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Tuesday, November 1, 2011
Redesigned McDonald’s to reopen Friday with special offers
WASHINGTON TWP., Montgomery County — The McDonald’s restaurant at 9228 Dayton-Lebanon Pike (Ohio 48) will reopen and unveil its new look on Friday, Nov. 4, store officials announced this morning, Nov. 1.
The restaurant has been closed for about three months as workers razed the existing McDonald’s and built a new one “from the ground up,” according to Katie Burder, marketing manager for the Centerville-area McDonald’s. Burder declined to release the cost of the rebuild.
The first 50 customers on Friday morning who are 18 or over — the first 25 diners to make a purchase inside the restaurant, and the first 25 cars to go through the drive-through — will receive a punch-card that is good for one free medium-sized Extra Value Meal a week for one year, Burder said. The store opens at 5 a.m. Friday, she said.
The new design includes a double-lane drive-through, modern furniture that includes booths and lounge-style eating areas, and free Wi-Fi.
Debbie Wright, the store’s franchise owner-operator, said in a news release that, “We’re changing with the times — and we never stop looking for ways to improve … .This new McDonald’s speaks to the needs of our customers and our community. We want our customers to enjoy every part of the McDonald’s experience.”
Ronald McDonald will be at the store on Saturday, Nov. 5 from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m., and other events are planned later in the month to mark the grand reopening.
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Garden Station teams up with Groupon to raise funds for wheelchair-accessible garden beds
DAYTON — The Garden Station community garden and art park at East Fourth Street and Wayne Avenue and G-Team, the philanthropic arm of Groupon, are teaming up for a three-day fund-raising campaign to raise money to build nine wheelchair-accessible community garden beds for local residents.
The Garden Station campaign will be available on Groupon Dayton and Cincinnati’s G-Team pages beginning on today, Nov. 1, and running through Thursday, November 3. Groupon followers can pledge support for the accessible garden initiative in increments of $10, with every $160 providing materials for one accessible garden bed.
Organizers of Garden Station have been working with the local Access Center and Five Rivers MetroParks community gardening program for two years on a plan to build these garden beds that will allow wheelchair users and residents with limited mobility to actively garden from a standing or sitting position.
“Out of 50 community gardens in the Dayton area, there is one with raised roll-under beds, and only three with raised accessible beds,” said Luci Beachdell of MetroParks. “Garden Station’s goal of nine roll-under beds will offer the only rentable plots in the city where people who love growing flowers and vegetables, but can’t get down on the ground, can garden. The roll-unders are particularly fantastic because you sit facing the garden and really get your hands in the dirt.”
The link to donate is www.groupon.com/deals/gt-garden-station.
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Italian restaurant chain looks to add two more Dayton-area locations
Fazoli’s is scouting for locations to build two new restaurants in the Dayton area: one in the Miller Lane area of Butler Twp. and one in the Fairborn-Beavercreek area, CEO Carl Howard said Monday during a visit to the Miami Valley.
Howard’ visit also corresponded with the unveiling of a new “Expand Your Taste” menu for the Fazoli’s chain nationwide, including a “pick your pasta” option and new flatbread sandwiches and pizzas. Some offerings are under 400 calories.
The Fazoli’s chain is based in Lexington, Ky. but has developed some links to the Dayton area: its CEO is a 1983 graduate of the former Fairmont East High School in Kettering, and the company last year chose Dayton to test-market a new enhanced-service concept in which glassware and silverware replaced plastic and paper, and servers deliver meals to guests’ tables. The concept went over so well during the test-marketing that it has been replicated at all 128 company-owned restaurants nationwide, at a cost of $4 million, Howard said.
And Fazoli’s believe the Dayton market is ripe for expansion. “We really haven’t developed the northern part of Montgomery County,” Howard said. He declined to reveal specific sites Fazoli’s is considering.
If the deals move forward, they would become the sixth and seventh Fazoli’s locations in the Dayton area. The other five are located in Miami Twp., Sugarcreek Twp., Moraine, Huber Heights and Troy.
“The restaurants in Dayton are doing great,” Howard said. In their first full year of operating with the enhanced-service concept, Dayton-area Fazoli’s stores’ sales rose 7.5 percent in 2010, and are recording another successful year, up about 6 percent, so far for 2011, the CEO said. Overall, the brand is into its second year of same-store company and franchised sales growth, a Fazoli’s spokesman said.
Fazoli’s was founded in Lexington in 1988, and was acquired by Sun Capital Partners in 2006.
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