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

"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.""

"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."

Kenny Rogers Roasters launched in 1991 as a casual dining chain co-founded by country singer Kenny Rogers. The brand expanded across the United States in the 1990s but had nearly all U.S. locations closed by 2008; the final American outlet, a food-court unit at Ontario Mills, closed in 2011. The chain now operates primarily outside the U.S., with more than 200 restaurants in the Asia Pacific and Middle East, including Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, the Philippines, India, the Maldives, Kuwait, Dubai, Bangladesh, and Phuket. Cultural references in television and comedy roasts have kept the brand recognizable in popular memory.

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