Roy Rogers, Making A Comeback - 50 East Coast Franchises, Nearly 20 in Maryland and Virginia

[Heather]

So heart gloggingly, gut bustingly fulfilling. And some kind of pinkish root beer that was so sweet it made your teeth ache.

That must be birch beer. It tastes like root beer crossed with bubblegum. Great stuff. Every now and again I want some, and the only place that seems to have around here is Giuseppe's Pizza in Rockville.

A trigger burger and a birch beer would hit the spot right now...

[Scott Johnston]

I had a RR Roast Beef Sandwich today (@ the MD house). No longer lives up to the expectations, mostly the bun was crap. The beef is no longer rare. The horsey sauce is still top notch.

[Al Dente]

If you look at the Restaurants and Dining forum right now and position your scroll bar just right, you can see the words "Roy Rogers", "Arby's", "Bojangle's" and "Citronelle" on the same screen.

Apocalyptically,

Al

Edited to add Bojangle's

[DanielK]

I had a RR Roast Beef Sandwich today (@ the MD house). No longer lives up to the expectations, mostly the bun was crap. The beef is no longer rare. The horsey sauce is still top notch.

The re-emergence of the brand started in 2002 when the family of a past Marriott/RR exec bought the brand. There are some 60-something locations now, but most of them are still franchised. The quality varies substantially, and the old Roy Rogers experience can still be found at the locations that the Plamondon family actually operates. Their website is woefully out of date, so no way of using that as a tool, but I can say that the few sandwiches I've had a the Germantown location are miles ahead of the crap at the I-95 rest area.

[Robert Clair]

... i take my bicycles to the Spokes One at Belle View/Belle Haven. so off to the shop today ...

... and while outside there were several tour buses at "Roy's". remember when those buses stopped at Roy's at King and Washington back in the day.

now they are here in droves. it's ok. anyway i told one of the teachers about the grist mill and the distellary ... what they were missing. i think several of those chaparons could have have used a spot on later ...

what do we know

robert clair

alexandria, va

[Robert Clair]

dang, now we really are impressed !

when we went to the belle view safeway at noon today, there were three full bus coaches, and two half-size coaches outside of "Roys". at the same time. i assume they all pre-order, but that's a lot of "burgers and fries" to get out of that little location.

just think if they knew there was a 5 guys nearby

robert clair

alexandria, va 22308

[MsDiPesto]

Back in the 80s, my spouse of the time had the task of entertaining people who won awards in the aviation industry. At the time, the person being recognized hailed from Clovis, NM, and he brought his spouse. We never learned his wife's first name, she was always "Mrs. X". Other items of interest we learned were that man was superior to other living things, including women, and that he could "heal" aircraft engines...yeah, some of these guys were more rustic than others....

A big part of the recognition was taking them out to see the sights and go to dinner every night at one of the nicer (at the time) DC dining destinations. I would go when I could to help "wrangle" the guests.

Once, we were taking them down to Mt. Vernon, and drove past the RR at King and Washington. They saw it and said with awe "Is that the Roy Rogers' restaurant?"

[Dave Pressley]

I haven't eaten or much less, thought about eating at a Roy Rogers in a long, long time. Just seeing this discussion is making me get a craving for the roast beef sandwich there, smothered in their BBQ sauce. I just wonder if my "Little Buckaroo" club card would still work to get me a free one on my birthday? (I bet my mother has it stashed in a box somewhere with my old soccer trophies and report cards.)

[DonRocks]

It's a classic "What was I thinking?" moment. Driving down Route 15 north of Frederick, there was a Roy Rogers sign on the highway. The conversation went like this:

"I haven't seen a Roy Rogers in ages."

"Yeah, didn't they close?"

"I'm not sure, but I haven't seen one in about 15 years."

"You know, I think I read something about some guy in Frederick opening a couple of them. Trying to recreate what they used to be like a long time ago."

"Should we go?"

