New burgers-and-ice-cream restaurant coming to Centerville

The Cornerstone of Centerville area is proving to be a magnet for restaurant chains making their initial entry into the Dayton-area market.

The latest is Freddy's Frozen Custard & Steakburgers, which will open its first local restaurant at 5501 Wilmington Pike at Whipp Road, across from Costco Wholesale and the Cornerstone development. The space previously housed a KFC restaurant, which shut down earlier this year.

“We feel our concept is a great fit for the Wilmington Pike and East Whipp Road retail corridor, and we look forward to joining the neighborhood,” said Matt Saunders, head of development for PSP Foods, the franchisee for Wichita, Kansas-based Freddy’s Frozen Custard & Steakburgers’ Ohio restaurants.

PSP Foods owns and operates two Cincinnati-area Freddy’s locations in Amelia and Milford, and is building out three more, one in West Chester at 7615 Trail Side Drive and two in Cincinnati.

The Wilmington Pike site in Centerville “has many of the real estate features for which we look, including easy access to the interstate and nearby retail establishments,” Saunders told this news outlet.

The new 3,200-square-foot Centerville restaurant will employ about 85 and will seat about 100, and is expected to open in mid-summer, Saunders said. Prospective employees can apply online at freddysusa.com/careers.

The chain joins Bagger Dave’s Burger Tavern, Cheddar’s Scratch Kitchen, Panda Express, and MOD Pizza in making or planning to make their Dayton-area debuts near or in the Cornerstone of Centerville development off I-675 at Wilmington Pike. And more Freddy’s locations may be on the way.

“We want to focus on making sure we get this location open, operating smoothly and doing well before we announce any expansion plans, but we’re always on the lookout for sites that would be a great fit for Freddy’s, and we hope to expand our presence in Dayton over the next few years,” Saunders said. The franchisee also is looking to open locations in the Columbus-area market as well.

The fast-casual restaurant’s menu items include ground-beef burgers, Vienna Beef hot dogs and shoestring fries, as well as an assortment of desserts, including chocolate and vanilla frozen custard. The restaurants’ atmosphere is designed to evoke “the America of the late 1940s and early 1950s, a post-war era of optimism, pride and values focusing on unity and quality family time,” Saunders said in a release.

Founded in 2002, Freddy’s now operates about 200 restaurants in 30 states from California to Pennsylvania. Freddy’s was recently named for the third year in a row as one of the top ten on Franchise Times magazine’s “Fast & Serious” list. In 2015, Freddy’s was recognized as one of Entrepreneur Magazine’s Franchise 500, and was named one of the five fastest-growing chains by Nation’s Restaurant News for the second consecutive year.

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