My mom took me to Friendly's all time when I was a kid. Can't say I remember the prices but she would always leave a $5 cash tip. I would always get hamburgers.
A tremendous success story is Waffle House. Probably because its employee owned. People start at Waffle House at age 18 and never leave, the people there for 30 years make millions. I had a regional manager come up to me a couple years ago and asked how my meal was and introduced himself. He was like 50, and I asked him if he was the franchise owner and he just laughed and said their are no franchises at Waffle House since they are 100% employee owned, but he did say he worked there for over 25 years. He left when I did, and he hopped in a loaded Escalade.