"Where's the Beef?" - 1rst ever Wendy's Restaurant to close

So Columbus and the world will loose this place





For Columbus, there's still Ensure nutritional drink, Similac , and Elmers Glue ... :wink:

That's weird.

I've been to one out on Riverside Drive, near the Wendy's headquarters, that seemed to bill itself as the original.

Maybe it was the second one?

Never been to the downtown one.

Couldn't find any info about that.

While wikipedia already have noticed the closure in their entrance for "Wendy's", you can find under Columbus (highlined by me):

Smart business ploy? Looking for a state/city hand out to assist with renovation costs?

Set used to work for a guy who went to school with the original "Wendy" - went to her house after school to have sandwiches made by dad. He'll recall which is the original.

(Broad Street as the original makes the most sense)

Yeah, Dave Thomas used to love to make sammiches for all the neighborhood kids, and "Wendy" (not her real name) was encouraged to bring her friends over after school for pop and sammiches.

Broad Street is the original store, and i'm not surprised that it is closing. Despite the best efforts of the city government and people with a lot of capital tied up in the downtown area, the place becomes a ghost town after business hours when everyone goes home. Even in the daytime on a weekday, when downtown Columbus is bustling, this store never attracted that much business. It's competing with a lot of little restaurants and chain fast food places which are closer to the State House and the high rises near Capitol Square. It is difficult and expensive to park downtown, and that store is a long walk east of the State House. People working at the State House or in any of the high rises (most owned by banks, such as Fifth Third Bank Building, the Huntington Bank Building, Bank One, etc.--and the rest associated with state government) are unlikely to spend half their lunch break to walk down there and back. There are fast food joints all over the place, and in almost all weathers, there are street vendors with carts selling food, and in particular a big business in hot dog and brat carts. The famous Schmidt's (a "sausage house" with a home restaurant and selling their famous brats, especially the Bahama Mama) set up a street cart about ten years back, and undercut everyone's prices. Now the carts have good hot dogs and brats and polish sausage at low, low prices. There's a big Wendy's in Grant Hospital, just a few blocks south of the Broad Street store. The Ohio State University is too far away from the downtown. There's a Chinese fast food, a Taco Bell and a KFC just across the street from the State House. This store has been slowly dying for 20 years.

By the way, Soz, the corporate headquarters moved to Dublin quite some time ago.

As long as the stock price goes up it's all good. The food quality at Wendy's has been declining for years.

Right, the one I went to (Riverside Drive and Dublin Granville Rd., I think) was close to those headquarters.

I'm not sure why I thought it was the original -- they had a bunch of memorabilia, mostly, I think. I don't think they actually claimed it as the original, more that I put two and two together (memorabilia, near the headquarters) and got five. The Broad street location makes a lot more sense.

Dave Thomas was one hell of a nice guy. His daughter Belinda could not pronounce her own name correctly was dubbed "Winda" by her siblings, and that became Wendy, and everyone called here Wendy ever after (Dave said so himself on TV). He was adopted, and he donated millions to adoption programs. From what my former employer told me (he was the one who grew up in Upper Arlington and knew Wendy Thomas), he was never happier than when he had a house full of kids.

My boyfriend, Larry from Eerie, took me there for a burger before we went to see Janis Joplin in June of 1970. Just as well it was before, because I wasn't connected to this earthly realm for quite a while after.

It was an amazing show.

Musta been some burger.