In 1985, Harry Rose founded The Rose Group with the purchase of five Roy Roger's restaurants from Marriott Corporation. By late 1985, our company purchased two additional Roy Roger's and built two more restaurants.
By 1995, we started developing casual-dining restaurants and opened our first Applebee's Grill + Bar in Annapolis, Maryland.
By the mid-nineties, The Rose Group managed eighty-four Roy Roger's restaurants, along with owning and operating twelve Boston Market restaurants. In 1995 The Company had also developed and sold twenty-three Einstein Bros. Bagel restaurants. By late 1996, the Boston Market units were sold to the Boston Market Corporation and the eighty-four Roy Roger's were converted into Boston Market units.
In 2002 The Rose Group partnered with Doherty Enterprises to develop a chain of traditional Italian cuisine eateries known as Johnny Carino's Country Italian Restaurants. After opening four restaurants with a fifth under construction, Johnny Carino's was sold in 2005.
In 2006, The Rose Group and Doherty Enterprises developed The Shannon Rose Irish Pub. We currently have two locations operating in New Jersey. The Shannon Rose creates an environment to make you feel as though you have stepped into a pub in Dublin, Ireland. We have 19 beers on tap, malt scotches, live bands, and entertainment several nights a week.
In 2007, The Rose Group became the first franchisee for the Corner Bakery Cafe concept. We acquired three units from our parent company.
In January of 2014 The Rose Group opened its seventh Corner Bakery Cafe, entering New Jersey for the first time with this concept in Princeton Market Fair. The second New Jersey location opened outside the Moorestown Mall in May 2014.
2015 began with the opening of a new Corner Bakery Cafe at 38th & Market in Center City Philadelphia marking the 8th cafe for The Rose Group. Later this same year the 9th location opened in Abington, PA.
In 2016 the Rose Group opened the White Marsh Applebee's located in the Nottingham Commons center on Campbell Blvd, Nottingham Maryland.
In 2017 The Rose Group sold the Corner Bakery Cafe concept back to its franchisor. We also reopened the Roosevelt Boulevard Applebee's after a fire the previous year.
In December 2020 The Rose Group opened up two ghost kitchens in Philadelphia, the first Applebee's ghost kitchens in the country.
Headquartered in Newtown, PA, The Rose Group currently owns and operates 49 Applebee's Grill + Bar restaurants and 2 Shannon Rose Irish Pubs. It is the 105th largest restaurant franchise company in the United States as ranked by the Restaurant Finance Monitor in its 2022 Top 200 Restaurant Franchisees report and has over 3,000 active employees.