Familiar archive pictures of the town's once most-loved diner have been shared with the Chronicle & Echo newspaper by the original Buddies Cafe owners.
The snaps show familiar faces like Betty Boop and the Statue of Liberty peering across the restaurant, and even some of the former colleagues who worked there in its heyday.
Buddies is steeped in nostaligia for people in Northamptonshire. It was the perfect family-friendly restaurant to celebrate your birthday growing up, or even as an adult. It was a rite of passage to take your friends there from different towns and challenge them to a game of Trivial Pursuit with the sticky cards on each table.
There was constant distractions everywhere. It was visually entertaining from the moment you entered the restaurant and was iconic for its huge food menus which unfolded onto the next person's lap, The Simpsons playing on loop overhead, the burgers which were named after popular culture figures and superhero statues the bosses brought back from JFK airport.
Buddies all started when the founder's friend was inspired by Hard Rock Cafe in London when it opened in 1971. Ex-boss Andrew Durthie fell in love with the food and subsequently thought he could launch his own American-style empire in Northampton.
He took dozens of trips to New York to study the diners and the ideas he took from the best burger joints, including the Trivial Pursuit cards, he brought back and used at Dychurch Lane.
On Friday, this newspaper exclusively revealed how Andrew is coming out of retirement with his business partner Terry York to start up their own venture, 81, which will play homage to Buddies.
Andrew and Terry York are now restoring the former Buddies USA restaurant at Collingtree, where they will hire ex-staff members and bring back a version of the old menu before the site opens around Christmas.
At its peak, bosses quickly grew their first restaurant from Dychurch Lane to nine Buddies diners as well as Joe's Diner, Grand Central, Buddies takeaway in Fish Street, The Blue Plate and LA Cafe in Castilion Street, with 200 staff.
