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Roy Rogers Lives?


I'm back from Philly, wearing a shirt covered with cat hair to prove it. I took a train there after work on Wednesday, which brought me to Penn Station in the city. I haven't been to Penn Station in years, but if you can somehow picture a train terminal mixed with a dilapidated shopping mall mixed with enough hardcore city grime to build a second city solely out of grime, that's Penn, and that's where I spent two hours waiting for a train last Wednesday night.

Since I was going to get to my hotel pretty late, the odd assortment of eateries in Penn Station provided my only opportunities for dinner. The place is kind of like an airport, and whenever I'm in an airport alone, I feel too stupid to go to any real, respectable restaurant. The rare times that I have, I rushed through the entire meal making sure to be on my cell the entire time, because I have a complex about eating out alone and can't stop thinking that everyone is looking at me.

So, aiming to eat quick, I stumbled onto a disgusting food court composed of several small fast food joints. I say it's disgusting, but the place was great. Looked like it hadn't been remodeled since the 1600s, with stained glass touches, all kinds of weird, broken tile mosaics, and the ultimate showstopper: A Roy Rogers.


Roy Rogers restaurants used to be all over the place when I was growing up, and I often lobbied to marry their fried chicken. Then, they all went away. The franchise didn't completely die off, but there were just a handful of restaurants left for a great many years. While the owners are now trying to rebuild the once great house of chicken, it's been a slow burn, and this tiny shack in the middle of Penn Station is the only Roy Rogers I've seen for roughly a decade. Obviously, I had to eat there.

Research tells me that this particular restaurant is probably privately owned and not a true franchisee. It was tiny, gritty and staffed by demons, but against all better judgment, I handed a dirty hand my five bucks and left with a tray full of familiar fried fowl and a misshapen biscuit. Incredibly, the chicken tasted exactly the same as I'd remembered. Crispy, crunchy, oily and guilt ridden.


They even had the Fixins Bar! The mighty Fixins Bar! The place where customers could doll up their sandwiches with all kinds of day-old toppings and unmarked condiments!

This means nothing to you if you're in one of the few towns where Roy Rogers restaurants are still competitive with the larger fast food chains, but for me, it was like someone let me borrow their time machine with the rule being that I could only use it to eat food once loved.

I didn't finish the chicken because the only seat left in the place was a tiny table practically attached to the order counter and I felt really dumb eating there, but now, whenever life throws me a curveball, I'll know that salvation in the form of binge eating can be found in the filthiest corner of Penn Station. Yay!

Happy SNT.

Posted by Matt on 02/10/2007. E-mail me!



Discussion Thread: 266 comments
1 2 3 … 11

First comment hopefully
THat is fantastic

Chestnuts roasted by Steph @ 02/10/2007 8:54 PM

Yay, one of the first posts. Its for Special K

Chestnuts roasted by Rache @ 02/10/2007 8:55 PM

I myself have eaten at this dirty dirty Roy Rogers and I must admit that, although tasty, I would have walked the extra 20 steps to the Pizza Hut Express next door =)

Chestnuts roasted by BrianTone @ 02/10/2007 8:59 PM

Awesome. Roy Rogers was everywhere when I was a kid.
I had forgotten all about it actually.

Chestnuts roasted by SuperRecoome @ 02/10/2007 9:15 PM

Wow I am proud to say I have eaten at a Roy Rogers! I prolly would have enjoyed it more if the flies were not puking, pooping and flying all over the fixin’s bar.

Chestnuts roasted by IHAQ @ 02/10/2007 9:15 PM

Hmmm, they don’t have Roy Rogereses in the South (at least, I have never seen or heard of it outside of X-E) BUT I will say the missing “I” in “FIXINS” and the brick interior still make this a magical SNT.

Chestnuts roasted by The Manimal @ 02/10/2007 9:16 PM

Actually, if you go down 95 through Delaware/Maryland, there are still some Roy Rogers restaurants inside the giant Rest Stop Houses along the way. Also, apparently, there are others in New York, but according to the Roy Rogers Website, they’re mostly upstate.

Chestnuts roasted by Ell @ 02/10/2007 9:16 PM

In the world of KFC, Popeye’s, and Zaxby’s…is there room enough for good ole Roy to truly make a comeback?

Chestnuts roasted by Ragnarok @ 02/10/2007 9:18 PM

Replace Zaxby’s in my example with Bojangles. It’s more fitting in this form.

Chestnuts roasted by Ragnarok @ 02/10/2007 9:19 PM

Matt! Since you’ve started writing articles again, I’d like to remind you that there’s a Comic Con in New York February 23rd. Me thinks X-E goes on location?? Yes??? (yes…)

Chestnuts roasted by Mattman @ 02/10/2007 9:37 PM

Coke + Chicken + Blendtec Blender = Cochicken = Will It Blend? is perversely entertaining.

