Results tagged “Checkers”

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).

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: