Roy Rogers
Roy Rogers operates about 56 restaurants nationwide including this one in Burtonsville, Maryland. The chain is in the process of expanding.
(Photo provided by C. Kurt Holter)
Roy Rogers restaurants nearly faded into the sunset in the 1990s. Now, a bit of fast food nostalgia is wrangling up a comeback.
The chain, named after the cowboy movie star, is slowly resurrecting its name, mostly in the Mid-Atlantic states including Pennsylvania.
"We are talking to several people right now about the Philadelphia, southern New Jersey market," said Jim Plamondon, CEO of The Plamondon Companies, owners of the brand. "Harrisburg makes all the sense in the world as we start to fill in those territories."
The Double R Bar Burger from Roy Rogers restaurants.
The company bought the trademark in 2002, and ever since has been slowly rebuilding the Roy Rogers brand.
In 2016, the Frederick, Maryland-based Plamondon opened six new franchise locations, including a handful in New Jersey. By early this summer, a Roy Rogers will open in Matamoras in northeastern Pennsylvania near the New York state border.
Plamondon, who operates the company with his brother, Pete Plamondon, Jr., said not a week goes by someone doesn't write a letter or call saying how much they miss Roy Rogers.
"People still have an affinity and a love of this brand," he said.
Today, the closest Roy Rogers are found at five travel plazas in Pennsylvania including the Blue Mountain Travel Plaza in Newburg and Cumberland Valley Travel Plaza in Plainfield.
At one point, more than five Roy Rogers restaurants operated in the immediate Harrisburg area. At the time, Davenports, Inc. owned about 15 of the Roy Rogers restaurants scattered throughout south central Pennsylvania.
In the 1990s, the Roy Rogers name all but disappeared from the fast food map when its former parent company Hardee's converted some of the restaurants and sold others off. The number of locations dropped from 650 to 75 franchise locations nationwide.
To the rescue came the Plamondons, who purchased the trademark from Imasco, former parent company of Hardee's.
Their father, Pete Plamondon Sr. was a Marriott executive and one of the founders of Roy Rogers. He also was one of the earlier Roy Rogers franchisee owners.
"The chain really shrunk in numbers, not because it was broken but because Hardee's was buying and selling for the real estate," Plamondon said.
Since 2002, they have been tweaking the brand and its franchise program. They pruned back the number of locations, weeding out owners who didn't adhere to their standards.
The company now oversees 54 Roy Rogers restaurants.
Plamondon said they are looking for franchise owners who have the financial resources and restaurant experience but also share their values.
"Our challenge is to find the right people. You've got to have a certain ability," he said.
As for the chain, Plamondon said it considers itself to fit between a fast food restaurant like McDonald's and fast casual restaurants such as Chipotle. The food is a higher quality than fast food with USDA Choice Round roast beef that is slow roasted and sliced to order for sandwiches, he said.
Roy Rogers is known for its "holy trio" of fried chicken, roast beef and burgers as well as a Fixin's Bar where diners customize their sandwiches with fresh toppings.
"It's just a different slightly upgraded version of fast food. We have a lot of guests who say, 'I don't eat at fast food but I eat at Roy Rogers.' That's the niche we want to be in," he said.
This story was updated to correct the number of units Roy Rogers operates to 54 restaurants.