'It wasn't an easy decision'
Owners, customers reflect on KFC closure after more than 50 years
John McFadden
Northern News Services
Friday, July 10, 2015
SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
A Yellowknife dining institution will be no more come Aug. 23.
Marc Whitford enjoys his 'finger lickin' good' lunch at KFC on Wednesday. Whitford said he is saddened to hear the restaurant will be closing Aug. 23. - John McFadden/NNSL photo |
The owners of Kentucky Fried Chicken's Yellowknife restaurant announced this week that after more than 50 years, they are breaking ties with the company and will open their own restaurant at the downtown site.
"My mother, who has been involved with the store since the 1970s, is getting ready to retire. Her franchise agreement was up for renewal and this August and my brother and I had to think really seriously about whether we were ready to put our names on the line for another 10 years," said co-owner Sasha Jason. "It wasn't an easy decision to come to because there is much time and history invested in it but they've standardized the brand and it hasn't been the most beneficial situation for us. We would just like to pursue something that we can individualize and make our own."
The store had previously been allowed to do things that perhaps other KFC outlets were not and that flexibility being taken away by head office was also part of their decision, Jason said.
Their father, Lenny Jason, ran Lenny's Restaurant in the building beside the KFC in the 1970s, now occupied by Coldwell Banker.
"For 45 years, we were permitted to sell beef burgers which is essentially the 'Lenny Burger,' which we are hoping to reinstate with our new venture," she said. "We were also able to provide the surrounding communities with frozen or chilled chicken orders so we would send meals out for graduations, funerals or business meetings. The diamond mines would place 1,000-piece orders so for that to be cut out, that cuts
into your business.
Jason said it's good to know the store will be missed and people will be sad to see it go but the planned new restaurant has already been received positively.
"We're supplying something that we feel there is a demand for. The new space will still be a quick-service style so you'll be able to get meals quite quickly," Jason said. "But we're really big on providing what we hope to be more of a healthier menu option - organic, hormone free, antibiotic free, grass-fed and with a little bit more of a cruelty-free killing process. That's something that is very important to us."
Yellowknifer asked Jason if they will sell chicken at the new restaurant.
"It's not out of the question. We know how to do it," she said.
So what do Yellowknifers think about the closure?
"I like the fact that it's available. It's something I grew up with so it's going to be sad to see them go," said Marc Whitford as he had lunch in the restaurant on Wednesday afternoon. "It'll be missed."
Whitford gives the Jason's credit for taking the risk and striking out on their own.
"Franchisees pay forever up front but they benefit from a system that if they follow it properly is guaranteed to give them success," he added. "But if Lenny's opens up as a private joint, then they are in general competition with the rest of the restaurants around here and it's very tough being in the restaurant business."
Cpl. Jordan Slaunwhite described himself as a regular KFC diner as he headed in for lunch on Wednesday.
"I spent two years working for the Colonel in New Brunswick and for me I'm not very excited about it closing," Slaunwhite said. "I like the food and the small-town Kentucky Fried Chicken atmosphere. The one back east where I'm from had to change and get a new drive-thru and it lost a lot of business because of that because people would actually come to see the employees."
Modernizing the store in New Brunswick actually drove customers away, Slaunwhite said.
"Now I'll have to buy my chicken at the store and make it myself, I guess."