"Yeah, I'm curious."

Here's what I got as my reward:

Fried Chicken ($6.19, two pieces) with french fries, biscuit, and soda. I took one bite of a french fry, and knew what a mistake I had made. Deep-frozen, blanched, barely salted, and impossibly devoid of flavor - even by potato standards - there was an ever-so-slight cherry-tomato-like "squirt" because the frying oil had gotten into the potato. These made Wendy's fries (which are just horrible) look like they come from Palena. Then, the chicken. They say that smells and tastes can evoke long-buried memories, and I know from experience that this is the case with me. The seasoning on this chicken is not what little animated Pappy Parker screamed about a generation ago (despite being originally owned by Marriott, Roy Rogers was actually good fast food in its day); no, this seasoning is exactly what I'd had about ten years back at Waterside Mall when I finally swore this chain off for life. The only saving grace to this chicken is that the salty dredge didn't penetrate the meat, and the center was pretty much what you'd expect if your palate had been numbed out by nerve damage - you know you're chewing on chicken meat, you can feel something hot in your mouth, but you can't taste anything at all. In a rare exception to the rule, the white meat here was better, or less worse, than the dark meat because the quality of the chicken was so low. The biscuit took the prize: it was literally thrown back into the bag after one bite. The only thing to taste was salt and shortening, and the shortening aspect was so dominant that you could smell it from several feet away.

This was by far the worst food I've had since I began actively writing reviews last December. As critical as my reviews might be, they're almost always about restaurants worth criticizing, and I rarely have a meal that could be considered "terrible." There have been a couple of clunkers - Kora and Lost Dog Cafe come to mind - but using the Kangchenjunga solo climb as my litmus test, this meal stands alone as being - not just bad, but malevolent. Essentially, if you were trying to summit Kangchenjunga alone, without a guide, and there was a flash blizzard resulting in a whiteout, and you were stumbling around, freezing and blinded, and night was setting in, and you happened upon an abandoned, makeshift yurt, and this meal was sitting inside it, and the sustenance from the calories was the only thing that was going to prevent this shelter from becoming your icy tomb, your final resting place, would you eat this food? It would be a perfectly legitimate choice, an honorable choice, and perhaps even the thinking man's choice, to opt out and die rather than suffer this chicken dinner from Roy Rogers.

[kmm]

Did they happen to have the Apple Crisp on the menu? My all time favorite fast food dessert!

[Destruya]

Well damn.

Having driven out to Leesburg and noticed a Roy's there, I wondered "gee, should I give it a shot when I've got time to drive out here again," but that writeup just made me save my gas. I do have fond memories of Roy's from the days when my mother used to periodically drive me up to NY to visit my grandfather. If we were making good time, we'd hit one with a Bob's Big Boy in it, if not, it was Roy's, and I never minded either after the long boring stretch of road that is the NJ Turnpike.

The place I *WISH* would open up here is a chain that's more prevalent (but waning) in the central VA marketplace - Bullets. If you see one in a Sheetz station don't bother - it has to be one of their Rally's/Checker's-like drive-thru locations for it to be any good. Last time I was in Richmond I looked on Broad Street for one and couldn't find one that hadn't been closed or demolished, so I'm wondering if they're just franchising now. Going to their website, there isn't a single mention of where to find one, just franchise information. One would think they'd list the locations.

[TheMatt]

The most important question is: Do they still have the Fixins Bar?

(Note: It's been so long since I've been in a Roy Rogers, that could be a different restaurant that had that. Heck, I still remember when Wendy's had the Super Bar...)

[KMango]

The most important question is: Do they still have the Fixins Bar?

(Note: It's been so long since I've been in a Roy Rogers, that could be a different restaurant that had that. Heck, I still remember when Wendy's had the Super Bar...)

