Remember Joe Namath’s Lake Worth restaurant?
It will be a half-century ago this January that Joe Namath made “the guarantee.”
The quarterback, who shook up pro football with his flashy lifestyle and “Broadway Joe” moniker, boldly predicted that his upstart New York Jets would defeat the Baltimore Colts in the 1969 Super Bowl at the Orange Bowl in Miami. And on Jan. 12, 1969, he pulled it off, 16-7, that image of his finger raised in a No. 1 salute emblazoned in sports legend.
Later that same month, he made another promise, but this one didn’t turn out quite so victorious.
“I have an obligation to the public that they get good food, good service,” Namath told a congressional hearing on the restaurant franchising industry. “If they’re not happy with the restaurant, they won’t be happy with me.”
He was talking about Broadway Joe’s, a chain of six restaurants in New York and Florida, for which he served as chairman of the board for a group of investors. Banking on Namath’s star cachet, they had plans to quickly build a string of 50 restaurants nationwide.
As he spoke to senators, Broadway Joe’s was about to open its first Palm Beach County location — at 1820 Lake Worth Road, just west of today’s I-95 overpass. Land had been earmarked for another one in North Palm Beach. And the company even planned to develop real estate — buying
land to build a 1,600-unit apartment complex in Delray Beach.
Was Broadway Joe going to be the next Ronald McDonald?
It didn’t turn out that way. The company, which increased to 11 franchises, started losing money, and by September
1970, The New York Times reported that Namath had resigned as chairman.
It was his second business defeat in as many years. In 1969, his hip Manhattan singles bar, Bachelors III, came under the scrutiny of the NFL for allegedly being a mobsters’ hangout. The league demanded that Namath give it up. He refused and resigned from football at a news conference marked by tears and defiance (“I’m not selling, I quit,” he said), only to return a month later after dropping his interest in the bar.
Broadway Joe’s didn’t have all that swinging ’60s baggage. Still, it was pretty cool for a family-friendly fast-food joint.
It started with the sign, featuring a larger-than-life Namath in his familiar No. 12 jersey, cocking his arm back to throw another perfect spiral. Inside the restaurant, pictures of Namath on the field were framed above the counter. Staff wore No. 12 jerseys. Other signs were in the shape of footballs.
We can’t say how good the food was, but the mouth waters at these prices.
The Quarterback Burger: 65 cents. The Touchdown Roast Beef Sandwich and Football Hero sub: 75 cents each. Most of the individual menu items — fries, onion rings, corn on the cob — were less than a buck, plus there were refreshments from shakes to pink lemonade to Miller High Life on tap.
The Lake Worth location opened in February 1970 but had a grand opening the next month with rumors that Namath would appear. He apparently didn’t. A big ad in The Post proclaimed “Joe Namath Is Throwing A Party.”
The ad described a “Superburger” as “A 3-decker thriller that’s beefier than Joe’s forward wall … The name of the game: FLAVOR!” And there was a “Get That Quarter Back” promotion that would give you 25 cents off your next purchase with a receipt.
It’s unclear how long Broadway Joe’s lasted before it punted. Today, the address is home of the City Without Walls Church, just outside the Town and Country Shopping Center. The North Palm Beach location never was built.
As for Namath himself, he still lives quietly in Tequesta, where a nearby neurological research center is named after him at Jupiter Medical Center. And, ironically enough, he’s just down the road from upscale restaurants owned by three other sports legends — 1000 NORTH, partly owned by Michael Jordan and Ernie Els, and Tiger Woods’ The Woods.
You can bet they’re not selling a hunk of meat for less than a buck. That’s a guarantee.