Results tagged “Brooklyn”

Address: 372 Fulton St., Downtown Brooklyn - Jay Street / Borough Hall A,C,F Station

Just this past June Checkers opened their first Brooklyn location on Court Street. Since then Checkers has rolled out across Brooklyn with several new locations opening. Late summer also brought a location in the Financial District and recently a location in Jamaica, Queens has opened, giving Checkers a presence in all five boroughs.

Here are some updates for the beginning of the Fall 2009 Fast Food Season:

Greenpoint's KFC / Taco Bell Opened Today

Not revolutionary news, but this new location, which replaces a strange Taco Bell / Pizza Hut / Blimpie / Carvel / random coffee place location from the late 90s, is in the modern-day Yum! Brands co-branding style like you would see in the suburbs. Quite the departure from the pick-up-only, teller-window-style KFC locations found elsewhere in the city. You can find this new location in the Key Foods Plaza.

Baja Fresh Opens 2nd Manhattan Location

Right by Times Square this location is already extremely popular. A full review will follow.

Checkers Opens 2nd Brooklyn Location

Checkers continues its expansion throughout the five boroughs by opening its second Brooklyn location on Flatbush Avenue in Prospect Park South / Flatbush.

Submarina California Update

After my recent post on the lack of progress on New York City's first Submarina California in Astoria, the kind Submarina team has responded with an update:

"Out of respect for Häagen-Dazs's busy summer season, Submarina halted construction. The Submarina is scheduled to resume construction during the 4th quarter. Submarina looks forward to introducing the Best Subs Under the Sun® to New York City."

Sounds reasonable, and I'm sure we can't wait to try a California-style sub! Be sure to check out Submarina on Twitter.

Summer is over. You know what that means: New York City's only Chick-Fil-A is reopening for another NYU semester. I'm personally leading a tour group there on Tuesday, the first day of NYU classes (although it might open a few days earlier as students are returning - remember they're always closed Sundays).

But the end of summer in New York City also means there will be less outdoor activities and more time to enjoy some quality fast food!

Here is some of the news that occurred over the summer:

• Checkers opened their first Manhattan location (at least in this century).
• Submarina California Subs came is still "coming soon" to Astoria, Queens (their first NYC location)*
• Tim Hortons was scheduled to open in three Cold Stone Creameries, but I haven't found any confirmation that this happened. Remember that they're in 11 Manhattan and Brooklyn Riese locations now. Union Square is also in the pipeline.

* Correction to original post: Submarina California has not opened yet (read update).

Tim Hortons and Riese Restaurants couldn't have asked for more media coverage for today's opening of the first 12 (well, nine, more about that later) Tim Hortons in New York City.

The event was covered nationally on The Today Show, CNBC, and Fox News. Additionally it was covered through dozens of local media outlets. In fact, I was even interviewed!

The LIRR Passage location is being portrayed as the flagship, and this is where the opening ceremonies took place this morning at 6am. Over a dozen reporters and camera operators were on hand as the first curious customers entered the facility. All but maybe six or seven were not here especially for Tim Hortons, but rather were, in their morning grogginess, trying to figure out what happened to their Dunkin' Donuts, and, navigate the new menu for replacements for their usual order.

Their were a few complaints to be heard. One man asked a manager where he could find the Splenda packets that had been in a plastic container under the Dunkin' regime. He was not satisfied with the answer to simply ask for Splenda in his coffee, as he'd been doing it himself for years. Truce was found by asking the counter staff for some packets.

Several customers streamed in by surprise but immediately recognized the brand and seemed very joyful of its arrival. Some had lived in Canada and border territories where it was nothing new, others had experienced it during their travels.

I ordered a large coffee and a 12-grain bagel with cream cheese after learning that the sausage, egg, and cheese sandwich was not available this morning. The bagel tasted fresh and crispy and the coffee was all it had been hyped up to be.

The coffee is very strong caffeine-wise, but amazingly mild roast wise. I can hardly understate the strength. I drank one large coffee and one small coffee between 6:05 and 6:40, and I was completely wired until after lunch around 1:30 in the afternoon.

Tim Hortons did indeed successfully manage to convert almost all of its Dunkin' Donuts to Tim Hortons over the weekend (see the Today Show link above for some brief conversion footage). The lone closed locations today were the Amtrak Passage location, which has been closed for months for a large-scale renovation, and the two Downtown Brooklyn locations. My theory on these later locations is that they were closed to provide the Manhattan locations with additional staff on this hectic day, as there was at least some indication on Twitter that these locations were complete.

Tim Hortons had a bit of a media blunder late last week when dozens of media outlets were reporting of the mass weekend conversion but Hortons' US PR Twitter feed was denying the reports. Today, however, everyone was on board. Tim Hortons launched a special webpage for New York City, and even the Twitter feed came around in the afternoon, when an official press release was posted on the Tim Hortons website.

