Roy Rogers Family Restaurants
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Roy Rogers Family Restaurants is a chain of American 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 1960 through 1990.
In 1990 Marriott sold the chain to Hardee's, which greatly scaled down operations and converted many of them into Hardee's restaurants and later sold many of the remaining restaurants to McDonalds, Wendy's and Boston Chicken.
The fare was standard fast food, with roast beef sandwiches and fried chicken being featured specialties. The typical Roy Rogers served the food cafeteria-style. Patrons pushed trays on rails past stations stocked with prewrapped packages of hamburgers, cheeseburgers, and roast-beef sandwiches. A popular feature of the chain was the so-called "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 "fixin's bar" with such items as ketchup, mayonnaise, horseradish sauce, lettuce, pickles, or onions.
Some of the restaurants were independently owned and still survive, particularly in Maryland and Virginia, as well as some highway service plazas in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York and other locations along the eastern coast of the USA.
In recent years, the Roy Rogers restaurants have been revived and an initiative is underway to bring more back.