Restaurants Land With a Fudd at CMN
by January 19, 2004 12:00 am 130 views
Besides Smokey Bones, O’Charley’s and Red Robin Gourmet Burgers — which we have already reported — Fuddruckers is planning a 7,073-SF restaurant in Fayetteville’s CMN Business Park, and Logan’s Roadhouse is eyeing a spot along the same stretch of Van Asche Drive.
Olive Garden, the city’s top-grossing restaurant, started it all when it opened in December 2002 on the knee of the doglegged curve where Mall Avenue turns into Shiloh Drive.
Fuddruckers is going through the approval process with the Fayetteville Planning Commission. The company plans to build a 254-seat restaurant on a 2.8-acre lot at the corner of Mall Avenue and Van Asche, just to the north of the Olive Garden.
Joe and Dawn Hudack of Rogers are the local Fuddruckers franchisees through their limited liability company AMJO. They have a contract to build seven Fuddruckers in Arkansas, said Mike Barginear, director of operations for AMJO. They’re shooting to have the Fayetteville restaurant open by the end of May.
Dawn Hudack said AMJO has first right of refusal for any Fuddruckers sites in Arkansas. She said they plan to open a Rogers Fuddruckers about three months after the Fayetteville opening. AMJO is currently trying to buy land in the Pinnacle Hills area for that eatery.
After the first two, AMJO plans to open a new Fuddruckers every 13 to 18 months, Barginear said. The third will likely be in Fort Smith or Jonesboro, he said. By the time they’re through, they plan to have two Fuddruckers in Little Rock. Currently, there are no Fuddruckers restaurants in Arkansas.
Fuddruckers is owned by Michael Cannon of the United Kingdom through Austin, Texas-based Magic Restaurants LLC. The company has 247 restaurants — 226 in the United States and 21 international eateries. Eighteen of those restaurants are Koo Koo Roo’s, which specialize in chicken and sandwiches. The remainder are Fuddruckers, which claim to have the “world’s greatest hamburgers.” Fuddruckers, a private company, had sales of $297 million in the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30, said Scott McCullough, a spokesman for the firm. That’s up 4 or 5 percent from the previous fiscal year.
The Hudacks also own AMJO Development LLC and the Newell Rubbermaid building in Bentonville. The company also builds homes. Joe Hudack works for the real estate department at Wal-Mart Stores Inc. in Bentonville.