Kenny Rogers Roasters

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Kenny Rogers Roasters is a chicken restaurant that was started in 1991 in the United States by country music musician Kenny Rogers and former Kentucky Fried Chicken owner and original developer John Y. Brown, Jr. The menu was originally centered on wood-fired rotisserie chicken.

[edit] History

Kenny Rogers Roasters old logo

By 1995, the menu had expanded to include turkey, ribs, and various side dishes, and the chain had expanded to over 350 restaurants, including locations in Canada, the Middle East, and Asia.

In 1998, the company went through a restructuring, which resulted in its acquisition by Nathan's Famous, Inc., completed on April 1, 1999; as a result of restructuring, many locations closed. Today, according to Nathan's Famous corporate web site, there is only one U.S. Kenny Rogers Roasters operating at the Ontario Mills mall in Ontario, California. Some of the company's Miami Subs Grill locations feature Kenny Rogers Roasters menu items, along with Nathan's Famous hot dogs and Arthur Treacher's fish items.

[edit] Television References

The restaurant was featured in a November 14, 1996 episode of Seinfeld entitled "The Chicken Roaster." In the episode, Kramer boycotts the restaurant due to its red neon sign shining into his bedroom and affecting his sleep. But he is unable to sustain his own boycott after becoming addicted to the chicken. Newman uses the line "it's the wood that makes it good" to describe the chicken, but the restaurant closes at the end of the episode, much to Kramer's despair.^{[citation needed]}

On the November 27, 1997, episode of Late Night with Conan O'Brien, Rogers failed a blind taste test to correctly identify his brand of chicken, choosing NBC Commissary chicken over Kenny Rogers Roasters.^{[citation needed]}

The restaurant was referenced in an episode of the Fox animated series Family Guy when Peter and his friends go to an erotic book store which was formerly a Kenny Rogers Roasters.^{[citation needed]}