Bishop Richard Hall has a plan
Style Weekly’s Word & Image has the word on the former chicken joint on Mosby just north of Venable:
[Now it's going to be] a coffee shop. I’m a coffee drinker; at the same time, everybody needs an Internet and a sandwich and, during the summer, a barbecue. Fax machine, copy machine, in New York you go to any bodega and all of those things are available. So I think I can do a little bit to help the community, and wherever it goes from there is where I go. Hopefully by the end of the month we can be open.
Best of luck to him. I can’t believe there was ever a KFC that small.
If a chicken joint didn’t make it on Church Hill will a coffee shop have a chance? I wish you luck.
Well, I think Mr. Hall has a pretty good chance of making this concept a profitable venture. He’s got plenty of off street parking, and all the services (fax, copy, wi-fi, coffee) he’s willing to offer are definitely in need here. He’s even got room for some outdoor picnic tables.
I remember when the KFC was open, and folks thought it was pretty good chicken. As the population dwindled in this little hamlet of Union Hill, so did sales. The KFC no longer had the exorbitant cash flow needed to support an international franchise fee.
This doesn’t mean Mr. Hall’s concept can’t be successful here. What Mr. Hall is envisioning is much more organic and neighborhood-needs driven.
Fortunately for us, Mr. Hall isn’t owned by a national conglomerate (Pepsi-Co owns KFC) and won’t have the pressure of a publicly traded company for quarterly stock up-ticks.
Lets face it, we all whined about how expensive Jumpin J’s was, when all we really wanted was a cup of coffee or a simple “to-go” sandwich (not something with 3 different sauces served open face and requiring a sit-down commitment). Je came to this neighborhood and couldn’t survive for a number of reasons, mostly because she offered a product which most of us felt we couldn’t afford on a regular basis.
It sounds like Mr. Hall has a more realistic understanding of this community. He ‘gets it’: the basics are what people want. Therefore, I believe he stands a better chance of success.
Best wishes to Mr. Hall and may we all meet over a cup of joe at the fax machine.
What’s a fax machine?
Reference to post 3, Pepsi-co hasn’t owned KFC for 11 years. KFC, Taco Bell, Pizza Hut, Long John Silvers and A&W are owned by Yum!Brands. Pepsi-co spun them off in 1997 as a seperate company.
“What’s a fax machine?”
One may not need it often, but when you need it, you need it. Ditto a doodad to scan and digitize a piece of paper. I would gladly trade all the hunks of plastic with wires everywhere in my homeoffice for a corner place where I could take care of my low-volume scan/fax needs over coffee and eats. Great concept.
Garry, thanks for clarifying which multinational firm owns KFC now. Yum!Brands is publicly traded boasting 30,000 fast food franchise outlets worldwide (according to it’s website.)
I’m glad Bishop Hall is an independent operator and will do his own thing…i doubt Yum!Brands would let him put the fax machine next to the coffee maker.
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[...] looks like someone has new plans for the former KFC on Mosby for which Bishop Richard Hall had such grand ideas and which was later auctioned [...]