We went to Rax when I was a kid in Omaha. We caught a mouse in the dining room once.
The Mr. Delicious commercials remind me of the ads for the short-lived (in select markets) OK Soda. And “You Can Eat Here” is no worse than “We Have the Meats.”
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Rax had a pretty good baked potato. That and the ferns in the restaurant are all I can remember. I was 11 or 12 when they closed the store nearest us.
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Rax had some tasty food. When I was a broke college student, the all-you-can-eat salad bar was a blessing for my roommate and me. I’d pay for the plate, load it up and eat. Then I’d slide the empty plate over to him and he would load it up and eat. We’d go back and forth until we were full or until an employee noticed and kicked us out. If I recall correctly, their roast beef sandwiches came with mayo, which was nice.
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Wow - that brings back memories. That was my go-to fast food joint when I was a kid in MD in the 80s.
Trigger burgers!
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As a 21st-century immigrant to the U.S
As a citizen born and raised in the U.S. and descended (according to family legend) on one side from the Pilgrims, I haven’t heard of it either in my fifty plus years. I suspect Maine and probably much of the rest of the New England were in that list of 12 states that never saw a franchise. Probably for the best, and not really what I’d go for anyway.
Yeah, agree with that. I’m constantly disappointed when we go visit another state and all the chain restaurants and stores are the same ones we have back home. The wife and I go out of the way to find funky little diners to eat at instead.
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The Mr. Chau’s add where he asks himself why he is wearing a baseball uniform is perhaps the worst one I can remember. I was not able to find any videos of it sadly.
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As a late 20th century transplant to the US, I am constantly amazed by the extent of national and regional fast food chains. I live in an older area that hasn’t seen much development since the 1970s, and we have “one of the last” of a whole bunch of weird old franchises that nobody has heard of, yet there were hundreds of them at one time. The interesting thing is, they kind revert to being local family businesses. Once the negative connotation of “chain” is gone and you’re basically the only one left, it’s just local people making food for other local people. All these “last one” chain restaurants around here all do reasonable business, despite being pretty run down. I’ve eaten at a couple of them and they mostly aren’t that good, but they all seem to have a fan base, so good for them.
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If the food looked good, I think these ads would work today. Sadly, the food really doesn’t look good. I dunno who had the idea for the meatball pita thing, but wow.
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Years ago, a friend of mine who had moved to AZ invited me to visit. Shortly after agreeing on the dates, she asked me to bring a Carvel ice cream cake with me…on the plane…instead of my carry-on bag. 
What on Earth did Mr. Carvel put in those cakes?
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I’m thinking it’s got to be the epic 1.5-minute Hardee’s/Carl’s Jr with the strongman pulling a car to reach meat, but can’t find it online.
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I thought Rax was delicious when I was a kid and was sad when they suddenly disappeared. They had the best shakes. Arbys seemed like a kind of weak competitor to a place that used the fancy rolls but in the end they came out on top.
Watching the video I think Rax’s marketing department was just ahead of their time. That could have totally worked in our more cynical moden age. I also find it amusing how the video talks about Rax flailing around with different products trying to find a hit, exactly the same way Arby’s does today with their “we have the meats” tagline.
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now I want to eat at the nearest surviving Rax, three hours from where I live
I’m In central TX here, so it’s a lot more than 3 hours for me. Next time I’m in… <checks franchise locations on their website> southern Ohio, Joliet Illinois, or … middle-of-nowhere SE Kentucky, I’ll drop by. Given that you couldn’t pay me to fly in an airplane right now, that’s not going to happen any time soon.
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(EDIT: @GiantRobotPilot beat me to it)
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I thought, maybe I should try my Google fu and look for it myself. But then I realized I really don’t want to look at the extraneous results of a search for strong man pulling meat on Google. 
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For a few years (until they quietly redid the signs) I lived in “a livable community.” Which is a pretty low bar.
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It was like a golden age of kids’ TV in hindsight.
Where we lived on Long Island, there were no chain restaurants allowed and (IIRC) Roy Rogers was the closest one. The French fry containers were printed to look like gun holsters, and had slots cut in them through which one could thread their belt.
See also: Godfather’s Pizza. They watched us like hawks. Friend had to resort to cramming a whole fistful of food into his mouth at once. It’s as though someone else before us had tried to get away with it.
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Could be worse…
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The “Deluxe” had lettuce, tomato, mayo… Pretty tasty
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I’d eat there. But none nearby.
Arby’s it is!
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