Red Robin
- This article is about the restaurant chain. For other uses, see Red Robin (disambiguation).
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| Type | Public |
|---|---|
| Traded as | NASDAQ: RRGB |
| Industry | Restaurant |
| Founded | 1969 |
| Headquarters | Greenwood Village, Colorado |
| Number of locations | 450 (December 2010)[1] |
| Products | Food |
| Website | redrobin.com |
Red Robin Gourmet Burgers (NASDAQ: RRGB) is a chain of casual dining restaurants founded in 1969 in Seattle, Washington, and now headquartered in Greenwood Village, Colorado.
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[edit] History
The original Red Robin stood at the corner of Furhman and Eastlake Avenues E. in Seattle, at the southern end of the University Bridge. This building dates from 1940 and was first called Sam's Tavern. The owner, Sam, sang in a barber shop quartet and could frequently be heard singing the song "When the Red, Red Robin (Comes Bob, Bob, Bobbin' Along)". He liked the song so much that he eventually changed the name to Sam's Red Robin.[2]
In 1969, local Seattle restaurant entrepreneur Gerry Kingen bought the restaurant and expanded it. The business dropped the "Sam's" and simply became Red Robin. The first restaurant was 1,200 sq ft (110 m2). It was a favored hangout for University of Washington students.[3][4][dubious ] Kingen continued to operate the location as a tavern for a few years, but later added hamburgers to the menu, and sales skyrocketed.
The original Red Robin closed on March 21, 2010 due to prohibitive maintenance costs for the old building.[5][6]
In 1979, two Red Robin regulars, Mike and Steve Snyder, decided to open their own Red Robin in Yakima, Washington. The Snyder Group Company became Red Robin's first franchisee. In 1980, Red Robin opened a restaurant in Portland, Oregon. In 1983, Red Robin adopted a mascot named Red. In 1985, the corporate headquarters was moved from downtown Seattle to suburban Denver after Kingen sold a controlling interest in Red Robin Corp. to the Skylark Corporation of Japan. With marginal successes and poor financial performance under Skylark's management, Kingen, then a minority owner, in 1995 stepped back into the CEO position to nurse the company back to profitability. In 1994, the company introduced its "Bottomless Steak Fries." In 2000, the company celebrated the opening of its 150th restaurant. As of November 2008, there are over 400 locations across the United States and 20 in Canada.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ Red Robin Gourmet Burgers 2010 Annual Report
- ^ About us
- ^ Hillestad, Kimberly "A Long Dry Spell" The Daily University of Washington April 8, 1999
- ^ Vu, Tiffany "Bye bye, birdie" The Daily University of Washington March 5, 2010
- ^ Leson, Nancy (March 1, 2010). "Red Robin to close original Seattle location March 21." The Seattle Times.
- ^ Guzman, Monica "Red Robin publishes Seattle memories of shuttered restaurant" Seattle Post-Intelligencer blog March 23, 2010
[edit] External links
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