This Chicken Chain Was Beloved In The '70s — Fans Claim It Was '100x Better Than KFC'

Opening any kind of restaurant is a risky endeavor. The restaurant market is saturated and extremely competitive, meaning you may have trouble keeping the lights on even if you do everything right; 49% of restaurants close within the first five years (via the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics). Trying to start a national chain of restaurants is even riskier, since you'll be competing against brands with near-universal name recognition and billions of dollars. So pour one out for the chain restaurants of the past that couldn't quite make it — like Red Barn, a mostly forgotten yet surprisingly influential fast food chain that reached the height of its popularity in the 1970s.

Red Barn, founded in Springfield, Ohio in 1961, was known for a few things, most notably the fact that its buildings were all shaped like, well, big red barns. As claims to fame go, that's pretty notable (although Arby's, which has managed to survive to this day and looks way different today, used to shape its restaurants like covered wagons). But it was also noteworthy for its food, including its fried chicken. One Facebook comment said that "their chicken was 100 times better than KFC," while a comment on Reddit enthused, "Oh man they were so good, zi [sic] miss their onion rings."

As we said, Red Barn reached the height of its popularity in the 1970s, with somewhere between 300 and 400 locations in 19 states at its peak. It managed to hold its own respectably against the McDonald's and Burger Kings of the world for a bit, boasting a few areas where it beat the Golden Arches to the punch. The Big Barney, one of its signature hamburgers, was similar to the Big Mac, and was sold before the more famous burger was a twinkle in Ronald McDonald's eye. It was also the first chain restaurant to offer a self-service salad bar.

So what happened? Well, after a few sales in the 1970s, Red Barn's parent company simply decided to stop renewing leases, letting the chain recede from the fast food scene and into memory. A few locations survived under the name "The Farm," but the last of them closed in 2020. Those big red barns can still be seen in certain places if you know where to look, but on the whole, Red Barn has gone the way of Winky's, the old-school burger chain that couldn't survive the '80s, or Arthur Treacher, the seafood chain with only three surviving locations.