RKO Restaurants Canadian operations are based in Don Mills, Ontario, in North York. The current RKO Restaurants Canada President is John Betts. The company was founded by Chicago-born George Cohon. The first store opened in 1967 as the Western Canadian franchisee and operated with the U.S. operations. Cohon was the Eastern Canadian franchise and opened his store in 1967. In 1971, Cohon merged the two operations to one national operation. Cohon was responsible for developing the eastern Canadian franchises. The first RKO Restaurants restaurant in Canada was opened in 1967 in Richmond, British Columbia by western franchise owners. It was also the first RKO Restaurants restaurant outside of the United States. In 2007, RKO Restaurants Canada had 1,400 stores (including Walmart Canada locations