You May Have Forgotten Kenny Rogers Roasters, But It's Still Thriving Overseas

Longtime "Seinfeld" fans won't soon forget the iconic episode, "The Chicken Roaster," where Kramer (Michael Richards) gets hooked on Kenny Rogers' chicken. Falling on Jerry (Jerry Seinfeld), he wails, "I need that chicken; I gotta have that chicken!" In another viral Comedy Central Roast, comedian Andy Samberg quipped, "Someone must have told the producer that this was a panel of Kenny Rogers Roasters, because you guys are a bunch of chickens." Indeed, in contemporary America, Kenny Rogers Roasters is largely preceded by its various media references. However, if you just dropped in to see what condition the condition was in, it turns out that Kenny Rogers Roasters restaurants still exist — just not in America.

The first Kenny Rogers Roasters opened in Florida in the early '90s, but today, the chain's presence is even larger in the Asia Pacific than in America, with over 200 individual locations across the continent. While the official KRR website doesn't list the chain's exact restaurant locations, it does share an infographic conveying Kenny Rogers Roasters' presence in Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Phuket, the Philippines, Kuwait, Dubai, Bangladesh, India, and the Maldives. In fact, no KRR locations remain in the U.S. at all (despite the website's claim that the brand still has a presence there).

By 2008, nearly all U.S. stores had already closed. The last remaining KRR location was in a mall food court in Ontario, California, but has been shuttered since 2011. "It's a walk-up spot in the food court at Ontario Mills," one user on The Straight Dope message board wrote of the final U.S. KRR. "Not much there. The basics and a few tables."

Kenny Rogers Roasters first hit the map in 1991. The casual dining chain was the brainchild of country singer and songwriter Kenny Rogers and John Y. Brown Jr., former governor of Kentucky. Brown Jr. was also one of the founding members of another chicken chain, KFC, partnering with the real Colonel Sanders. By 1996, Kenny Rogers Roasters had expanded to a global presence of over 400 locations across North America, Asia, and the Middle East. Fast forward to 1998, and Nathan's Famous Inc. (of hot dog fame) bought the chain following a bankruptcy filing. In 2008, KRR changed hands once more to Malaysia-based Berjaya Corp. for $4 million, and by 2011, there were already nearly 140 locations across Asia.

Unique branding runs deep. "It's a matter of tweaking the [existing Kenny Rogers] concept," a Berjaya company spokesperson told CNN Business in 2012. "It's easier doing that than [doing] everything from scratch." Kenny Rogers Roasters has always been about wood-fired rotisserie chicken with comforting sides like mac and cheese and corn muffins. Today, the official KRR website emphasizes a focus on "a friendly and comfortable environment" and "good simple food made with love." Rogers himself shared in a 2017 interview with the BBC, less than three years before his death in 2020, "It's a good product. They are still using my name. God bless 'em, you know."