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With its distinctive barn-shaped buildings and menu of burgers, fried chicken and other American classics, Red Barn was a pioneer in the fast-food industry.
Founded in 1961 by Don Six, Martin Levine and Jim Kirst, the chain grew to between 300 and 400 restaurants before its final locations closed in 1988, according to numerous sources.
The first Red Barn opened in Ohio, although there’s debate over whether Columbus or Springfield is its birthplace.
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“I think it’s important to note that Ohio is actually a bit of an icon as a state when it comes to being the home of iconic fast-food brands,” Capri Cafaro, the Ohio-based managing director of America the Bountiful Media, told Fox News Digital.
Wendy’s, founded in Columbus, was one of the first restaurant chains to offer a drive-thru window, Cafaro noted. It also stood apart from the competition with its square hamburger patties.
The Red Barn, a fast-food restaurant chain founded in Ohio in 1961, did not stand the test of time. Its final locations shut down in 1988. (iStock; USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect)
The roast beef chain Arby’s was also founded in Ohio, in Boardman.
The barn-shaped buildings of Red Barn restaurants were key identifiers of the brand, as were their comfortable, homey interiors, Cafaro said.
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“I think that there is something to be said about matching the aesthetic with the name and making that part of its marketing appeal,” Cafaro said of the exteriors.
This “iconic material culture” was “pervasive in fast-food restaurants, not just in places like Red Barn, but places like Long John Silver’s or, or even more iconically, Pizza Hut,” Cafaro said, referencing the hut-style roofs of classic Pizza Hut restaurants.
Owners James O. Oatsvall Sr., left, and Wendell K. Harris are shown standing outside Nashville’s second Red Barn Restaurant as it was getting ready to open to the public on July 8, 1966. (USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect)
The chain’s menu consisted of comfort foods like hamburgers, fried chicken, fish sandwiches and more.
A double-decker burger called the Big Barney was similar to the Big Mac but predated the famous McDonald’s item, which wasn’t added to the national menu until 1968, according to the company’s website.
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Like McDonald’s, Red Barn also used food-themed cartoon characters used as mascots, including Hamburger Hungry, Chicken Hungry and Big Fish Hungry, with “hungry” sometimes spelled “hungery,” according to Tasting Table.
Red Barn is “evocative of nostalgia and for people that grew up with it.”
The brand also had a jingle: “When the hungries hit, hit the Red Barn.”
Red Barn offered a self-serve salad bar, and some publications say it beat Wendy’s to the punch.
The Wendy’s website, however, claims it was the first national chain to introduce salad bars, doing so in 1979.
The Wendy’s website claims that it was the first chain to introduce a salad bar, although some sources say The Red Barn was the first. (Tim Boyle/Getty Images)
At its peak, there were about 300 to 400 Red Barn locations across 19 U.S. states, Canada and Australia, according to Chowhound.
Many factors can influence a restaurant chain’s survival or downfall, Cafaro noted. Red Barn filed for bankruptcy in 1986, according to Tasting Table.
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The chain’s last 22 locations were in New York, Ohio and Washington, D.C., with the final franchise lease expiring in 1988, Chowhound reported.
A few locations were reborn as independent restaurants with a similar feel to Red Barn, including one in Racine, Wisconsin, called The Farm, which permanently closed in 2020.
At its peak, there were 300 to 400 Red Barn restaurants across America. (Bob Grannis via Getty Images)
Although not in its original form, The Red Barn still lives on today, with other businesses occupying the recognizable barn-shaped buildings.
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Fans of the chain share memories and nostalgic photos in a Facebook group called “I remember The Red Barn Restaurants,” which has over 9,000 members.
Red Barn is “evocative of nostalgia and for people that grew up with it,” Cafaro said.
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But, she added, “it really also does speak to the power of food to evoke nostalgia and memories” and how people “equate food to maybe a happy place.”
