Ray and Geneva Goad ventured into the restaurant industry a decade after Ray's honorable discharge from the Navy after World War II when, in 1952, they opened Rays Restaurant, featuring the tagline "Country Ham & Biscuits."
By 1962, Ray had gained significant acclaim for his distinctive approach to curing and serving Country Ham, coupled with his mother's cherished homemade southern biscuits, at Rays Starlight Restaurant in Mount Airy, North Carolina, Ray's hometown and famously associated with Andy Griffith and Mayberry USA.
Ray Goad achieved the status of an American Fast Food Pioneer through an innovation that would reshape the fast-food landscape. He was the trailblazer in introducing breakfast service, offering his signature Country Ham and Sausage Biscuits at the dozens of Rays Kingburger fast-food outlets across five states in the Mid-Atlantic region.
While dining in a Rays restaurant may no longer be an option, you can savor the Biscuit Sandwich in neighborhoods nationwide and now have Rays Country Ham delivered to your kitchen table.
Today, Ray Jr. and sister Susan continue to carry forward the traditions of Rays Country Ham through their eCommerce outlets, ensuring its legacy for the next generation of the family involved in the business and for generations to come.
SINCE 1972
8,000 YOUTUBE VIEWS
In 1972, there was not a single McDonalds, Wendys, or Hardees that was open for breakfast. Ray Goad was the first to open for breakfast at his Ray's Kingburger restaurants featuring his Country Ham and homemade from scratch southern biscuits that his mother made at Ray's Starlight Restaurant, in Mount Airy, N.C.
5,000 YOUTUBE VIEWS
Ray Goad was a true Fast Food pioneer. You can't eat at a Rays Kingburger restaurant today, but you will find Ray Goad's Breakfast Biscuit sandwich at any fast food restaurant all across the USA. And now you can enjoy the taste of his Original Style Blue Ridge Mountain Country Ham in every slice of the Rays Country Ham Brand. It's
AND THE STORY GOES ON
R. J. Goad and Susan Goad Massey head Ray’s Country Ham Company LLC today, and are perpetuating the legacy of Rays and the rich traditions of Blue Ridge Mountain cured Country Ham generations to come.
HOME OF RAY'S COUNTRY HAM -- MAYBERRY, USA.
If you know where North Carolina, Virginia, Tennessee, and Kentucky almost join, that's where Rays Country Ham was born. That was long before Ray became the first to ever serve Country Ham between a Southern Biscuit in America's Fast Food Restaurants. And if you know and love the beautiful shadows of the Blue Ridge Mountains, that's where you will still find us today. They called that place Mount Airy long before our neighbor Andy Griffith and the rest of the world started calling it Mayberry. We just call it home, and that's a place on this map where you will find
A TASTE FROM ANOTHER PLACE IN TIME.