After the two pending Brooklyn locations open (presumably this week), and the second Penn Station location opens later this summer, there will be 13 Tim Hortons in New York City. Add the three co-branded locations expected in August, and that makes 16. While pale in comparison to the 400+ Dunkin' Donuts locations and the hundreds of Starbucks locations in the city (comparision map between 2006 Starbucks and today's Tim Hortons), these new locations are in extremely high-traffic areas. For example, while Starbucks still has two locations in the same passageway as the new Tim Hortons, Dunkin' Donuts is no longer anywhere to be found in Penn Station. Hortons is now positioned for a sizable chunk of a sizable chunk of Manhattan's coffee purchases.

Notably absent from the location map are Financial District locations. Apparently Riese is no longer selling coffee down there. This would be another key market for Tim Hortons to get into. New York City's third-largest business district, Downtown Brooklyn, will have two locations soon, covering it decently well. The Upper West Side and Upper East Side get one location each.

Besides the Flagship Times Square location, we still don't know which Coldstone Creameries will receive Tim Hortons next month. The potential locations are (see map):

• Hell's Kitchen
• Upper West Side
• The Village
• Harlem (under construction)

Harlem's under construction status makes me favor it for one location, which would leave Hell's Kitchen, the Upper West Side, and the Village location fighting over the remaining spot. I welcome any photographic evidence and/or personal accounts which might support one the other.

Last week we found out Tim Hortons will be arriving in New York City in August, opening in three Cold Stone Creamery locations. While I and several newspaper articles described this as Tim Hortons entering the "Coffee Wars" of New York City, three locations wouldn't be much of a stronghold.

Entirely independent of this co-branded arrival next month, Riese Restaurants, a major franchiser of fast food options in New York City's main economic zones, announced this past day that it's replacing its 13 Dunkin' Donuts locations with Tim Hortons. And, amazingly, will complete the conversion between the close of business Friday and the Monday morning breakfast rush.

Riese and Dunkin' Donuts have a decade-long feud which started in 1999 when The New York Post published a photo of a mouse sitting on one doughnut and nibbling on another, shot at a Riese-run Dunkin' Donuts in Midtown. The photo even got a nod on The Late Show with David Letterman. Dunkin' sued Riese and tried to remove their franchise rights.

In the spirit of that photo, which I haven't found on the internet, I have attached a photo of a chipmunk and a Tim Hortons cup!

Riese has also mentioned that its Dunkin' sales were bad outside of breakfast time, which it hopes to remedy with Tim Hortons vast sandwich offering and lower franchise fees.

Riese has already removed all mentions of Dunkin' Donuts from its website, and has not created a page for Tim Hortons yet. Thus, using the Wayback Machine, here is the list of Riese-run Dunkin' Donuts locations as of last year:

761 7th Avenue @ 50th St. New York, NY  Phone: (212) 767-8347		48 New Street @ Wall St. New York, NY  Phone: (212) 483-8319		152 West 34th Street bet. 6th & 7th Ave. New York, NY  Phone: (212)630-0319
2547 Broadway @ 94th St. New York, NY  Phone: (212)316-2915		1276 Lexington Avenue @ 86th St. New York, NY  Phone: (212) 339-8868		47 East 42nd St. bet. Park & Madison Ave. New York, NY  Phone: (212) 681-8501
Penn Station LIRR Level New York, NY  Phone: 630-0314		Penn Station Amtrak Level* New York, NY  Phone: (212)630-0320		Madison Square Garden Taxi Ramp New York, NY  Phone: (212)594-0204
451 Fulton Street Brooklyn, NY  Phone: (718) 237-9346		22 Court Street Brooklyn, NY  Phone: (718) 624-1107		50 Fulton Street @ Cliff St. New York, NY  Phone: (212)732-6551

* This location is still under a larger renovation.

Photo credit: Photo by Mark Olson. Licence Information

Update: This blog post is out of date. The Kenny Rogers Roasters inside Nathan's has closed. Read the updated entry: Kenny Rogers Roasters Leaves Nathan's Coney Island.

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Inside Nathan's, 1310 Surf Ave @ Stillwell Ave

Kenny Rogers Roasters, a chain that started and failed all within the 1990s, has all but been wiped out in the United States. With only a dozen or so restaurants left during bankruptcy in 1999, Nathan's Famous purchased the chain and experimented around with it for nine years before selling it off to its Philippine franchiser. As a part of the sale agreement, the last-remaining Kenny Rogers Roasters, located in a mall food court in Ontario, California, may continue to operate, and Nathan's may continue to sell Kenny Rogers Roasters' items in their restaurants.

Thus, if you want to visit a true Kenny Rogers Roasters, you must either travel to the Philippines (check out the website), perhaps a couple other Asian/Pacific countries, or California, although it's debateable whether a mall food court location even counts.

