Roy Rogers – The King of Cowboys Still Rides Strong
As of recent reports, there are approximately 38-40 Roy Rogers restaurants across five Mid-Atlantic states: Maryland (22), Virginia (8), Pennsylvania (7), New Jersey (4), West Virginia (1). This Western-themed fast food chain refuses to fade into the sunset despite dramatic ups and downs throughout its history.
In 1968 the hotel chain Marriott purchased a Midwestern chain named RoBee’s that served roast beef, but after legal troubles with Arby’s, the first official Roy Rogers opened in Falls Church, Virginia, in 1968. The chain exploded in popularity during the eighties and nineties, becoming a highway staple for families traveling along the East Coast.
By the 1980s and ’90s, Roy Rogers was everywhere along the Mid-Atlantic highways, reaching its peak in 1990 with 640 locations. Then came the corporate shuffling that nearly killed the brand. Marriott sold it to Hardee’s, sparking conversions and closures, and by the early 2000s, only about 80 Roy Rogers remained.
The comeback story began when brothers Jim and Pete Plamondon bought the brand back from Hardee’s in 2002, as their father Pete Sr. had helped launch Roy Rogers at Marriott and later became a franchisee in 1980. After reinvesting in store upgrades in the early 2020s the company reentered the Philadelphia area with a new location in Cherry Hill, NJ in 2025, where lines at the new location stretched out onto the street.
White Castle – The Slider Pioneer Still Flipping
White Castle has been selling the same slider since 1921, making it one of the few fast food restaurant chains that have maintained such consistency, and A&W stands as the oldest fast food chain still operating today, founded in 1919 by Roy W. Allen in Lodi, California. These two giants represent the very foundation of American fast food, proving that sometimes the original formula really is the best.
White Castle’s tiny square burgers with holes punched through them haven’t changed their basic recipe in over a century. While other chains chased trends and expanded menus, White Castle stuck to what worked. The result? A devoted cult following that spans generations, with customers driving cross-country just to experience authentic sliders from the source.
The chain weathered the Great Depression, two world wars, and countless economic downturns by never losing sight of its core identity. Today’s White Castle locations still feature the distinctive white castle architecture and the same steam-grilled cooking method that founder Walter Anderson perfected in Wichita, Kansas.
A&W Root Beer – America’s First Drive-In Franchise
Founded in 1919 by Roy W. Allen in Lodi, California, A&W began as a simple roadside root beer stand, and A&W’s root beer remains its most famous product, still served in iconic frosted mugs, with the original recipe created by Allen featuring a carefully guarded secret blend of herbs, bark, spices, and berries.
What makes A&W remarkable isn’t just its age – it’s how the chain pioneered the entire concept of franchising. A&W also showed remarkable flexibility in international markets, becoming a successful international franchise. This adaptability kept the brand alive when many contemporaries fell by the wayside.
The frosted mug remains A&W’s signature element, creating a sensory experience that modern chains struggle to replicate. There’s something almost ceremonial about watching condensation form on that glass while you wait for your Papa Burger and fresh root beer.
Modern A&W locations maintain much of their retro charm while updating operational efficiency. The introduction of the “Papa Burger” family in the 1960s (Papa, Mama, Teen, and Baby Burgers) created memorable branding that appealed to families.
Howard Johnson’s – The Final Orange Roof Has Fallen
American road trips in the 1950s, ’60s and ’70s were not complete without a stop at an orange-roofed Howard Johnson’s restaurant, with more than 1,000 locations at its peak ready to serve signature fried clam strips, grilled hot dogs and 28 flavors of ice cream, but the last North American HoJo restaurant, in Lake George, New York, closed its doors on March 13, 2022 after 70 years.
HoJo’s represented the golden age of American highway travel, when families piled into station wagons for cross-country adventures. Howard Johnson’s was a pioneer of the nationwide roadside restaurant, replicating from coast-to-coast everything from its signature orange roof, cupola, the Simple Simon and the Pieman plaques, and its limited-menu food items, presaging the success of McDonald’s doing the same thing.