Waaaaaaaaay back in undergrad freshman year, I found myself in a frenzied state. The stress of too many classes whirling around me, still a stranger to nearly everyone on campus, missing the beach, aching for everything that was home. Roy Rogers was kind of like Hardee's, so they said at the time. I did not have a car, nor anything approximating a positive cash flow. All I had was a dorm two miles from Roy's, and pocket change literally collected from sidewalks and sofas.

I wanted a Hardee's hamburger more than anything in this world. The pickle, ketchup, onion, all of it, perfectly steamed bun, memory-induced bliss from times spent with high school pals! So I walked the two miles over, got my burger, and trekked back to the dorm to zap it and enjoy it. I wanted the symbolism of enjoying that moment in my dorm alone, not with more strangers in a plastic restaurant.

As I opened the bag, my heart must have leapt a little. And as I pulled back the foil, that same heart plummeted through the ground in disappointed disbelief. No ketchup. No pickles. No onions. Nothing but a wretched puck of a burger, void of everything tasty and interesting. This had to be a mistake, a cruel mistake, fate playing mockingbird by denying my simple moment.

I later learned about the "Fixin's Bar". And I wondered which profit-driven wraith was responsible for robbing my joy.

(i have since recovered fully)

(and the only fixin i need)

(is this one)

[MsDiPesto]

The last Roy Rogers outpost I saw was the one in Old Town Alexandria. It holds a particular memory for me even though I never ate at that particular one. Sometime in the very late 80's or early 90's, the ex worked for an association that gave an award of a technical nature. The winner was flown to DC, and wined and dined. My ex got the job of taking the winner and his wife out on the town, and I tagged along to help handle things. We benefitted from going out more than we could on our paltry salaries at the time.

One day, the ex was driving them down to see Mt. Vernon without me along, and as they drove past the Old Town RR, the couple exclaimed "Is that the Roy Rogers restaurant?" (they were from Clovis, NM). Ex responded that, well, it was a Roy Rogers, and if they liked, they could go to lunch there after seeing Mt. Vernon.

We're quite certain that lunch at Roy Rogers was the highlight of their trip, never mind all the linen napkin places of the time we took them to. Especially after their last night in DC when they were kind enough to share their bottle of champagne that the hotel had given them with us, and we heard about how he healed aircraft engines by laying his hands on them, and how man had dominion over all the earth (including women - no, I didn't hit him over the head with the champagne bottle)...Aaaarrrrghh!

[dcs]

The last time I ate at a Roy Rogers was at this one, and we called it Chez Roger. I had a roast beef sandwich and labored under the delusion that loading up the sandwich with fixings from the fixin's bar was just like getting a free salad. Go figure.

[drsmoke]

This was by far the worst food I've had since I began actively writing reviews last December. As critical as my reviews might be, they're almost always about restaurants worth criticizing, and I rarely have a meal that could be considered "terrible." There have been a couple of clunkers - Kora and Lost Dog Cafe come to mind - but using the Kangchenjunga solo climb as my litmus test, this meal stands alone as being - not just bad, but malevolent. Essentially, if you were trying to summit Kangchenjunga alone, without a guide, and there was a flash blizzard resulting in a whiteout, and you were stumbling around, freezing and blinded, and night was setting in, and you happened upon an abandoned, makeshift yurt, and this meal was sitting inside it, and the sustenance from the calories was the only thing that was going to prevent this shelter from becoming your icy tomb, your final resting place, would you eat this food? It would be a perfectly legitimate choice, an honorable choice, and perhaps even the thinking man's choice, to opt out and die rather than suffer this chicken dinner from Roy Rogers.

So, I'm thinking maybe you didn't especially care for it!

Don, you need to give Roy's the benefit of a doubt, I promise if you try it again, it will be just as bad, maybe worse.

