Editor’s note: This article now includes a projected opening timeframe for the restaurant.
CHERRY HILL, NJ — There’s a Roy Rogers restaurant resurgence underway, and it’s about to hit Cherry Hill.
The once-thriving fast food chain has a restaurant coming soon to the township. It will take over the former sit of PDQ, which closed abruptly last year at 614 Haddonfield Rd.
It’s expected to open sometime this spring, a Roy Rogers spokesperson told Patch.
In the late 1960s, the Roy Rogers chain launched an aggressive franchising push that led to hundreds of restaurants throughout the nation. The Roy Rogers name — lent by the actor with the same name — became a mainstay for burgers, roast beef sandwiches and fried chicken.
But the brand has dwindled in recent decades. There are now only 39 locations — almost all of which are in the Mid-Atlantic.
There are currently no Roy Rogers restaurants in South Jersey or Greater Philadelphia. Both of New Jersey’s locations are on the Jersey Shore.
Many of the remaining locations are at highway rest stops, with standalone Roy Rogers restaurants becoming a rarity.
A few years ago, the chain launched a strategy to develop restaurants in its core Mid-Atlantic market and then build outwards into different regions.