The chain’s downfall came from refusing to adapt. Failing to update its menu centered around fried clams, chicken, hot dogs and ice cream, its infrastructure and marketing, it couldn’t keep up with growing competition among roadside restaurants as fast-food chains like McDonald’s could provide similarly limited menus quicker and cheaper.
Current status shows Anthem, a breakfast and lunch café at the Marriott Marquis in D.C., serves a couple of Hot Shoppe Classics dishes on its lunch menu, and you can also try re-creating your favorite Hot Shoppes meals at home using the Marriott Hot Shoppes Cookbook. It’s a bittersweet ending for a chain that once defined American family dining.
Bob’s Big Boy – The Double-Decker Inventor Holds On
There are still some Bob’s Big Boys sprinkled here and there, mainly in the Midwest and California, but the chain, which peaked at more than 1,000 locations in 1979, is a shadow of its former self, founded in 1936 and best known for inventing the artery-clogging double cheeseburger and its creepy-to-some, cool-to-others mascot, Big Boy, with only a tenth of its outlets surviving after its 1987 sale and declaring bankruptcy in 2000.
Bob’s Big Boy still has a small physical presence with the Burbank location, which opened in 1949 and was deemed a California point of historical interest in 1992, as the oldest remaining Big Boy continuing to operate, complete with carhop service and weekly classic car shows, along with 52 other locations – mainly in Michigan, with a few in California, Nevada, North Dakota and Ohio.
The Burbank location has become a pilgrimage site for classic car enthusiasts and nostalgia seekers. Every Friday night, vintage automobiles fill the parking lot while carhops deliver Big Boy burgers on trays that hook onto partially rolled-down windows.
What Bob’s Big Boy pioneered – the two-patty burger with special sauce – became the template for countless imitators. The Big Mac, Whopper, and dozens of other signature sandwiches all trace their DNA back to Bob Wian’s original creation in Glendale, California.
Shakey’s Pizza – Beer and Pizza Pioneers Persist
How can you go wrong with pizza and beer? The first Shakey’s Pizza Parlor opened in Sacramento, California, as Ye Public House (except the pizza ovens weren’t ready on opening day, so it started with beer), soon becoming the first pizza chain to franchise in 1959 – a year before its rival Pizza Hut, and by 1977, Shakey’s boasted more than 500 locations in the U.S., Canada, Mexico, Japan and the Philippines.
About 40 Shakey’s still stand in the U.S., most of them in Southern California, but the chain has found greater success abroad, with nearly 300 locations in the Philippines. The brand that pioneered pizza franchising before Pizza Hut now exists primarily as a California regional chain and an international success story.
Over the years, ownership changes and fighting between the company and its franchisees added a sour note to the chain’s simple recipe for success. Yet the surviving California locations maintain the authentic Shakey’s experience – checkered tablecloths, player pianos, and that distinctive thin-crust pizza recipe that hasn’t changed since the Eisenhower administration.
International expansion saved Shakey’s from complete extinction. While American locations dwindled, the brand found new life in markets where pizza and beer combinations weren’t already saturated with competition.
Henry’s Hamburgers – One Location Stands Defiant
Before the golden arches were everywhere, there was Henry’s Hamburgers, founded in 1954 by Henry Bresler after seeing the McDonald’s operation in San Bernardino, boasting over 200 restaurants across the U.S. by the early 1960s, but the Henry’s Hamburgers in Benton Harbor, Michigan, which opened in April 1959, now stands as the very last Henry’s.
Henry’s Hamburgers was a major player in the ’50s, ’60s, and ’70s, with over 200 locations by the early ’60s – more than McDonald’s had at the time, but a rapid fall from success including failure to evolve and a controversy involving horse meat resulted in just one Henry’s location being open today.
It’s owned and operated by Dave Slavicek, who became the sole owner in 2006, and his son Mark – dedicated stewards keeping this piece of fast-food history alive, and having made the pilgrimage there myself, I can tell you it’s truly like walking into a perfectly preserved restaurant from the past.
This last Henry’s represents something precious – authentic fifties architecture, original equipment, and recipes that predate modern food engineering. The Slavicek family hasn’t just kept a restaurant running; they’ve maintained a museum of American fast food history.
