Top Ten Worthy Chains: Update
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"We will be opening in Buffalo in 2010 with 2 locations, hopefully 3," said Five Guys Managing Partner Steve Christensen. "If all goes well, we are hoping to have the 1st location open by April."

We were thrilled by the response to this week's list of Ten Great Chain Restaurants Buffalo Should Pursue: readers added many great suggestions, including Yard House, Mongolian BBQ, Legal Seafood, California Pizza Kitchen, and Joe's Crab Shack, amongst others, but the real surprise was response from the restaurants themselves. We heard back from the majority of the chains, with a mix of exciting news, opportunities for local entrepreneurs, and a couple of disappointments. Here's the summary.

Five Guys Burgers and Fries. Five Guys e-mailed us with the exact words that readers wanted to hear: "We will be opening in Buffalo in 2010 with 2 locations, hopefully 3," said Five Guys Managing Partner Steve Christensen. "If all goes well, we are hoping to have the 1st location open by April." The plan is to start with a location in Amherst, then move on to Williamsville and Clarence's Transit Road, and/or Orchard Park/Hamburg. Twitter was abuzz with the news, and we're excited, too.

Wahoo's Fish Taco. "Although our web site does not indicate we are going to NY," said Wahoo's Vice President Tom Orbe, "we have plans to do that in the near future. Believe we would be a hit in Buffalo as you guys know good food." Though a local attempt was once made to recreate Wahoo's without the company's involvement, Orbe noted that the chain's recipes were "impossible to duplicate, especially with our spicy fish and our other products, like Carne Asada, Carnitas, Shrimp," and the like.

Carl's Jr. / Hardee's. "Honored," said Hardee's via Twitter, "Now find me a franchisee!" We took a peek at the national Hardee's and Carl's Jr. map, and were surprised to see that there weren't any locations - or, apparently, franchisees - in all of New York State. Could this be possible, given how insanely popular the chain is elsewhere? "None currently there," Hardee's said when we asked if the entire state was open. Someone smart is going to grab this franchise and do really, really well with it.

Jamba Juice. Though its response took the form of a form letter, Jamba indicated that its "quite simple" criteria for choosing a new location are (a) having "enough customers to support a store," and (b) "picking the right real estate." Given that there's a limited location at U.B. already, we'd add (c) - "make it a full store rather than a limited menu version," and as for (a) and (b), we'd say this: "Walden Galleria."

Chick-fil-A. Disappointing news for the moment: "At this time, there are currently no plans to develop a Chick-fil-A Restaurant in New York," the company told us, but as "Chick-fil-A, Inc. opens approximately 65 new restaurants a year, please feel free to check back for any updates."

McCormick & Schmick's. Another disappointing response: "Unfortunately, we have no current plans to expand into the Buffalo trade area," said Larry Summerton, Executive Director of Real Estate Development. Due to the nature of McCormick & Schmick's - it's the only chain on the list that doesn't franchise - our guess is that making this one happen would require some magic, but we can still dream.

We haven't yet received responses from El Torito Grill, Yogurtland, La Salsa, or Gloria Jean's Coffees, but if and when we do, we'll update this article with the details. If you haven't yet done so, you can read the prior Ten Great Chains article for additional details on all of the restaurants, as well as comments from your fellow readers. Thanks for all of your suggestions to date - keep them coming!