And that's just fine, say the Plamondon brothers, co-presidents of Plamondon Enterprises Inc. of Frederick, which owns the Roy Rogers trademark. The Roy Rogers brand, which saw its heyday in the 1980s with nearly 650 restaurants, is on the rise again, as the Plamondons aim to double the number of Roy Rogers restaurants in the next five years. There are 61 eateries now, in Maryland, Virginia, Delaware, New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Pennsylvania and Ohio; 15 are corporate-owned, and the rest are franchises.

A privately held company, Plamondon Enterprises does not release revenue information.

The company is now focusing on Montgomery County. Most recently, a Roy Rogers opened in Gaithersburg in April, and Plamondon Enterprises opened a Germantown location in 2001. At both openings, customers were lined up "40 deep" to get in, James Plamondon said. He said Montgomery County is prime Roy Rogers territory: Many of the brand's first restaurants were there, and residents have "very fond memories" of Roy Rogers.

"Our largest franchise owner is HMSHost in Bethesda," said James Plamondon, 40. "They have 21 Roy Rogers now."

James Plamondon said his father and founder of the family company, Peter Plamondon Sr., became interested in Roy Rogers because it was seen as a "cut above" other fast food chains.

The elder Plamondon was familiar with the business model; before opening his first Roy Rogers restaurant, he was a Marriott executive charged with running the company's restaurant division. Peter Plamondon Sr. ran any of the company's freestanding restaurants not affiliated with the hotels.

Peter Plamondon Jr., who had also worked for Marriott, joined the company in 1992 and James Plamondon, who had worked as a federal prosecutor, joined in 1995. The brothers bought the company from their father six years ago. Their sister Anne McNamara is also a partner in the company.

In 1980, Plamondon Enterprises, under Peter Plamondon Sr., opened a Roy Rogers franchise on Route 40 in Frederick. At that time, the trademark was owned by Marriott Corp. During the '80s, Plamondon opened seven new Roy Rogers restaurants and acquired three others.

In 1990, Marriott sold Roy Rogers to Hardee's for $365 million, and the fast food chain began to decline. During the next six years, Hardee's converted 220 Roy Rogers into Hardee's restaurants and sold 94 others to Boston Chicken, 90 to Wendy's and 184 to McDonald's. Thirteen Roy Rogers franchisees remained.

James Plamondon said he and his brother also "had to do some soul searching" about whether they wanted to stay with the chain when it floundered in the 1990s.

"Lots of franchises got out as well, because the chain was going nowhere," James Plamondon said.

Ultimately, the brothers decided "the equity in the [Roy Rogers] brand was still valuable for us," James Plamondon said.

"Sales had slipped a bit, but we were still strong," he said. "We needed to reinvent ourselves. We did a remodel of the Route 40 restaurant and sales went up. We opened the Ballenger Creek location in May 2000, developing the prototype ourselves."

In a major business move, Plamondon Enterprises purchased the Roy Rogers trademark from Imasco, former parent company of Hardee's, in 2002, making the former franchisees responsible for about a dozen other franchisees.

"We kind of thought, 'Maybe we should control our own destiny,'" Peter Plamondon Jr. said.

The Plamondons are still in the process of presenting a consistent franchise agreement to these franchisees.

During Roy Rogers' most turbulent years, the Plamondons decided that the company needed to add another, more reliable business concept -- hotels.

"Part of getting in the hotel business was not knowing what the restaurant business held for us," James Plamondon said.

Plamondon Enterprises Inc. ventured into the hotel business in the mid-1990s and now has three Marriott franchises in Frederick: a Fairfield Inn, a Courtyard by Marriott and a Residence Inn.

With strong ties to Marriott, Peter Plamondon Jr. said he is "not sure we would have gone with another brand" besides Marriott for the hotel venture.

The Plamondons expect the hotel venture to grow as well. Peter Plamondon Jr. said the goal is to stay with Marriott, but the company will consider other chains. They hope to have eight hotels within the next 10 years, he said.

The company has 675 employees working in its hotels and restaurants, about 170 of whom are full-time.