The irony isn’t lost that Henry’s once had more locations than McDonald’s. The difference came down to consistency, marketing, and the ability to adapt without losing identity – lessons that echo through every surviving chain on this list.
Friendly’s – Down But Not Out
What started out as a single ice cream shop selling handcrafted cones for a nickel in Springfield, Massachusetts, grew into a nationwide chain with over 850 locations serving its signature ice cream, burgers and other casual fare, but Friendly’s has struggled to stay relevant in a crowded market, filing for bankruptcy in 2011 and 2020, with 23 locations closing from 2020 to 2022.
On July 22, 2025, the company announced Friendly’s ownership changed hands, with Legacy Brands International acquiring the company, and as of July, only 89 Friendly’s in 11 states remain, with the majority in Massachusetts and New York, though Legacy Brands says it has plans to open new Friendly’s restaurants in the South and Southwest.
Friendly’s represents the challenge facing regional family restaurants in an increasingly corporate landscape. The chain built its reputation on generous portions, reasonable prices, and that distinctive Friendly’s sundae experience – but struggled to compete with fast-casual concepts and changing consumer preferences.
If you prefer to have a sweet treat at home, Friendly’s ice cream and other frozen products are sold at grocery stores around the U.S. This diversification strategy might prove crucial for the brand’s survival, keeping the Friendly’s name alive even if restaurant locations remain limited.
Royal Castle – Florida’s Last Slider Stand
Inspired by White Castle’s iconic sliders, William Singer, an Ohio transplant, founded Royal Castle in 1938, growing to an impressive scale with over 225 restaurants stretching across Florida (its true home), Louisiana, Michigan, and Ohio, but a changing landscape and a pivotal sale in 1969 set in motion a series of unfortunate events, leading to the company’s bankruptcy in 1975.
While the main chain crumbled, a small, tenacious group of around ten independent locations managed to survive for a few years as relics of a bygone era, with numbers continuing to dwindle until 2013, when the closure of Wayne Arnold’s Royal Castle left just one solitary outpost remaining: Jim Brimberry’s Royal Castle, which remains a family affair with ownership recently transferring from Jim Brimberry’s grandson to a cousin, keeping the legacy alive.
This singular Royal Castle in Florida represents the ultimate David and Goliath story in fast food. While White Castle expanded nationally and became a household name, Royal Castle carved out its own identity in the South – particularly in Florida, where the chain became part of local culture.
The surviving location isn’t just serving sliders; it’s preserving a regional food tradition that would otherwise vanish completely. Every burger sold represents a small victory against corporate homogenization.
Chi-Chi’s – Rising From the Ashes
Chi-Chi’s was founded in Minnesota in 1975 by former Green Bay Packers player Max McGee and restaurateur Marno McDermott, once a nationwide success with over 200 locations, but the chain ceased operations in 2004 after a series of ownership changes. The coup de grace came in 2003, when green onions served at a Pittsburgh-area outpost set off the largest hepatitis A outbreak in American history, sickening 660 and killing at least four.
Now, Michael McDermott, son of co-founder Marno McDermott, plans to revive the iconic brand after securing an agreement with Hormel Foods, the owner of the Chi-Chi’s trademarks, with the deal allowing McDermott to use the Chi-Chi’s name for new restaurant locations, as McDermott opened the first new Chi-Chi’s in Richfield, Minnesota in September 2024.
A second Chi-Chi’s in Maple Grove, Minnesota, is set to debut in fall 2025. This represents one of the most dramatic comeback stories in restaurant history – a brand literally rising from the dead after two decades.
The new Chi-Chi’s faces the challenge of rebuilding trust while capturing nostalgia. Michael McDermott said he still has fond memories of growing up in the CHI-CHI’S restaurants that his father built, and aims to modernize the dining experience while preserving the iconic flavors that made the chain a nationwide success before its closure in 2004.
These surviving restaurant chains tell a larger story about American dining culture, corporate consolidation, and the power of nostalgia. They represent more than just places to grab a quick meal – they’re living monuments to different eras of American life. Each location that remains open defies the odds, maintained by dedicated owners who understand they’re preserving something irreplaceable.
What do you think about these culinary time capsules? Have you visited any of these retro survivors lately? Share your memories in the comments.
