The Red Barn restaurant was a fast-food restaurant chain founded in 1961 in Springfield, Ohio, by Don Six, Martin Levine, and Jim Kirst. In 1963, the small chain was purchased by Richard O. Kearns, operated as Red Barn System, with the offices moving briefly to Dayton, Ohio and in August 1964 to Fort Lauderdale, Florida. During the late 1960s United Servomation, also called Servomation, bought the Red Barn chain. In 1978 United Servomation merged with the City Investing Company's GDV division which also owned the

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motel chain. Only interested in real estate, construction, and financial services the new owners ceased advertising for the chain along with allowing the franchise leases to expire with the last of the leases expiring around 1988. At its peak, Red Barn had 300–400 restaurants in 19 states, as well as outlets in

southern Ontario Southern Ontario is a primary region of the province of Ontario, Canada, the other primary region being Northern Ontario. It is the most densely populated and southernmost region in Canada. The exact northern boundary of Southern Ontario is disp ...

, elsewhere in

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

, and Australia. Following the shutdown of operations, most of the Red Barn buildings were converted for other uses. A few of the chain restaurants were renamed "The Farm" in various states and continued serving the same menu items available when they were under their Red Barn franchise. There were two locations under "The Farm" name in Racine, Wisconsin and

Bradford, Pennsylvania Bradford is a city in McKean County, Pennsylvania. It is located close to the border with New York state and approximately south of Buffalo, New York. Bradford is the principal city in the Bradford, PA Micropolitan Statistical Area. The popul ...

that served the same menu items. The Bradford location closed for a brief period in 2014 from a small fire and permanently closed in December 2015. The Racine, Wisconsin store closed on February 2, 2020. The Australian Red Barn stores were sold and converted into McDonald's locations. Starting in the early 2000s, there was a wave of Red Barn nostalgia as evidenced by

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groups popping up. As of 2022, there are several groups with thousands of members. Some of them have called upon an interested entrepreneur(s) to bring back Red Barn as they thought it would be successful.

History

Building design

Originally, the Red Barn restaurants were in the shape of

barn A barn is an agricultural building usually on farms and used for various purposes. In North America, a barn refers to structures that house livestock, including cattle and horses, as well as equipment and fodder, and often grain.Alle ...

s with a glass front and limited seating. The design of the building was patented in 1962 by Red Barn Systems, Incorporated of Springfield, Ohio, which granted the franchise licenses. Later buildings had the familiar fast-food style mansard roof which allowed them to comply to more local building codes.

Menu items

They were known for "Big Barney" (a hamburger similar to a

Big Mac The Big Mac is a hamburger sold by the international fast food restaurant chain McDonald's. It was introduced in the Greater Pittsburgh area in 1967 and across the United States in 1968. It is one of the company's flagship products and signat ...

) and the "Barnbuster" (similar to a

Quarter Pounder The Quarter Pounder is a hamburger sold by international fast food chain McDonald's, so named for containing a patty with a precooked weight of 4 oz, a quarter of a pound (113.4 g). It was first introduced in 1971. In 2013, the Qua ...

Whopper The Whopper is the signature hamburger and an associated product line sold by international fast food restaurant chain Burger King and its Australian franchise Hungry Jack's. Introduced in 1957, the hamburger has undergone several reformulatio ...

.) The chain was quite forward-looking with their food choices: the Big Barney predated the Big Mac by a few years, and it was the first chain to have self-service

salad bar A salad bar is a buffet-style table or counter at a restaurant or food market on which salad components are provided for customers to assemble their own salad plates. Most salad bars provide lettuce, chopped tomatoes, assorted raw, sliced veget ...

Advertising and promotions

The restaurant chain had a TV commercial jingle whose lyrics were: "When the hungries hit / When the hungries hit / Hit the Red Barn." Another commercial jingle used in North East Ohio included the line "You'll find more of what you are hankerin' for, at the Red Barn." Three

mascots A mascot is any human, animal, or object thought to bring luck, or anything used to represent a group with a common public identity, such as a school, professional sports team, society, military unit, or brand name. Mascots are also used as fic ...

were used in the franchise's commercials: "Hamburger Hungry" (a humanoid figure with a hamburger in bun for a head); "Chicken Hungry" (a chicken leg); and "Big Fish Hungry" (a blue fish). In Australia, the appearance of Red Barney was common on ''Cartoon Corner'' with

Daryl Somers Daryl Paul Somers (né Schulz; 6 August 1951) is an Australian television personality and musician, and a triple Gold Logie award-winner. He rose to national fame as the host and executive producer of the long-running comedy-variety program '' ...

. He was an affable clown who gave away prizes and preceded

Ronald McDonald Ronald McDonald is a clown character used as the primary mascot of the McDonald's fast-food restaurant chain. He inhabits the fictional world of McDonaldland, with his friends Mayor McCheese, the Hamburglar, Grimace, Birdie the Early Bird and ...

. In the spring of 1970, the chain found itself at the center of controversy when a franchisee wanted to erect a store in

Dinkytown Dinkytown is a commercial district within the Marcy-Holmes neighborhood in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Centered at 14th Avenue Southeast and 4th Street Southeast, the district contains several city blocks occupied by various small businesses, restau ...

, a neighborhood adjacent to the

University of Minnesota The University of Minnesota, formally the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, (UMN Twin Cities, the U of M, or Minnesota) is a public land-grant research university in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and Saint Paul, Minnesota, United States. ...

- East Bank campus in Minneapolis MN. Protestors, who were already riding a wave of anti-corporatism, as well as an anti-Vietnam war sentiment, occupied a vacant building on the property that the Red Barn franchisee owned. The franchisee eventually demolished the building. However, the restaurant was never built, and the property was later sold off. A Red Barn location later opened nearby in

Stadium Village Stadium Village is an area of Minneapolis, Minnesota near the East Bank campus of the University of Minnesota. While not an official neighborhood of Minneapolis, the area is an important commercial district that serves university students with man ...

References

External links