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Tulsa World: Firm hatches plan for revived Rex’s Chicken chain
Firm hatches plan for revived Rex’s Chicken chain
Published: 3/31/2010 7:35 PM
Last Modified: 3/31/2010 7:35 PM
Rex’s Chicken will finally have a home of its own a decade after the iconic franchise closed its doors in Tulsa.A new owner is working to convert Coney Beach at 111th Street and Memorial Drive into a stand-alone Rex’s Chicken location, complete with the same items and recipes once offered at the franchise restaurants throughout Oklahoma and Texas.
Coney Beach has been selling Rex’s Chicken since 2008, but the owners noticed that the chicken was more popular than the specialty hot dogs sold at the restaurant.
“About 50 percent of our sales were Rex’s Chicken,” said David Rutkauskas, whose company Beautiful Brands International bought the rights to Rex’s in 2008 and has been working to develop the brand into its own franchise of restaurants.
Rex’s Chicken, founded in 1975, operated at nine locations in Oklahoma and North Texas, selling its bite-sized fried chicken bites, jalapeno chicken and fry bread with honey. However, the restaurants dwindled in number and were all closed by 1999.
Tulsa-based Beautiful Brands bought the Rex’s Chicken name and recipes from the state because the original restaurant chain had gone into bankruptcy.
Last week Rutkauskas sold the Coney Beach store to Tulsa businessman Curtis Branch, who will convert the restaurant to Rex’s Chicken and franchise the concept in Oklahoma and neighboring states.
Until the targeted opening in May, the restaurant is getting a makeover to fit with the Rex’s brand.
Branch plans to use the location to showcase the restaurant’s concept to potential franchisees.
He said
he hopes to have 150 Rex’s Chicken locations by 2015 in Oklahoma, Texas, Kansas, Missouri, Arkansas and Colorado.Beautiful Brands continues to own the rights to Rex’s Chicken and franchising rights outside of Branch’s region.
Branch, a contractor in the cell phone industry, also purchased the franchise rights to Freshberry — another Beautiful Brands concept — in those states and will hire a small staff of four to five to handle expanding the restaurant. Freshberry stores are under construction in Stillwater and Norman, as well as three near Dallas.
As for Coney Beach, Beautiful Brands will put the concept on hold and focus on its other restaurants, Rutkauskas said.
“I don’t think we realized that people don’t eat hot dogs three times a week,” he said. “But people do eat chicken that much.”
Rex’s Chicken
11089 S. Memorial Drive
Opening: Mid-May
Marquee items: Boneless chicken bites, jalapeno chicken, fry bread with honey
Original restaurant: founded in 1975, closed in 1999.
