The Pennsylvania Turnpike’s restaurant offerings can feel like a trip back in time

Driving west on the Pennsylvania Turnpike, Mary Wright was hoping for a Chick-fil-A. But as she watched the limited options on road signs pass, fond memories of roast beef sandwiches lured her to Roy Rogers.

“My mother liked Roy Rogers,” said Wright, who is in her 60s and from Collingswood. “That’s how long it’s been around.”

That’s pretty typical of the food offerings on the Pennsylvania Turnpike, where old-school brands such as Auntie Anne’s, Baskin-Robbins, and Sbarro dot many of the 17 service plazas.

That puts the turnpike behind the times compared with similar toll roads in New Jersey and New York, where travelers can hold out for newer brands like Chick-fil-A, Pret a Manger, and Shake Shack.

“I think the older generation likes Roy Rogers and all that, but younger people are more likely to like Shake Shack, for example,” said John Zhang, professor of marketing at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business.

Once on the toll road, people are faced with dining options decided almost entirely by one company. It’s what Zhang called a “captive consumer” environment. The reasons for this involve state policy, a corporate contract, and a little business history.

The commercial stakes are significant: More than 550,000 people drive on the turnpike every day, according to the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission, and about 7.4 million travelers are expected to have used the toll road around the Christmas and New Year’s holidays.

Though the turnpike commission oversees the operation, a company called Applegreen primarily decides which restaurants fill the state’s 17 service plazas, according to turnpike commission spokesperson Marissa Orbanek.

Applegreen runs travel plazas in 12 states, including New Jersey and New York. The company, based in Ireland, was taken private for $878 million in 2020 and is majority-owned by the large private equity firm Blackstone Inc. Applegreen did not respond to requests to comment for this story.

For access to the service plazas, Applegreen pays the turnpike commission 4% of its gross food and beverage sales, amounting to about $2.4 million per year, Orbanek said.

“Applegreen determines the food concepts and seeks approval from the commission,” Orbanek said. “So the turnpike is certainly involved in this process.”

» READ MORE: Roy Rogers, Fixin’s Bar and all, returns to the Philly area after three decades with a new restaurant in Cherry Hill

Of the 15 restaurant chains Applegreen lists on its website, nine appear on the Pennsylvania Turnpike. There are nine Auntie Anne’s, eight Burger Kings, one Cinnabon, seven Dunkin’s, two Popeyes, seven Roy Rogers restaurants, four Sbarros, 10 Starbucks outposts, and one Subway restaurant, according to the turnpike commission website. Pennsylvania also has six Baskin-Robbins locations, it shows.

In other states, Applegreen’s brands include Chick-fil-A, Nathan’s Famous Hot Dogs, Panda Express, Panera, Pret a Manger, and Shake Shack.

The service plaza contract dates back to 2006, when the turnpike commission signed a 30-year lease agreement with HMS Host Family Restaurants, giving the company “exclusive rights” to food and drink sales, Orbanek said.

In 2021, Applegreen acquired HMS Host for $375 million and took over its lease. The lease will expire in August 2036, Orbanek said.

Until then, Applegreen decides which eatery goes where.

When Applegreen bought HMS Host, it became the franchisee of the Roy Rogers restaurants on the turnpike, said Jim Plamondon, who co-owns the Frederick, Md.-based Roy Rogers brand with his brother.

Plamondon wants to keep the restaurants on the turnpike past 2036 — a decision that will depend in part on whether Applegreen sticks with the restaurants it acquired when it bought HMS Host.

“It’s all about developing relationships and hoping to grow with our operators,” Plamondon said.

As for Roy Rogers’ prominent position on the turnpike, that dates back to the 1980s, when Marriott Corp. managed the service plazas, Plamondon said. Back then, the restaurant was owned by Marriott — it had a licensing agreement with the showbiz cowboy of the same name — and Plamondon’s dad was an executive in the company.

These days, Plamondon said, nostalgia and curiosity for something a bit different have driven the restaurant chain’s modest growth: It has opened a few new locations in recent years, including one in Cherry Hill, and has a devoted fan base.

Fast-food restaurants are facing a number of challenges in the current economic climate. Wages and tariffs have pushed prices up, and low-income consumers in particular have started to reduce spending. Even McDonald’s, the largest fast-food chain in the U.S., has seen nearly double-digit decreases in traffic among low-income Americans, the company said in its third-quarter earnings report last month.

McDonald’s CEO Christopher Kempczinski told investors on a call announcing the third-quarter results that low-income consumers were having to absorb significant inflation, which was affecting spending behavior.

Roy Rogers has seen some of these challenges as well, Plamondon said. Costs have gone up, margins are thin, and people’s tastes are always changing. People are eating more chicken and want spicier options, he added. .

“It’s a really good menu, it’s great quality food, and I think our brand absolutely has a future to it, because at the end of the day, it’s about the food.”

The Wharton School’s Zhang agreed that consumers’ tastes have shifted. “People increasingly want ethnic foods, and younger people want spicier food,” he said. “And people want to go upscale nowadays.”

Zhang noted a number of older brands on the Applegreen roster, such as Sbarro, the pizza restaurant that has faced two bankruptcies in the years since the turnpike commission approved the 30-year lease.

In terms of market forces, Zhang said, turnpike service plazas are “an aberration.” Unlike those in most suburban or urban areas, service plaza customers are willing to settle for what’s available, and pay more to get in and out, he said.

“If you’re a traveler on a holiday, you tend to be less price sensitive,” Zhang said. “You just want to have your food very quickly.”

That puts turnpike service stops at odds with the shifting consumer preferences that have bedeviled the fast-food industry over the last couple of decades, Zhang said, including the addition of food delivery services like DoorDash and GrubHub.

Zhang said that the lack of order-ahead options at turnpike eateries is puzzling. For people traveling down a strip of highway, it seems like calling ahead would make sense.

“For them, the customers just pass by once,” he said.

For Mary Wright and her traveling companion, Rich Misdom, their recent Roy Rogers visit did not exactly ignite enthusiasm.

“This is, like, old-school kind of stuff,” Misdom said, adding he was disappointed that this Roy Rogers restaurant was not serving roast beef. He settled for a cheeseburger, while Wright got a chicken sandwich.

“We don’t come here to fine dine,” Misdom said, between bites. “Let’s put it that way.”