Repeats with a Twist - Roy Rogers, Frederick, MD

I've talked on this blog several times about my love of fried chicken.  There's really nothing better than screaming hot chicken straight out of the oil.  I've also talked about how when I was a kid, my mom never let me eat the skin...I had to throw it away and just eat the chicken.  The whole point of getting fried chicken is to eat the crispy skin.  Otherwise it's just a waste of time and effort, and it's just "chicken".  Roy Rogers was one of my favorite places to get fried chicken as a kid.  And then they had a Roy Rogers in the student union at Maryland.  I ate there way too often in college and the first couple years of work, and usually got the gold rush sandwich with fries.  I'm quite sure this played a large part in my waistline growing during that time.

Years ago Roy Rogers started to die out.  Then Hardees took it over and you could get "authentic" Roy Rogers chicken.  I don't think I ever ate it then.  Then the restaurant made a comeback and now they've got about 40 locations in Maryland, Virginia, New York & New Jersey.  On the last weekend of my trip to Maryland I went to a party in Pennsylvania. On my way, I came across a Roy Rogers, and just knew I had to go.  You can't turn that down.

I'm almost embarrassed to say how excited I was to go in.  I probably hadn't been to one in about 20 years.  Not much has changed.  It's a fast food place, but I love that they have a fixins bar where you can add your own burger toppings.  Plus they have a lot of different types of sauces

I had the hardest time deciding between fried chicken and the gold rush sandwich.  I went back and forth a million times, which probably creeped out the workers because I stood there for about 10 minutes deciding.  But eventually I decided on the gold rush with fries

Fried chicken, bacon, cheese, honey

Yep, still just as good as I remember!  The chicken was screaming hot, and the honey adds such a great sweetness to the sandwich.  The fries are a little thicker cut than other places, but still crisp, hot and delicious. Even though it was just fast food, I savored every single bite.  

Will I go back?  I'm not gonna lie, I considered doing just that on my way back home the next day.  But I resisted.  And I learned that they're opening a new location about 15 minutes from my parents' house!  The traffic in Montgomery County is ridiculous any time of day so I won't go unless I'm already going to be up there for something else.  But I may have to make the sacrifice once per trip back to Maryland.