Kenny Rogers Roasters

There are still Kenny Rogers Roasters, although none can be located in the US. The chain, which was established in America in 1991, struggled to maintain its competitiveness despite appearing in a classic Seinfeld episode. The business was started by John Y. Brown and singer Kenny Rogers, but by 1998 the company's financial status was unstable, and it filed for bankruptcy. It had 90 franchises by that point, 40 of which were in the US.

At 1998, Nathan's Famous bought the chain out of bankruptcy and as a condition of the sale, it was granted the ability to sell products with the Kenny Rogers Roasters name in its retail locations. 2008 saw the sale of the franchise to an Asian franchisee in Malaysia. On certain North American locations, including as their flagship store in Coney Island, New York, they still have the right to sell Kenny Rogers Roasters products.

The final Kenny Rogers Roasters in North America shut its doors in 2011. The chain kept running in the Philippines, Malaysia, and Asia. It also has a facility in Dubai that was inaugurated in 2015. Nevertheless, despite the free publicity that the company received from its Seinfeld episode, it never really took off in the US.