[zoramargolis]

When I first moved to DC in 1996, the location where the Tenleytown McDonald's is now (corner of Wisconsin and Van Ness) was a Roy Rogers. And McDonald's used to be where ZBurger is now. J has many admirable qualities, but his fondness for fast food burgers is not among them. Before we were unpacked, while we were fixing up our house, in order not to spend much money for carryout meals, we ate many Roy Rogers lunches and dinners. It was easier to find a parking place there. I am not celebrating its return.

[jayandstacey]

The most important question is: Do they still have the Fixins Bar?

(Note: It's been so long since I've been in a Roy Rogers, that could be a different restaurant that had that. Heck, I still remember when Wendy's had the Super Bar...)

They have the fixins bar:

- lettuce

- yellow-ish tomatos that are hard and only edible as they are sliced thin

- onion

- pickles

- sauces

OK, so I hate to admit I'm kind of a Roy's expert, having eaten at the south Frederick location, the Thurmont location (where I presume Sir Rocks ate), the Leesburg, both Germantowns, I-95, even Cumberland, and all in the last, say, year or two.

I'd say its a rough place to eat but with two kids and not much free time, it beats McDonalds. Something about McDonalds leaves me feeling less-than-well. Having said that...

I kind of like their scrambled egg platter. It ain't great, but about as good as I'm going to get without leaving my driver's seat. My daughter likes the double-R-bar-burger, which is a burger with ham on top.

On the northeast side of the City of Frederick, just off the rte 15 Motter ave exit, the old Freez King just reopened. I went by there Tuesday night (48 hours ago) and while I liked the Shake Shack burger and bun much better, this is kind of on a par with five guys. I say kind of, as I prefer the five guys flavor - but the Freeze King has some interesting combinations like goat cheese with garlic mayo - and some local ice cream and awesome shakes. At about $2 more than Roy's, this would be a better option I'd say. Note that it has no indoor seating.

[Go for Gin]

I stopped going to fast food places years ago since I also get that "less than well feeling". I was never sure if it was just me or if there was actually something wrong with the food. Judging from all the responses here, I think it might be the food!

[jayandstacey]

On the northeast side of the City of Frederick, just off the rte 15 Motter ave exit, the old Freez King just reopened. I went by there Tuesday night (48 hours ago) and while I liked the Shake Shack burger and bun much better, this is kind of on a par with five guys. I say kind of, as I prefer the five guys flavor - but the Freeze King has some interesting combinations like goat cheese with garlic mayo - and some local ice cream and awesome shakes. At about $2 more than Roy's, this would be a better option I'd say. Note that it has no indoor seating.

The old Freez King appears now to be reclosed. Their website still looks exciting but the building now houses an asian take out place.

In other news, Roy Rogers marches on.

[DaveO]

It's a classic "What was I thinking?" moment. Driving down Route 15 north of Frederick, there was a Roy Rogers sign on the highway. The conversation went like this:

"I haven't seen a Roy Rogers in ages."

"Yeah, didn't they close?"

"I'm not sure, but I haven't seen one in about 15 years."

"You know, I think I read something about some guy in Frederick opening a couple of them. Trying to recreate what they used to be like a long time ago."

"Should we go?"

"Yeah, I'm curious."

Here's what I got as my reward:

Fried Chicken ($6.19, two pieces) with french fries, biscuit, and soda. I took one bite of a french fry, and knew what a mistake I had made. Deep-frozen, blanched, barely salted, and impossibly devoid of flavor - even by potato standards - there was an ever-so-slight cherry-tomato-like "squirt" because the frying oil had gotten into the potato. These made Wendy's fries (which are just horrible) look like they come from Palena. Then, the chicken. They say that smells and tastes can evoke long-buried memories, and I know from experience that this is the case with me. The seasoning on this chicken is not what little animated Pappy Parker screamed about a generation ago (despite being originally owned by Marriott, Roy Rogers was actually good fast food in its day); no, this seasoning is exactly what I'd had about ten years back at Waterside Mall when I finally swore this chain off for life. The only saving grace to this chicken is that the salty dredge didn't penetrate the meat, and the center was pretty much what you'd expect if your palate had been numbed out by nerve damage - you know you're chewing on chicken meat, you can feel something hot in your mouth, but you can't taste anything at all. In a rare exception to the rule, the white meat here was better, or less worse, than the dark meat because the quality of the chicken was so low. The biscuit took the prize: it was literally thrown back into the bag after one bite. The only thing to taste was salt and shortening, and the shortening aspect was so dominant that you could smell it from several feet away.

