An Old-School Fast Food Chain Is Making A Comeback After Nearly Disappearing

It may seem like we live in a unique era of endless branding, social media hype, and corporate consolidation, but looking back at old-school fast food chains can remind us that in America at least this cycle has been going on for a long time. As much as we celebrate classic brands like McDonald’s or KFC that have defined fast food for generations, it can be easy to forget that there were plenty of other spots that seemed destined for immortality, only to crash and become failed restaurant chains. The American landscape used to be covered in Benningan’s, Arthur Treachers, and Chi-Chi’s restaurants, which at one time or another all probably seemed like the next big thing. (Even some very large chains we grew up with have experienced bankruptcies.) But every once in a while a spot that has declined gets a second chance to thrive, and that is exactly what’s happening to Roy Rogers.

Roy Rogers never completely went away, but in recent decades it had transformed into a shadow of its former self. The fast food spot known for its eclectic menu of roast beef, burgers, and fried chicken once had 640 locations throughout the country, but by the 2010s this number had fallen to only a few dozen. Located mostly in the Mid-Atlantic, many younger Americans have probably never seen a Roy Rogers location in the wild, despite its previous ubiquity alongside highways in the ’80s and ’90s. In fact, they almost certainly don’t even know who Roy Rogers was.

The Roy Rogers story is a strange one among chain restaurants. Roy Rogers the man was a huge movie star in the middle of the century, acting in family-friendly westerns and known as “the king of the cowboys.” But he didn’t start the fast food chain that would bear his name. The creations of Roy Rogers instead came out of a bungled acquisition of an existing chain of fast food restaurants.

In 1968 the hotel chain Marriott was the owner of another popular fast food spot of the era, the iconic LA restaurant Bob’s Big Boy. As part of its growing business Marriott purchased a Midwestern chain named RoBee’s that served roast beef. However, the competing roast beef giant Arby’s sued RoBee’s, alleging that the name and Western cowboy branding was a direct rip-off of Arby’s brand. At the time, a Marriott board member who was friends with the Rogers’ agent suggested a way to avoid the legal battle: adopting the actor’s name and image as the face of the brand. Rogers agreed, and a new chain was born.

The first official Roy Rogers opened in Falls Church, Virginia, in 1968, and the brand expanded rapidly through the conversion of other small chains that Marriott owned. In the early ’70s fried chicken and burgers were added to the menu, creating the signature mix of products that helped define the brand.

Despite peaking in 1990 Roy Rogers fall came quickly. That year, Marriott sold Roy Rogers to Hardee’s, which started converting locations. During the ’90s it also sold off hundreds of Roy Rogers to other chains like Wendy’s and McDonald’s. By the early 2000s there were only around 80 locations left.

In 2002 two brothers, Jim and Pete Plamondon, bought the brand from Hardee’s and the remaining locations. Their father, Pete Sr., had been part of the original Marriott team that started Roy Rogers, and had left the hotel company to become a Roy Rogers franchisee in 1980. The brothers had to close more underperforming locations, but they noted the deep commitment to the restaurant among fans, some of whom would write to request Roy Rogers open in their area.

In the mid 2010s the slow-but-steady Roy Rogers re-expansion was back on, with new spots opening around the company’s home in Maryland and Virginia. After reinvesting in store upgrades in the early 2020s the company reentered the Philadelphia area with a new location in Cherry Hill, NJ in 2025. Lines at the new location stretched out onto the street. The Plamondons have even retained many of the old-school charms of the chain, including a large fixin’s bar full of toppings to customize meals. Maybe a new generation of fans will come to see what many old Roy Rogers fans miss so much.