everything they served.

On occasion, we'd go to the neighborhood Italian place. It was always so nice because they remembered us. I always wanted pizza, but it was too much for one person so my parents wouldn't let me have it. I did like having Coke instead of milk for dinner.

Once I was older and could go anywhere, I do remember a great pizza place by my university. Lunch there was always fun.

If I were to go back, the only place that is still open is the pizza place, and I don't think I could stomach that now. Too greasy, although it was great as a college student!

We didn't have a lot of money when I was growing up, so we rarely went out to eat. But if I had all As on my report card, the reward was going out to eat. We used to go to a Chinese restaurant. I don't remember the name, but we called the owners "Papa" and "Mama." My dad knew them. I loved going there because it was so different from what we normally ate, and I got to try to use chopsticks and use a little cup to drink tea, which my folks never had around except the powdered kind for iced tea in the summer. I got to pick my own food from the combo meal menu instead of having to eat whatever was put on the table at home.

I don't think I ever had Chinese food until I was adult. My parents were not adventurous eaters.

Mine was a pizza place too... Local guy, I think it was called Tony's or something. Sounds similar to the Shakey's - dark inside, candles on the tables, electric train tracks mounted on the walls all around the dining room and up and down the hall to the restrooms and kitchen. They ran around at the ceiling level, came down hills sometimes to run just over table level, back up, tunnels through to other rooms. There were always trains running on those tracks while you were eating. I thought it was the coolest thing ever. Paper placemats you could draw on, the first place I ever went where they gave youa handful of crayons. I remember it as the best pizza ever. Was it? I don't know now as an adult - Mellow Mushroom is pretty good and I don't think they would top that today.

We didn't get to go there often because we didn't have a lot of money, so when we did it was a treat. They closed down when I was in middle school. Last time I went by there it was an outdoor outfitter, before that it was storage for the liquor store door.

I was definitely out of college too when I first tried it. Had no idea what I was missing!

We didn't go out to eat much when I was a kid, but when we did it was Bob's Big Boy. I just thought it was wonderful because we could order whatever we wanted and have milkshakes with dinner. Several years ago my husband and I were driving cross country and there was a Big Boy's off the interstate. My husband had never been, so we went in. I was VERY disappointed. Some things should just remain memories, I guess.

We would also very occasionally drive miles across town to go to Burger King. We didn't have one nearby, and my parents refused to go to McDonalds.

For my birthday my grandparents would always take me to the Peppermill. The restaurant seemed so fancy and my grandmother would always give me a wrist corsage.

What a great idea for a thread. So many fun memories.

I remember Shakey's Pizza too!