This Southern Burger Chain Is Making An Unexpected Comeback

Shuttered Hardee's restaurants in the South got a second chance at slinging burgers and biscuits in 2026 when the company reopened locations closed by a major operator. The revival was initiated after ARC Burger, a private equity-backed franchisee that operated 77 locations across nine U.S. states, was liquidated. The salvaged restaurants are corporate-owned. 

In November 2025, the Southern-inspired fast-food chain sued its franchisee ARC Burger, alleging that it owed more than $6.5 million in unpaid royalties, rent, and other fees. By December, ARC Burger closed all 77 of its Hardee's restaurants and filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy a few months later. Some of those Hardee's didn't sit idle for long: As of April 2026, Hardee's had reopened 15 former ARC Burger locations in Georgia, Missouri, and South Carolina. The company's broader plan calls for taking ownership of and reopening more than 40 former ARC locations.

Over the last few years, Hardee's showed signs it might not be around much longer, giving customers reason to suspect they'd soon visit drive-thru for the last time. In May 2025, Restaurant Business reported that Hardee's was in dispute with another ailing franchisee, Paradigm. It also noted that the chain's domestic systemwide sales had fallen 12% since 2014, and it had lost 150 U.S. locations over the preceding three years. Now, the resurgence of former ARC Burger locations smells like a comeback.

The namesake of the yellow-star chain is Wilber Hardee, who, in 1960, opened a small walk-up burger joint in Greenville, North Carolina. Back then, Hardee's customers chose from a simple menu of charbroiled hamburgers (15 cents, or 20 cents with cheese), french fries, fried apple pies, and milkshakes. "That was it. Best menu I ever had," Hardee told News & Record's Jerry Bledsoe in 1984.

It wasn't the menu for long. By mid-1961, a second Hardee's opened in Rocky Mount, North Carolina, overseen by new business partners Leonard Rawls and Jim Gardner. Hardee's relationship to Rawls and Gardner quickly soured, for reasons that aren't fully known. Some lore tells of a lost poker game, while Hardee later alleged in his memoir that the pair got him drunk and tricked him into signing unfair legal documents. With over 20 years of hindsight, however, Hardee recalled to Bledsoe that it was just a foolish mistake, one that left him outvoted two to one on all company matters. Disillusioned, Hardee sold his stake in his eponymous chain.

Hardee's flourished without Wilber for many years, expanding through franchises and acquisitions of competitors to become America's fourth-largest restaurant chain in 1984. In the decades that followed, the company saw ups and downs, largely attributed to a decline in its service and food quality. Still, fans of the chain — and there are many — will be pleased to know that their favorite Hardee's menu items, from hearty breakfast biscuits to hand-breaded fried chicken sandwiches, will be on the menu at the reopened locations.

Whether you're a longtime Hardee's lover or a skeptic ready to give it another go, you'll find more than the familiar burgers and biscuits on your next visit. In September 2026, Hardee's rolled out autumn menu specials, including a s'mores iced coffee and a fried pie filled with graham crumble, marshmallow cream, and chocolate filling.

For new savory options, the "Bacon Beast" menu lineup adds a meaty punch to established favorites. The Super Bacon Biscuit pairs three slices of cherrywood-smoked bacon with egg and American cheese, while the Bacon Beast burger piles four slices onto an Angus beef patty. Availability varies by location, but because the reopened locations previously operated by ARC Burger are now under corporate control rather than a franchisee, it's likely that visitors to those Hardee's restaurants will have all the latest menu options to choose from.

As for old favorites, Hardee's fans on Reddit ride for the Mushroom and Swiss Burger, which is a novelty among fast food restaurants, as well as the curly fries. Still, the overwhelming love happens before noon, for Hardee's breakfast items like the Super Sausage Biscuit and the Double Biscuit 'N' Gravy Combo. As one Reddit user put it, Hardee's is "about the last one holding the line on what good fast food used to be ... greasy and unapologetically delicious, breakfast and dinner."