Our story

In 1955, Ray Kroc opened the first McDonald’s restaurant in Des Plaines, Illinois — the start of something that would change the way the world eats. Not long after, a man named Rodgers Ellis saw the potential. In 1969 he decided to try his hand at the hamburger business, formed R.E.E., Inc., and opened his first McDonald’s in Beaumont, Texas. It was only the fourth McDonald’s in the entire state.

It wasn’t all smooth sailing at first, but with hard work and the boost of national advertising the business grew. Through the ’70s and ’80s Rodgers expanded across Southeast Texas — Port Arthur, Corpus Christi and beyond. Then, in 1999, R.E.E., Inc. made its biggest move yet: 24 restaurants right here in the Rio Grande Valley. At its peak the Ellis family owned 81 McDonald’s restaurants.

Today R.E.E., Inc. is in its third generation of family leadership. Like their father and grandfather before them, this generation learned the business the same way every employee here does — from the fry station up. Six members of the Ellis family are graduates of Hamburger University.

For more than 50 years, R.E.E., Inc. has grown because of its people. That started with Rodgers Ellis at a fry station in Beaumont, and it continues today in every one of our restaurants across the Valley.