Turner Restaurants LTD mentions Bedford Indiana when discussing opening a new Indiana Rax!
Representative picture of an old location
The old Bedford Rax Location, now a very mid restaurant
Rax Roast Beef was a regional fast-food chain based in Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana, and Illinois. It was founded by Jack Roschman in Springfield, Ohio. The year was 1967.
The menu, up until the 1980s, was pretty simple at its core. You could get roast beef sandwiches, salad at the salad bar, soft drinks, fries, and baked potatoes. WRKR 107.7 FM described it as being “once as common as their competitor Arby’s” and the menu sounds pretty similar too. And honestly – it sounds pretty good to me!
At its peak, Rax had 504 locations in 38 states, and they were starting to dip their toe into international business as well. Rax had really nailed this sort of heartland cuisine approach by the mid-1980s. Their Wikipedia article implies that Rax had a solid working-class clientele, which based on the locations, the price of the items on their menu, and the food itself, sounds intuitively right. (Good luck finding hard evidence for this assertion, though. Original sources are shockingly poor as this was a regional restaurant in a pre-internet age.)
- In April 2024, the Green brothers of the Nerdfighters fandom visited a Rax Roast Beef location and published a video about their experience. The video included a Rax-themed parody song.
- In October 2022, a new Rax Roast Beef location opened in New Carlisle, Ohio. The location is drive-thru only, but the owner hopes to open the dining area in the future.
- The owner of the Rax Roast Beef trademark has purchased property in Chillicothe, Ohio, and plans to open another location.
- Rax Roast Beef was founded in 1967 and once had over 500 locations.
- Hardee's once owned Rax Roast Beef and sold Rax roast beef sandwiches.