The Franklin Reporter & Advocate Eight Villages, One Community
A line of customers wrapped around the Wendy’s on Easton Avenue on Oct. 10 as the restaurant celebrated its grand reopening after a total remodel, with the first 100 guests going home with a card good for free food every week for the next year.
Costumed characters “Wendy” and “Mr. Frosty,” a Frosty cup with arms and legs, were on hand to welcome the crowd.
“We have our grand reopening for Somerset,” said Sal Barakat, director of operations for Flynn Group, the franchise company that owns the restaurant. “The location has been under construction for about six weeks.”
“They get a card for a free premium sandwich, free salad, or breakfast,” Barakat said of the first 100 guests. “They get one every week for a year.”
The renovation covered most of the building, including the dining room, restrooms and parking lot, according to Barakat. The company also “invested in technology,” he said, with the goal of “smoothing the operation and the flow within the entire process here.”
Barakat said the Easton Avenue restaurant is part of a broader remodeling push by Flynn Group.
“We are doing it across the board,” he said. “This location had an old building, so we modernized it a little.”
Flynn Group operates 314 Wendy’s restaurants in the Washington, D.C., area, Salt Lake City, Indianapolis, New Jersey and Pennsylvania, including Philadelphia, according to Barakat.
Barakat said he oversees 29 of those locations, which the company has owned for about two years.
“Here in North New Jersey, we have remodeled seven already,” he said. “And we’re going to continue that process.”