This was by far the worst food I've had since I began actively writing reviews last December. As critical as my reviews might be, they're almost always about restaurants worth criticizing, and I rarely have a meal that could be considered "terrible." There have been a couple of clunkers - Kora and Lost Dog Cafe come to mind - but using the Kangchenjunga solo climb as my litmus test, this meal stands alone as being - not just bad, but malevolent. Essentially, if you were trying to summit Kangchenjunga alone, without a guide, and there was a flash blizzard resulting in a whiteout, and you were stumbling around, freezing and blinded, and night was setting in, and you happened upon an abandoned, makeshift yurt, and this meal was sitting inside it, and the sustenance from the calories was the only thing that was going to prevent this shelter from becoming your icy tomb, your final resting place, would you eat this food? It would be a perfectly legitimate choice, an honorable choice, and perhaps even the thinking man's choice, to opt out and die rather than suffer this chicken dinner from Roy Rogers.

....and as I was reading this thread, thinking fondly of both Roy Rogers and Gino's, what I had considered to be reliable and sometimes tasty fast food alternatives I came across this description of Roy's current offerings.

...bubble burst.

[jayandstacey]

....and as I was reading this thread, thinking fondly of both Roy Rogers and Gino's, what I had considered to be reliable and sometimes tasty fast food alternatives I came across this description of Roy's current offerings.

...bubble burst.

My prior post above was from about 18 months ago. I haven't been back since. I don't miss it. Nor do I miss the 20 pounds I've lost since.

[ol_ironstomach]

I never thought I'd welcome Roy's back to life, especially after enduring years of the UMd location, but after encountering too many McD's sausage McMuffins with bits of bone or that faintly ammoniated aroma, Roy's breakfast items are something of a welcome alternative, if you stoop to the occasional junk food breakfast as I do.

[The Hersch]

I've never been a regular customer of any of the fast-food chains, but I do like to give credit where due. McDonald's serves horrible food, except for their french fries, which, if just out of the fryer, are really very good. I've confessed in another thread to a fondness for Popeye's fried chicken, and their red beans and rice as well. It's been quite a while since I had anything from a Roy Rogers outlet; it's certainly been since before the chain was put down decades ago. But even back in the day, their fried chicken wasn't any good, and I think lamenting how lousy it is today is rather a waste of energy. (The fried chicken at Roy's wasn't even as good as the fried chicken at Hot Shoppes, its elder sibling, and that wasn't any good either.) What Roy Rogers did pretty well in its earlier incarnation was hamburgers and roast-beef sandwiches, which, if you slathered them with the horseradish sauce at the "fixin's bar" were more or less palatable. Not good, but far from disgusting. Can anyone comment on the burgers or roast beef (and the horseradish sauce, if they have it) at the newly incarnated Roy's? I pass by on US-15 every two months on my way to my dog's groomer and back, and haven't stopped in, but might do so later this month if I can resist Chubby's in Emmitsburg.

[Joe H]

Well...I have never been a fan of Roy Rogers. I would suggest that Chaps on route 40 a mile or so off of I 95 just north of the Harbor tunnel is a model for the kind of sandwich they should do. I've also never thought Pappy Parker's fried chicken (in Hot Shoppes or Roy's) could compare to Popeye's or even a North or South Carolina Bojangles for fast food fried chicken (better than the ones that used to be around here). I suppose if the model was Arby's then Roy Rogers would do well.

But I never stopped at Arby's either.

