Koo Koo Roo

Koo Koo Roo was a fast casual restaurant chain specializing in charbroiled chicken founded in 1988 by Los Angeles-based restaurateurs Mike and Ray Badalian. The name "Koo Koo Roo" was an onomatopoeic reference to the crow of a rooster. After a series of expansions and ownership changes, in which Koo Koo Roo struggled for profitability throughout the 1990s, the last location in Santa Monica, California closed in 2014, under the ownership of Luby's Restaurants, Inc. who still owns the Koo Koo Roo trademark.

The Badalian brothers originally ran two locations in Los Angeles, one in Koreatown, and the other on Beverly Boulevard in close proximity to the Beverly Center. On the evening of March 26, 1990, Kenneth Berg, a retired real estate broker from New York, stopped at the Beverly Blvd. location to get dinner, particularly a meal for him to take home while he watched the 62nd Academy Awards. Impressed by the quality of the food, Berg met with the Badalians and later invested $2,500,000 as a silent partner, eventually investing more and taking control of the restaurant.