The World Famous Problem

I like to go on road trips (largely looking at lighthouses) and I have seen a lot of small town America in the process. It is rare that I see a town of any size without a world famous or at least a famous restaurant. Most of these places look like average eating establishments and I doubt that most are referenced in the tour books or restaurant guides.  But famous doesn't really mean anything beyond well known and maybe well thought of and as long as it isn't qualified by something like "World" or "Nationally" it might be very well true that this is the most famous restaurant in a small town.  Restaurants actually have criteria.  There is the ratings the health department provides and then there are offline and online ranking systems.