[DonRocks]

Well...I have never been a fan of Roy Rogers. I would suggest that Chaps on route 40 a mile or so off of I 95 just north of the Harbor tunnel is a model for the kind of sandwich they should do. I've also never thought Pappy Parker's fried chicken could compare to Popeye's or even a North or South Carolina Bojangles for fast food fried chicken (better than the ones that used to be around here). I suppose if the model was Arby's then Roy Rogers would do well.

But I never stopped at Arby's either.

Joe, *any* Baltimore pit beef sandwich would put both Roy Rogers and Arby's (both processed, formed, pressed "meat by-product" to shame). Surely you know this.

[mickswagger]

if you are going to roys and expecting anything in the food department to be outstanding, or stand out, prepare to be disappointed. where roys cant be beat: THE BEST CUSTOMER SERVICE. i go to the one in leesburg off market st. everytime i go, the employees are in genuinely good spirits and the air of southern hospitality is definately present. the "hi and how are ya"s are awesome, but the kicker is the manager making rounds in the dining room, bringing after dinner mints to finishing customers. thats gangsta!

[johnb]

I do recall a story in the WaPo many years ago, probably in the late 70's, in which the secret food likes of several big time local chefs of the period were confessed and revealed. The item that came up more often than any other was Roy Rogers fried chicken. I believe the story was on the level. So some folks with food creds apparently liked it. Which would suggest it couldn't be all that bad, at least back in the day.

[Note: FWIW this is a repeat of a post I made in this thread (#12) in October 2005.]

[Justin Bittner]

I know this is off topic but as a chef I can attest to the fact that we do generally eat crappy food. I have a love I cannot explain for Taco Bell crunchy tacos with hot sauce. After 12 hours of cranking out well prepared dishes all I really want is something fast and easy. Popeyes fried chicken, a taco or what have you, I'm all about it. I can't even be bothered to heat up food already prepared in my fridge. It just comes with the job I guess.

[mbucher]

Do we dare mention Gino's ?

[DonRocks]

Do we dare mention Gino's ?

With Pappy Parker's Fried Chicken and the Double-R-Bar Burger?

No. No, I don't think so.

(Didn't they have a Steak Burger as well?)

[Chris Cunningham]

Anytime I've stopped at the Belle Haven, Rt 1 or the Rt 7 Leesburg Roy's , the burgers and fries have always been great.....nostalgic and good.... The only complaint being that after I finish my holster of fries... That the holster really doesn't fit my Glock that well

[Joe H]

I believe Carroll Rosenbloom, the owner of the Baltimore Colts in the late '50's, bankrolled the startups of both Gino's and Ameche's. These are a couple of really interesting links for Ameche's http://charleneclarkstudio.blogspot.com/2010/02/meetcha-at-ameches.html (yes, that's KFC shown in the photo of Ameche's sign) and https://sites.google.com/site/theboysofnorthwood/drive-ins which is a fascinating blog for those of us who may be older and grew up in the area with visits to Bawlmer. One of its essays is particularly worth reading for those of us who ever had this experience: https://sites.google.com/site/theboysofnorthwood/the-timonium-drive-in

...coming of age in Baltimore.

Gino's started as a McDonald's kind of fast food walkup while Ameche's was similar to Top's, some Hot Shoppes and the Mighty Mo Drive Ins with "teletrays" and carhops. I briefly worked as a car hop at the old Bethesda Hot Shoppe.

[Toogs]

I got a big old box of chicken for snowquester. Even though I could easily have left my house, I didn't.

[DaveO]

I'm feeling giddy: $50 contest gift certificate opportunity for Roy Rogers: http://947freshfm.cbslocal.com/enter-to-win-a-50-gift-card-to-roy-rogers/

[Lydia R]

The Plamondons are still plugging along and making progress -- more history than update here: https://www.eater.com/2017/6/16/15805126/roy-rogers-restaurant-comeback-history