Ohio:
Rax Roast Beef (my late brother's first job)...where they had the most delicious curly fries and chocolate chip shakes
Shakey's Pizza Parlor. Friday night family dinner, where we'd climb onto a 'catwalk' to watch the pizza dough being stretched, toppings applied, then thrown into a big pizza oven. Anxiously awaiting our pizza's arrival, we'd sit at a communal black picnic tables, refilling our glasses from plastic pitches of soda (a big treat), serenaded by a player piano...and if we were lucky, a silent movie. A favorite childhood memory.
Chi Chis. growing up in small town Ohio, Mexican food and fried ice cream was quite exotic, Many a first dates held there.
Max and Erma's....when calling your friends, seated at a nearby table, seemed like such a novelty. Bonus points awarded to a special memory...as my big sister kindly allowed me to tag along with her and her popular friends to their 'antiprom' at Max and Erma's, when I was just a lowly freshman.
The Elephant Club...a Columbus bar that was a rite of passage. Felt like it was one of my first 'grownup' experiences....going out for a cocktail in Cbus.
Maisonette. I so wanted to dine there, as it was a 'special event' restaurant for my parents. Sadly, it closed before I could visit.

Chicago
Charlie Trotters. In its heyday when I was a broke, post college, young adult. For several years, I worked in the restaurant business in Chicago...but never made it to Trotters. I cried when I read Charlie had died...not only for a great chef, but a good man.
RD Cluckers. Their spicy chicken fingers with pesto (my first pesto!) was my restaurant delivery addiction. I felt SO sophisticated eating pesto

...and saving the best for last

Jerry's Fried Chicken on Amelia Island (Fernandina Beach), FL. An old gas station, transformed into a drive thru restaurant..serving the best fried chicken (crispy, spicy, juicy) I have ever eaten. Sadly, no longer in business.

And although they are not restaurants...Mean Mr Mustards (Columbus) and Excalibur (Chicago) are places I killed many a brain cell by drinking and dancing the night away. Ah, youth