Ask the 100 or so diners why they chose to spend their Tuesday at the revived Ground Round in Shrewsbury, and they’ll share a memory with you. “You got to bring the hats home,” said Sam Johnson while holding a miniature red baseball helmet full of sundae. “How fun is that?” Johnson and her mom, Laurie Johnson, used to go to the Ground Round because it was a family-friendly place, and at least in Shrewsbury, the place to be. Every table had complimentary popcorn, kids would run around and throw peanuts on the floor, and some families would get warm, yet unwelcome greetings from a person dressed as a clown who went by the name of Bingo. Not all Ground Round locations were the same, according to Joseph and Nachi Shea, the owners of Massachusetts’ first Ground Round in decades. But their main components always included a comfort food menu and being a place for families. It was a time when the casual chain restaurant reigned supreme, and kitschy themes and decor were comforting. The Johnsons returned decades later for a trip down memory lane on April 30, in a much brighter Ground Round that looked like a log cabin inside and with the hokey 80s aesthetic turned down just a tad. According to Joseph Shea, the food is fresh, of higher quality, and made in a scratch kitchen. A meal at the Massachusetts-based chain always ended with a helmet ice cream, which made a return to the menu, and that’s exactly what they did on Tuesday. “All the kids want them, but the amount of adults that are ordering it is really cool to see,” Joseph Shea said. In fact, there were few kids in the buzzing dining room — the day before their grand opening — and in the line of eager diners waiting for an empty table to open up, despite the fact that there was Cartoon Network playing on a couple of televisions, and there was a person in a dog costume (named Peanut) handing out high-fives to guests. It was mostly adults, eating plates of classics like steak tips and healthier additions like turkey wraps, excited to revisit a place that had in a small way defined their New England youth. Carol Lynn Tomaiolo and Mary Brenner were former employees of the old Ground Round, which was located just five minutes away from the new location on Route 9. They pointed out decor, like a carousel horse, that used to be in the old restaurant. “I remember we used to smoke behind the bar,” Tomaiolo said. “It was the 80s, it was a different time.” Ashley and Walter Derosier both grew up in Shrewsbury, spending their Sundays first at the beloved but now closed Spag’s, then at Ground Round. They don’t remember much, Ashley Derosier said, because they were so little. But they do recall using the penny-a-pound scale, in which kids’ meals would only cost a child’s weight in pennies. Surprisingly, the group of Ground Round fans on Tuesday didn’t find the scale as traumatizing as Bingo the Clown, and parents who brought their kids to the old restaurant, like Laurie Johnson, loved taking advantage of the deal. Ashley and Walter Derosier brought their son, Walter, for the first time to the new Ground Round on Tuesday. Also announced that day: the return of the penny-a-pound scale. As long as they also got an adult entree, the Derosiers left paying $0.68 for young Walter’s meal. “It’s basically for free,” Walter said. Now might be one of the toughest times to open a sit-down restaurant that was a chain with more than 200 locations at its peak. Because of rising costs of food and changing diner habits, household chain names have filed for bankruptcy or closed down multiple locations in the last couple of years. The Ground Round’s story ended even sooner than the pandemic and inflation. Though there are still four midwest locations left, Howard Johnson’s offshoot that began in Shrewsbury in 1969 filed for bankruptcy in 2004, the same year its first location closed. But the Sheas are banking on the nostalgia of the Ground Round — their own and clearly that of the town. “What I remember is going there with my teammates after your games,” Joseph Shea said. “It was the place you went with your group of friends.” They brought back what matters: American comfort food like wings and burgers, fair prices, a dining room that’s separate from the bar, and the complimentary popcorn. And they left behind what should stay in the 90s: dark interior, peanut-covered floors, and Bingo. “We’re happy it’s the hound and not the clown,” Sam Johnson said.