Checkers Drive-In Restaurants, Inc. is a chain of double drive-thru restaurants in the United States. The company operates Checkers and Rally's restaurants in 28 states, and the District of Columbia. They specialize in hamburgers, hot dogs, french fries, and milkshakes. Overview Originally separate companies serving different geographic areas (with Checkers serving the Southeast and Rally's serving the Midwest), Checkers and Rally's merged in August 1999. Generally speaking, the Checkers name remains used in the Southeast as well as the Northeast while the Rally's name remains used in the Midwest as well as California; the two brands have overlap in several areas. The merged company is headquartered in Tampa, Florida. Most locations specialize in carryout service with drive-thru and walk-up windows available, but no indoor seating, though some legacy Rally's locations in the Midwest retain dining rooms, as well as a Checkers location with an indoors dining area in Clearwater, FL.. Checkers was founded in 1986 in Mobile, Alabama, by Jim Mattei, and went public in 1991. Rally's was founded in Louisville, Kentucky in 1985 by Jim Patterson. In 1991 and 1992, Rally's absorbed Maxie's of America, Snapps Drive-Thru, and Zipps Drive-Thru. In 1996, Rally's was bought by CKE Restaurants, parent company of Carl's Jr. and Hardee's. CKE sold Rally's to Checkers in 1999. Unlike the two CKE chains (which have at various points flip flopped between marketing Carl's Jr. & Hardee's as one chain or separate regional chains that both share Carl's Jr's Happy Star logo and imaging, but have largely separate menus), Checkers promptly merged Rally's into its branding, and the two chains are now only different by name. In June 2006, the company went private through a merger with Taxi Holdings Corp., an affiliate of Wellspring Capital Management, a private equity firm. In 2014, Wellspring sold Checkers to another private equity firm, Sentinel Capital Partners. On March 23, 2017, Checkers announced that it would be sold to Oak Hill Capital Partners for $525 million. The sale was completed a month later. On May 23, 2018, Checkers announced a planned expansion for over two dozen locations in the Pittsburgh area. Despite Rally's having brand recognition in the area the locations were to be branded as Checkers. The company made its official return in the area in 2019 under the Rally's brand with the opening of a location in Penn Hills. The company hasn't opened any more locations in the