here's an interesting twist -- places that went away and now are coming back again...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/10/09/AR2005100901075.html

only folks around d.c. might recognize roy rogers restaurants but they were a staple around here in the 1980s. along with "hot shoppes," which i guess are gone for good. but it's funny; i hardly ever hear of anything coming back from obscurity like this.

***

(Katherine Frey For The Washington Post)

"Washington will lose another homegrown retail brand when Hecht's turns into Macy's next year, but there's another Washington retail icon riding back into town.

Roy Rogers is returning.


Brothers Jim and Pete Plamondon, whose father helped plan and launch Roy Rogers in 1968, say it wasn't the brand that caused the chain to collapse.

Once a dominant and beloved regional fast-food chain based in Bethesda, Roy Rogers was decimated starting 15 years ago by several corporate owners, when the company was at the top of its game. Raided for its real estate and eventually sold off piecemeal to competitors, the homey, western-themed Roy's faded around the same time that so many other well-loved Washington names disappeared: Kitchen Bazaar, Crown Books, Woodward & Lothrop, Garfinckel's and Hechinger.

But unlike those chains, which are only memories now, Roy's never totally died. A handful of hardy franchisees stuck it out through the '90s, scattered here and there -- in places such as Frederick and La Plata -- with no corporate support, making little if any money and often using the same tired logos, furniture and signs that had graced the chain in the 1980s."

here's an interesting twist -- places that went away and now are coming back again...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/10/09/AR2005100901075.html

only folks around d.c. might recognize roy rogers restaurants but they were a staple around here in the 1980s. along with "hot shoppes," which i guess are gone for good. but it's funny; i hardly ever hear of anything coming back from obscurity like this.

***

(Katherine Frey For The Washington Post)

"Washington will lose another homegrown retail brand when Hecht's turns into Macy's next year, but there's another Washington retail icon riding back into town.

Roy Rogers is returning.


Brothers Jim and Pete Plamondon, whose father helped plan and launch Roy Rogers in 1968, say it wasn't the brand that caused the chain to collapse.

Once a dominant and beloved regional fast-food chain based in Bethesda, Roy Rogers was decimated starting 15 years ago by several corporate owners, when the company was at the top of its game. Raided for its real estate and eventually sold off piecemeal to competitors, the homey, western-themed Roy's faded around the same time that so many other well-loved Washington names disappeared: Kitchen Bazaar, Crown Books, Woodward & Lothrop, Garfinckel's and Hechinger.

But unlike those chains, which are only memories now, Roy's never totally died. A handful of hardy franchisees stuck it out through the '90s, scattered here and there -- in places such as Frederick and La Plata -- with no corporate support, making little if any money and often using the same tired logos, furniture and signs that had graced the chain in the 1980s."



Yup, I remember Roys up here in NYC. They even had commercials.  :)

OMG! someone responded to my roy's post!11!one.

it's been four months since i first saw that article. i wonder if they're actually opened back up yet. i want a roy's cheeseburger.

There was a Roy Rogers in the Station Square shopping Plaza in Pittsburgh,PA
not sure if its still there though...

there were a handful that got sold to individual owners and have survived, but they're very few and far between.

There were two Roy Rogers restaurants in Atlantic City NJ...the one on Atlantic Avenue is now 'Pizza Di Roma' and the boardwalk Roy Rogers is now an Atlantic Books store.

I liked the salad bars in Roy Rogers. Same for their baked potatoes.

there's one in a mall up around where my grandmother lives (northern jersey)...not sure exactly where it is.

i was just at a roy roger's in december at a truck stop somewhere between vermont and pennsylvania.  i couldn't taste any of the food since i had a wicked cold.

there's still a few around here but they're hard to find. i wonder what the latest is with the big roy's comeback?

Yup, I remember Roys up here in NYC. They even had commercials.  :)



There used to be a Roy Rogers at the shopping center across the park that divided my neighborhood and the next neighborhood.  I think it closed around 1996 or so and they made it into a Wendys.