| Red Robin Gourmet Burgers, Inc. | |
|---|---|
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| Type | Public (NASDAQ: RRGB) |
| Founded | 1969 |
| Headquarters | Greenwood Village, Colorado |
| Industry | Restaurant |
| Products | Food |
| Website | rWebsite |
- This article is about the restaurant chain. For other uses, see the disambiguation page Robin.
Red Robin (NASDAQ: RRGB) is a chain of casual dining restaurants founded in 1969 in Seattle, Washington, USA and now headquartered in Greenwood Village, Colorado. The chain is best known for its gourmet burgers and bottomless steak fries as well as its freckled lemonade. The first Red Robin still stands 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, "When the red, red robin goes bob, bob, bobbin' along." (Henry Woods) He liked the song so much that he eventually changed the name to Sam's Red Robin. It eventually dropped the "Sam" and simply became Red Robin. The first restaurant was 1,200 sq ft (110 m²). In 1973 the restaurant expanded their business to include their most well known hamburgers including the famous Red Robin Bacon Cheeseburger and the Royal Red Robin Burger which has a fried egg on the patty. In 1979 Red Robin regulars, Mike and Steve Snyder, decided to open their own Red Robin in Yakima, Wash. The Snyder Group Company becomes Red Robin's first franchisee. In 1980 Red Robin was well on its way to becoming "America's Gourmet Burgers & Spirits" by opening a restaurant in Portland, Ore. In 1983 Red Robin adopted a mascot named Red who became an overnight success and a favorite of children everywhere. In 1994 the company introduced their "Bottomless Steak Fries." In 2000 the company celebrated the opening of its 150th restaurant. As of February 2007, there are 307 locations across the United States and 18 in Canada.
