Kentucky Roast Beef?

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Groceteria
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Re: Kentucky Roast Beef?

Post by Groceteria »

TheQuestioner wrote:Can't say I've ever seen evidence of Kentucky Roast Beef in the east, but who knows?
There was one in Charles Town WV, of all places. I remember it from visits as a child. It was a combo unit, with fried chicken, roast beef, and ham; I think all three were somehow mentioned in the exterior signage, but I can't swear to that.
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Re: Kentucky Roast Beef?

Post by rich »

Roy Rogers also had significant presence in the Midwest. They opened outlets in Ohio in the late 60s, around the time that the chain changed names from "RobBee's" to "Roy Roger's". "RoBee's" seemed like a turn on "Arby's"
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Re: Kentucky Roast Beef?

Post by marshd1000 »

I also remember that in the late 1970's, there was another fast food chain owned by KFC. It was called, Zantigo's. It was KFC's answer to Taco Bell and Taco Time. Obviously, this was before Pepsi bought KFC and Taco Bell. I only remember seeing maybe two Zantigo's. One was a free standing unit in a former Burger Chef location in White Center south of Seattle. The other was a short lived combo unit with KFC in Downtown Seattle. Does anyone else remember Zantigo's?
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Brian Lutz
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Re: Kentucky Roast Beef?

Post by Brian Lutz »

I don't ever recall seeing a Zantigo (then again, when I lived in New Mexico Taco Bell was pretty much the only national fast food chain in the area, everything else was local.) Someone's actually revived Zantigo in recent years as a small chain (6 restaurants) in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area. They have a website at http://www.zantigo.com/.
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Re: Kentucky Roast Beef?

Post by Groceteria »

Burger Chef divergence moved here.
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Re: Kentucky Roast Beef?

Post by krogerclerk »

I recall seeing a Kentucky Fried Chicken in Boone, NC that sold Kentucky Roast Beef in the late 70's. The building was the traditional old school KFC design, bucket sign and all, but in the brown and white color scheme of Lendy's owned KFC's as opposed to red and white. I assume Lendy's may have operated many of these combo units throughout its territory, primarily Virginia.
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Re: Kentucky Roast Beef?

Post by jimbobga »

In response to "The Questioner" regarding if there were any other roast beef chains that got started during the late sixties and early seventies that no longer exist...there was a chain in Florida called Beefy King. The red-and-gold signs with a crown at the top were a lot more impressive than the buildings that they advertised. I know there was one in Cocoa, one in Melbourne, and one in Orlando, and possibly others. Because of the similarity of the name 'Beefy King' to 'Burger King,' I'm wondering if this was possibly some sort of experiment by Burger King. I hadn't considered that until now, and I really kind of doubt that they were at all related. The restaurants closed by 1976.
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buckhead
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Re: Kentucky Roast Beef?

Post by buckhead »

jimbobga wrote:...there was a chain in Florida called Beefy King. The red-and-gold signs with a crown at the top were a lot more impressive than the buildings that they advertised. I know there was one in Cocoa, one in Melbourne, and one in Orlando, and possibly others. ... The restaurants closed by 1976.
Actually the one I remember in Orlando (just west of Colonial Plaza at 424 North Bumby Avenue) is still operating under that name today! The sanwiches were pretty good, but the store is quite humble in appearance.

Here is a link to their website:

http://www.beefyking.com/

And a link to an non-photographic image of their snazzy sign:

http://www.beefyking.com/images/beefykingMain.jpg

And a link to a photograph of the sign as it appeared in full regalia:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/marinadedave/9392520/

And links to the sign as it pretty much looks now (the top has suffered some loss of design elements):

http://genuineflorida.com/blog/wp-conte ... fyking.jpg

And finally, a link to an article with a bit of history about the location and the chain:

http://www.orlandoweekly.com/dining/place.asp?id=5440
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Re: Kentucky Roast Beef?

Post by carolinatraveler »

I can confirm that there was a "built for that purpose" Kentucky Roast Beef restaurant in Hampton, Va. Located on W. Mercury Blvd, just west of the middle traffic circle known as Sinclair Circle, it was located about 200 yards from what had been the first KFC in the area, that sat directly on the NE quadrant of the traffic circle. It appeared about 1969, from memory, and lasted two or three years. The building was identical to the one shown in the opening post in this string. I'd always thought that they had been operated by the same franchise.
I can also confirm that the KFC in Canton, NC was a dual KFC-Kentucky Road Beef that still had signage of that nature as late as 1990 - I may even have a photo somewhere.
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Re: Kentucky Roast Beef?

Post by Ohio Man »

marshd1000 wrote:I also remember that in the late 1970's, there was another fast food chain owned by KFC. It was called, Zantigo's. It was KFC's answer to Taco Bell and Taco Time. Obviously, this was before Pepsi bought KFC and Taco Bell. I only remember seeing maybe two Zantigo's. One was a free standing unit in a former Burger Chef location in White Center south of Seattle. The other was a short lived combo unit with KFC in Downtown Seattle. Does anyone else remember Zantigo's?




They had a number of locations around Cincinnati, including one downtown I used to go to in the '80s. They were gone by the late 80's/early 90's, though.
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Re: Kentucky Roast Beef?

Post by Jeff »

What a trip today. I drove down State College Blvd today looking for the old Burger Chef, and two blocks south, found the old Kentucky Roast Beef location I mentioned above. It still looks the same and has the same sign still out front. I dont know how long its going to be there, since the place was closed up.

Here it is today.
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Re: KFC roast beef restaurants????

Post by jaymike »

I grew up in the metro Atlanta area during the 1960’s through 1980’s. Atlanta was an ideal place for corporations to try out new products and services. One was a 7 Eleven type shop where shoppers could choose groceries and food stuffs from a drive-up kiosk, push a selection button, then drive up to a pick-up window to receive the groceries. But in 1966, Kentucky Fried Chicken decided to try out a new food line called “ROUND’R ROAST BEEF”. The company built a 2 level restaurant at 3886 North Druid Hills Road in Dekalb County, GA. The logo was a smiley face character wearing a “Hoss-style” 10 gallon hat and licking his lips. I have recreated, from memory, what this logo looked like. Apparently, KFC was not satisfied with the outcomes because 2 years later, the place became a duo KFC/Kentucky Roast Beef and Ham shop. By 1972, however, the Roast Beef division closed down and it was just “KFC” until the late 1980’s when the property was sold to McDonalds.

Link to the logo:

http://img827.imageshack.us/img827/430/rounderlogo.jpg


Link to the shop location on Google Maps

http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&q=nor ... a=N&tab=wl
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Re: Kentucky Roast Beef?

Post by Gunter Caddington »

There was a Kentucky Roast Beef on the West side of Lankershim, between Erwin and Sylvan in North Hollywood (somewhere around 6200 or 6300 Lankershim). I don't think it was open very long as a KRB. A look at Google Maps shows that the building is still there, with a lot of recognizable features from its KRB days. It also looks like it's been abandoned for years.
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