Howard Johnson by Wyndham, still commonly referred to as Howard Johnson's, is an American hotel brand with just under 300 hotels in 15 countries. It was also formerly a restaurant chain, which at one time was the largest in the U.S., with more than 1,000 locations. Since 2006, all hotels and company trademarks, including those of the defunct restaurant chain, have been owned by Wyndham Hotels and Resorts.

Howard Johnson's restaurants originally started as a single location opened by Howard Deering Johnson in 1925 and grew into a substantial restaurant chain in the decades that followed. By the 1950s, the company expanded operations by opening hotels, then known as Howard Johnson's Motor Lodges, which were often located next to restaurants. Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, it had become the largest restaurant chain in the U.S., with its combined company-owned and franchised outlets.

Howard Johnson's restaurants were franchised separately from the hotel brand beginning in 1986 but, in the years that followed, severely dwindled in number until eventually disappearing altogether. The last restaurant, in Lake George, New York, closed in 2022. The line of branded supermarket frozen foods, as well as its famous ice cream, is no longer manufactured.

In 1925, Howard Deering Johnson borrowed $2,000 to buy and operate a small corner pharmacy in Wollaston, a neighborhood in Quincy, Massachusetts. Johnson was surprised to find it easy to repay the loan after discovering his recently installed soda fountain had become the busiest part of his drugstore. Eager to ensure that his store would remain successful, Johnson decided to devise a new ice cream recipe. Some sources say the recipe was based on his mother's homemade ice creams and desserts, while others say that it was from a local German immigrant, who either sold or gave Johnson the ice cream recipe. The new recipe made the ice cream more flavorful due to increased butterfat content. Eventually, Johnson created 28 flavors of ice cream. He is quoted as saying, "I thought I had every flavor in the world. That '28' (flavors of ice cream) became my trademark."

Throughout the summers of the late 1920s, Johnson opened beachfront concession stands along the coast of Massachusetts. The stands sold soft drinks, hot dogs, and ice cream. Each stand was successful. With his success becoming more noticeable every year, Johnson convinced local bankers to lend him funds to operate a family-style restaurant. Toward the end of the decade, the first Howard Johnson's restaurant opened in Quincy. It featured fried clams, baked beans, chicken pot pies, frankfurters, ice cream, and soft drinks.^{[citation needed]}

The first Howard Johnson's restaurant received a tremendous boost in 1929, owing to an unusual set of circumstances: Malcolm Nichols, the mayor of nearby Boston, banned the production of Eugene O'Neill's play, Strange Interlude in Boston. Rather than fight the mayor, the Theatre Guild moved the production to the Wollaston Theatre in Quincy. The five-hour play was presented in two parts with a dinner break. The first Howard Johnson's restaurant was near the theater, and hundreds of influential Bostonians flocked to the restaurant. Through word of mouth, more Americans became familiar with the Howard Johnson Company.

Johnson wanted to expand his company, but the stock market crash of 1929 prevented this. After waiting a few years and maintaining his business, Johnson persuaded an acquaintance in 1935 to open a second Howard Johnson's restaurant in Orleans, Massachusetts. The second restaurant was franchised and not company-owned. This was one of America's first franchising agreements.

By the end of 1936, there were 39 more franchised restaurants, creating a total of 41 Howard Johnson's restaurants. By 1939, there were 107 Howard Johnson's restaurants along American East Coast highways, generating revenues of $10.5 million. In less than 14 years, Johnson directed a franchise network of over 10,000 employees with 170 restaurants, many serving 1.5 million people a year.