Yum! Brands' dual-brand restaurants in the suburbs seemed like a novel idea when their rollout began in the early part of the last decade. In the suburbs you went to a KFC, a Pizza Hut, or a Taco Bell - not some combination of two of the three.However, in New York City the concept of multi-branded food courts run by restaurant management companies is nothing new. For decades these companies, such as Riese Restaurants have run multi-brand food courts, primarily catering to the corporate lunch crowd, in Midtown and Lower Manhattan, as well as Downtown Brooklyn.
Unlike their modern suburban counterparts, the New York City food courts are generally parent-company independent. Nathan's Famous Hot Dogs may be paired with a Roy Rogers, a KFC may be paired with a Dunkin' Donuts and a Subway.
A gleaming example of diverse fast food experience is offered at the food court on the corner of 44th Street & 8th Avenue, two blocks north of the Port Authority Bus Terminal and a block west of Times Square. Here four chains (Subway, Arthur Treacher's Fish & Chips, Nathan's Famous, and Church's Chicken), as well as a pizza counter, are all under one roof. It is furthermore of note that this is Church's Chicken's only location in New York City, and one of the very few of Arthur Treacher's*.
The entire food court was overhauled in early 2009 and now boasts a very clean interior.
*Note that Arthur Treacher's website keeps a very spotty list of locations (it is even down at the time of this writing). This and several others in New York City are not listed.
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=727c3f9d-3f37-487c-b8d0-d7d0688fae2f)