Tuesday, November 29, 2011

Sisters Chicken Then and Now


The weather is getting crummy, making it tough to take good photographs. So I gotta squeeze in some final 'Then and Nows' while I still can, before it snows!

Here's another one of those 1986 Lorain shots that were on Ebay for a while. This one shows the former Sisters Chicken & Biscuit restaurant that was located at the corner of Fifth Street and Reid. (Prior to that, the location was City Parking Lot Number 4.)

Sisters Chicken & Biscuits was a subsidiary of Wendy's beginning in the early 1980's. Apparently, the chain never quite clicked with the public and was sold off by Wendy's to its largest franchise owner in 1987.

Coincidentally, this Lorain restaurant at 221 Fifth Street first appeared in the city directory in 1987. (There was also an outlet at 940 N. Leavitt Road near the intersection with Cooper Foster Park Road.) Unfortunately, the Lorain restaurant didn't make it and the building was vacant by 1993. Another restaurant (Chello's) moved in later, before the building became vacant again.

Today the site is the home of the Social Security Administration building. Here is the link to the Morning Journal's account of the relocation of the Lorain office.

That brick box is really crammed onto that property!

2 comments:

Jeremy R said...

Every time I look at the design of the Sisters Chicken restaurants, I can't help but notice the resemblance it bears to Bob Evans restaurants, with the peak and half-circle cut-out in between and how the building itself looks. Is there some connection between the 2 that you know of?

Dan Brady said...

Despite the strong architectural resemblance to Bob Evans, there was actually a Wendy's connection. The Sisters Chicken business was started by a former Wendy's executive and it became a subsidiary of Wendy's for a little while.

Here's the story:
http://www.fundinguniverse.com/company-histories/wendy-s-international-inc-history/