A Roy Rogers Family Restaurant currently operating at the Indian Castle Service Plaza on the New York State Thruway

Roy Rogers Family Restaurants is a chain of U.S. fast-food family restaurants, numbering over 800 at its peak, named for cowboy actor Roy Rogers. Marriott International, Inc., founded the chain, licensed the name from Roy Rogers, and operated the restaurants from 1968 through 1990. The first location opened in 1968 in Falls Church, Virginia. The chain expanded significantly with the 1982 purchase of Gino's Hamburgers.^{[citation needed]} Image File history File links One of the Roy Rogers franchises currently operating at Road #3, Route 5S, NY State Thruway, Milepost 210E, Little Falls, NY, 13385 Tel: 315-823-4350. ... Image File history File links One of the Roy Rogers franchises currently operating at Road #3, Route 5S, NY State Thruway, Milepost 210E, Little Falls, NY, 13385 Tel: 315-823-4350. ... For other uses, see United States (disambiguation) and US (disambiguation). ... A fast-food restaurant is a restaurant characterized both by food which is supplied quickly after ordering, and by minimal service. ... A casual dining restaurant is a restaurant that serves moderately-priced food in a casual atmosphere. ... Dale Evans & Roy Rogers Leonard Franklin Slye (November 5, 1911 – July 6, 1998), became famous as Roy Rogers, a singer and cowboy actor. ... Marriott International, Inc. ... Falls Church is an independent city located in Virginia. ... Ginos Hamburgers was a fast-food restaurant chain based in Baltimore, Maryland, founded by Gino Marchetti and Alan Ameche in 1959. ...

In 1990, Marriott sold the chain for $365 million to Hardee's, a Southern chain seeking to expand into the Mid-Atlantic market. Hardee's sold about 200 Roy Rogers locations to Wendy's and Boston Market, and converted the remaining non-franchised locations into Hardee's restaurants; many of the new Hardee's continued to feature Roy Rogers' popular fried chicken. The Mid-Atlantic Hardee's were generally unsuccessful, and a few years later, Hardee's tried to convert some locations back to Roy Rogers, but the products were not the same as those of the original Roy Rogers locations, and they, too, failed. Hardee's finally sold the remaining Roy Rogers locations to McDonald's, leaving just 13 Roy Rogers franchisees in existence, with approximately two dozen free-standing locations, in addition to locations owned by HMSHost that were located inside travel plazas along highways in the Northeast. This article or section seems not to be written in the formal tone expected of an encyclopaedia entry. ... Wendys is a chain of fast food restaurants founded by Dave Thomas based in Dublin, Ohio and owned by the American corporation Wendys International, Inc. ... Boston Market (formerly Boston Chicken), headquartered in Golden, Colorado, is a chain of American fast-food restaurants that was founded in December 1985, in Newton, Massachusetts. ... Host Marriott Services Corporation ceased to be an independent company when it became HMSHost Corporation and was acquired by Autogrill S.p. ...

A Roy Rogers "Fixins bar"

The fare featured roast beef sandwiches and fried chicken as specialties, plus typical fast food items like hamburgers and french fries. Though standard Roy Rogers locations served food in a typical fast-food fashion, the franchises located throughout mid-atlantic highway rest-stops would serve the food in a cafeteria style. Patrons would push their trays on rails past stations stocked with prewrapped packages of hamburgers, cheeseburgers, and roast-beef sandwiches. A popular feature of this chain in any of the locations was the so-called "fixins bar" (sometimes spelled with an apostrophe as "fixin's bar"). Sandwich items were delivered without any of the customary garnishes. After selecting and paying for these items, patrons could garnish them to their own taste at the "fixins bar" with such items as ketchup, mayonnaise, horseradish sauce, lettuce, tomatoes, pickles, and onions. Image File history File links Fixins bar at one of the Roy Rogers franchises currently operating at Road #3, Route 5S, NY State Thruway, Milepost 210E, Little Falls, NY, 13385 Tel: 315-823-4350. ... Image File history File links Fixins bar at one of the Roy Rogers franchises currently operating at Road #3, Route 5S, NY State Thruway, Milepost 210E, Little Falls, NY, 13385 Tel: 315-823-4350. ... Fast food is food prepared and served quickly at a fast-food restaurant or shop at low cost. ...

Some of the restaurants were independently owned and still survive, particularly in western Maryland and Northern Virginia, as well as some highway service plazas in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, Delaware, and other locations along the East Coast of the United States. A Roy Rogers in eastern Cincinnati is believed to be the only open location west of the Appalachian Mountains. A lone Roy Rogers sits across the street from the main entrance to Penn Station on 7th Avenue in New York City. There is also a Roy Rogers in the D terminal at Baltimore/Washington International Airport. In the United States, Canada and parts of Europe, a rest area, rest stop or service station is a public facility, located adjacent to a highway or interstate, at which drivers and passengers can eat and drink, take a stroll, let their children play in grassy park-like areas, walk... Pennsylvania Station is one of New York Citys main railway stations, sharing the Pennsylvania Station name with several stations in other cities. ... Nickname: Big Apple, City that never Sleeps, Gotham Location in the state of New York Coordinates: Country United States State New York Boroughs The Bronx Manhattan Queens Brooklyn Staten Island Settled 1613 Mayor Michael Bloomberg (R) Area    - City 1,214. ... Baltimore/Washington International Airport serves the Baltimore, Maryland and Washington, DC metro-region. ...

In recent years, the Roy Rogers restaurant chain has been revived, and an initiative is underway to bring more locations back. As of 2005, 55 restaurants are operating under the Roy Rogers Family Restaurants name.

External links

• Roy Rogers Restaurants website