Thankfully, however, since Nathan's Famous may continue to sell KRR, traveling far is not required to enjoy their amazing chicken. All you have to do is figure out which locations actually sell KRR menu items. This is easier said than done, as Nathan's does not provide such search filtering on their restaurant locator. (This is the same problem experienced when trying to find a Dunkin' Deli).

The only Nathan's with a Kenny Rogers Roasters counter that I'm currently aware of in New York City is their flagship location on Coney Island. KRR has a small "Express" counter within this famous location.

I arrived during a major thunderstorm after a hot and sunny day, so the inside of the restaurant was packed with beachgoers and tourists that were waiting out the rain by consuming fast food. Although there was a significant line for the hot dog section, there were only two people in line at Kenny Rogers Roasters Express.

I ordered a 1/4 white meat chicken platter, which includes cornbread and a choice of two sides, for which I chose corn and coleslaw. KRR has a small display/serving case, similar to Boston Market, with chicken and the hot sides, which looks absolutely delicious. Soups and wings are also available. The combo platters have a simple pricing structure depending on size of the chicken and dark versus white meat. Some examples include:

• 1/4 chicken (dark meat) platter: $5.59
• 1/4 chicken (white meat) platter: $6.59
• 1/2 chicken (dark meat) platter: $7.59
• 1/2 chicken (white meat) platter: $8.59

Whole chickens on the platter are also available if you are really hungry. My food was served on a plastic plate with a cover on the top, which I thought looked very appetizing for fast food.

Now for the taste: It was absolutely amazing! Some of the best chicken I have ever had, if not the best. I was almost immediately angry at myself for not ordering 1/2 a chicken for two dollars more. The meat fell right off the bone, the skin fell right off the meat, and the seasoning is truly something special! The sides were great too, but the chicken was breathtaking.

Please check your nearest Nathan's and let me know if they have Kenny Rogers Roasters. Doing searches on Yelp reveals that there are other locations out there with KRR inside, such as Oceanside and Hollywood. I highly recommend taking the trip to Coney Island and sampling this amazing chicken, and now have full understanding of why Kramer fell in love with it in the Seinfeld episode "The Chicken Roaster":

111 Court St @ Schermerhorn St

After reading about a Checkers being under construction in Downtown Brooklyn, I did a bit of research and the picture painted was that it's essentially the Aldi (discount grocery) of fast food joints. Checkers calls itself "nation's largest chain of double drive-thru restaurants," a claim which has too many adjectives to be "the largest" of anything.

The "dual drive-thru" concept is so much of Checkers' image, and gave me a hard time guessing how an urban (non-drive-thru) location of theirs would operate.

Brooklyn's first and only Checkers is located on Court Street Downtown, right across the United Artist Cinemas. It's a rather good location to run a late night spot indeed (late-night moviegoers). Much of the rest of this area is dead at night and even on the weekends. In fact, there are a string of fast food joints just two blocks up the street which cater entirely to the office crowd and close at the end of the business day.

Unlike Checkers' drive-thru locations (which probably make up 95%+ of its properties), this location has a good amount of seating, with three booths and bar-style seating along its right wall. It even has a patio in the back with three round tables.

Checkers' menu is huge. They have about every kind of unhealthy-but-tasty food option you can imagine. Burgers, chicken sandwiches, chicken strips, fish sandwiches, hot dogs, and gooey deserts. In fact, Checkers doesn't have a single healthy (or even healthy-looking) option! My previous Aldi reference also refers to, beyond the simple interior, the large menu of $1 to $2 items, listed separately on the menu.

I went with a combo consisting of the Bacon Champ Burger (630 cal), could have done much worse!), medium seasoned fries (420 cal), and a "medium" (32oz) diet coke (1 cal). All this cost me about $8. It was 9pm and only my second meal of the day after a low-calorie breakfast, so I had no regrets! I was given a receipt with a number and my order was ready in about four minutes.

The burger was delicious and had slightly less manufactured taste than I had expected. The fries (always served seasoned) were crispy and especially enjoyable.

The staff was extremely friendly (granted, it was their first week!) and they were keeping the restaurant extremely clean (tables were wiped twice during my 15-minute stay).

All-in-all, Checkers offers a great alternative to the mega-chains and is a great addition to this corner of Downtown Brooklyn, especially with its rare-for-the-chain seating and patio.

For some good quality photos of this Checkers inside and out, have a look at this entry in the Brooklyn Heights Blog.

The first NYC Area Sonic opened this past Sunday in Hasbrouck Heights, New Jersey, and people apparently "crossed railroad tracks and navigated a path of boulders stretching across a creek and bordered by barbed wire fencing" to get there. (NorthJersey.com Article)

Here's a quick drive by of the madness I found on YouTube: