Founded in 1967 in Springfield, Ohio by Jack Roschman, Rax is a roast beef chain which was at one point a behemoth and rivaled what is now the more popular roast beef chain, Arby’s. Peaking at 500 stores across numerous US states and Guatemala, Rax is the classic story of a company’s hubris and an ultimate fall from grace.
Founding and Early Years
Throughout its nearly-six decades of life, Rax has changed ownership countless times and each time lost more and more of its core values. The original name of the restaurant was the appropriate JAX Roast Beef. Jack Roschman sold the company to General Foods and the name was changed to RIX. In 1972, the company experienced its first major setback, closing most of its restaurants, while the ten remaining units were then sold to a franchisee named Restaurant Administration Corporation.
RAC changed the name back to JAX and subsequently began focusing on the roast beef business, changing its name again to Rax in the process. RAC then began to franchise the chain. The first Rax was opened up in Columbus, Ohio. All is well for Rax at this point in time, but it gets much, much worse.
While they were gaining traction across the midwest, Rax experimented with its menu quite a bit. It’s entirely conceivable that Rax could be considered innovators of the modern versatility of fast food restaurants, with new menu additions of salads, baked potatoes, pizzas, taco bars, and the mysterious maneuver that was “Chinese-styled food.”
The Peak
By the mid-1980s, the chain had reached 504 stores in 38 states and an unknown number of locations in Guatemala. Rax then began to focus on making its restaurants more presentable. They wanted to go for an upscale look, so solaria were added to the buildings and the interiors were converted to wood. The ultimate goal for Rax was to become the “champagne of fast food”, ultimately driving away its working class base of customers and failing to live up to the core values of the chain.
Part of these changes was a number of lackadaisical, halfhearted slogans.
- All The Right Stuff
- Fast Food with Style
- Gotta Get Back to Rax
- I’d Rather Rax, Wouldn’t You?
- You can eat here.
The Fall
A management buyout occurred in 1991, and the company began to scale back its operations to mainly include the three states of West Virginia, Ohio, and Pennsylvania. Then came Mr. Delicious.
Mr. Delicious, or Mr. D, was a marketing campaign launched in 1993 and featured a depressed, middle-aged animated monochrome man promoting the business and telling us why he went to Rax. Unfortunately for Rax, the character was completely unrelatable for their customers, and the man was not living the ideal life of said customers.
Per 12Tomatoes:
Mr. D, or Mr. Delicious, was a confusing, depressing, sardonic black and white cartoon who was supposed to appeal to… well, it’s hard to say. The monologues in these commercials go from sad to puzzling to downright shocking. Mr. D has been described as “a low-key briefcase-carrying middle-aged man in an unhappy marriage, who in addition to promoting Rax restaurants, discussed his mid-life crisis, his time in therapy (so he could, in his own words, “keep his hostility all locked up”), his odd affection for romance novels, and other off-beat topics.”
Rax merged with Heartland Food Systems in 1994, and the company had planned to convert all remaining locations into Hardee’s by 1997. As with everything else in this Rax story, the plan failed spectacularly. Heartland itself filed for bankruptcy in 1996, and the company was sold yet again, changing their name back to Rax Restaurants Inc.
With its newfound freedom, Rax decided to refocus and revive the brand in the year of our lord 1996, before being made an offer by Wendy’s. Wendy’s, who had adopted some of the design features that Rax had innovated on, planned to purchase the brand and convert all the remaining stores into Tim Horton’s. However, the brand was sold in 1997 to Cassady & Associates.
The brand was sold another time before 2005, this time to Carpediem Management Co. By this point the chain had dwindled to only 51 restaurants, 11 of which were company-owned and 40 of which were franchisee-owned. Rax again experimented with a new mascot named Uncle Alligator, who was featured in kids meals, depicted doing various activities like skateboarding.
The final major transaction of the Rax brand happened in 2007, which brings us home. Rich Donahue of Ironton, Ohio, a five-year franchisee who owned multiple Rax stores, purchased the Rax trademark. Over the 2010s, even more stores closed.
Rax Now
Today only six Rax remain. The remaining locations are:
- Harlan, Kentucky
- Joliet, Illinois
- Circleville, Ohio
- Ironton, Ohio
- Lancaster, Ohio
- New Carlisle, Ohio
In all my years of living adjacent to Ironton, I’ve eaten at Rax a handful of times. Some of my fondest memories are eating there with my grandparents and the funny inside jokes that we’d come up with about the state of the chain. The food actually isn’t bad. The roast beef does rival that of Arby’s, and I would argue that the portions are bigger and you get more bang for your buck. At one point, the chicken tenders were spectacular, but they changed the supplier and ruined the chicken tenders for me.
While the Ironton location is decrepit, it remains a staple of the city and stays fairly popular. When I drive by, I usually see a drive-thru line. Being right next door to the Auger Inn might help their case.
The Future of Rax
It is unclear whether or not Rax has much life left in it. I would hate to see it go, but it feels inevitable. In a 2022 article from Springfield News-Sun, Mr. Donahue mentions expansion and is “open to further growth” after having bought property in Chilicothe, Ohio, and he very well could be open to growth. But as a Rax employee of 41 years, one must conclude that he is nearing retirement age.
Who will carry the torch when the current owner of the brand moves on? Will some ambitious firm take a risk and purchase the chain, hoping to restore the brand to its former glory? Will its headquarters remain in the tiny city of Ironton, Ohio? Only time will tell. We can only hope that things start to look up for this once thriving chain.