Chestnuts roasted by K- @ 02/10/2007 9:53 PM

I’ve been to that Roys and it’s really nasty in there. There’s also a Nathan’s and Dunkin Donuts right there all crammed together in a dirty glorious mess.

Chestnuts roasted by rocketsauce @ 02/10/2007 10:06 PM

KFC, Popeye’s, and Church’s.

I’ve never heard of Roy Rogers until now, but that Fixins bar looks mighty wonderful.

Chestnuts roasted by lindsay @ 02/10/2007 10:11 PM

I always saw Roy Rogers at rest stops when we used to take road trips. I never went because they were always against Nathan’s. And Nathan’s is so, so good.

Chestnuts roasted by Katherine @ 02/10/2007 10:14 PM

Is Kenny Rogers still in the chicken business?

Chestnuts roasted by K- @ 02/10/2007 10:14 PM

Does anyone remember a fast food chain called Rax? There was one in a food court in a mall where I grew up in Portland, Oregon. All I really recall about it was that it had a mascot, an alligator named Rax who was plastered all over everything. They made sandwiches. I’m not even sure they had burgers. And why I remember any of this eighteen years later is anyone’s guess.

Drew

Chestnuts roasted by Drew @ 02/10/2007 10:16 PM

Manimal, you speak of Zaxbys. As far as I know they are almost all in SC. And started here. You must be close by. But ya, they are not in the roy rogers league. The only roy rogers I have ever seen was inside a rest area in Kentucky or Ohio…I am not sure which state I was in at the time…it was late and I had to pee.

(also the web site just told me I cannot post a comment within 15 seconds of my last one. It’s been an hour. How do people double post on here?
)

Chestnuts roasted by Rache @ 02/10/2007 10:18 PM

It’s an acquired skill Rache. You just wait slightly more than 15 seconds. If it already has been 15 seconds (or you haven’t posted at all and it told you to slow down for no apparent reason) just submit it again.

Chestnuts roasted by K- @ 02/10/2007 10:20 PM

Hmm…Roy Rogers? ‘Never heard of it, myself.

Chestnuts roasted by Retro Playback @ 02/10/2007 10:29 PM

I’ve only eaten at Roy Rogers once. When I was 8, with my dad. I have absolutely no memory of what the food tasted like, but I DO remember getting a nifty “AAAAHHHH! Real Monsters!” toy.

I ate at Penn Station once too, back in 2002. The day I left New York to go to Orlando and have the best vacation I’ve ever had. I had Dunkin’ Donuts and some coffee. So, I have good memories attached to Penn Station.

Chestnuts roasted by Steve E @ 02/10/2007 10:32 PM

Nice find! Congratulations on the billion hits on the soda article.

Chestnuts roasted by Fox @ 02/10/2007 10:45 PM

Drew YES! They totally had those here. And when you were little you got the Uncle Aligator Meal. Yeah, that was our after church on Sunday restaurant when I was growing up.

Chestnuts roasted by kb @ 02/10/2007 10:53 PM

Here’s the inner-city Milwaukee lineup of fine chicken establishments:
1. Popeye’s
2. Church’s
3. Gold Rush Chicken (27th and North)
4. JJ’s Chicken and Fish (the j’s in the name look like fishhooks)
5. Shark’s Chicken and Fish (There’s an inflatable shark atop the place in summer months.)
6. Champion Chicken (on Burleigh)
7. Chicken Man (merged with Gianelli’s Pizza, 87th and Fond du Lac)

Any other Milwaukeeans out there, help me out with the list!

Thorzul

Chestnuts roasted by Thorzul @ 02/10/2007 11:01 PM

There used to be a Roy Rogers on a rest stop at Ocean View on the Garden State Parkway in New Jersey, and that was the closest (and as far as I know, only) Roy Rogers near me for years. I THINK it’s since been replaced with a Burger King.

KFC is the only chicken franchise I really have any familiarity with. There’s one in North Cape May and there WAS one in Wildwood, right off the main bridge (it’s closed during the winter and there were threats of a permenant shut-down as of early 2006). Never heard of any of the others mentioned above. Never saw a Popeye’s in my entire life until I moved to Philly/Camden suburbs.

Chestnuts roasted by starwenn @ 02/10/2007 11:04 PM

If we’re going to just start naming chicken places, then I feel obligated to include Chik-Fil-A, the undisputed king. Although it wouldn’t be a great “after church” location for kb’s Sunday outings [Closed :( ]

Chestnuts roasted by BrianTone @ 02/10/2007 11:06 PM

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