Rice-A-Roni's Slogans & Taglines

Rice-A-Roni is a boxed pilaf-like food mix brand created in 1958 by Vince DeDomenico of the Golden Grain Macaroni Company in San Francisco. Inspired by an Armenian-style rice pilaf recipe shared by a family friend, the product combined rice, vermicelli pasta, and a dry seasoning mix to create a convenient one-pot side dish. Early marketing featured the slogan Something nice has happened to rice on San Francisco buses, before the iconic Rice-A-Roni, the San Francisco Treat! jingle and cable car imagery debuted in the 1960s, cementing its status as an American pantry staple. Core offerings expanded from the original chicken flavour to include beef, Spanish, and fried rice variants, alongside the companion Pasta Roni line introduced in 1964. In 1986, the DeDomenico family sold Golden Grain to the Quaker Oats Company, which later became part of PepsiCo in 2001. Today, Rice-A-Roni remains a leading convenience side dish in the United States, available in classic boxed formats and modern microwavable cups.